I really like Paul Thornton's TChromeTabs. I've grabbed his sources, and fixed them so they build with Delphi 2007.
I really like Paul Thornton's TChromeTabs. I've grabbed his sources, and fixed them so they build with Delphi 2007.
What I'd like to add is a non-visual component that would work along with this control, and would do the job of hooking into your main window's TForm, and let you make an app that really looks entirely like Google Chrome. For example, in the image below are three sections. The left most is how the TChromeTabs demo looks today, with a standard full height Non Client Area (also called Title Bar or Grabber bar by some people), whereas the right-most image below (in dark gray) is an actual screenshot from the top left of my Google Chrome browser. Note how it doesn't have a full height title bar, rather it has about a 16 pixel "grabber area" without a caption. When you maximize the window that 16 pixel grabber area is removed. This is a huge usability element of the "minimal chrome" UI design of Google Chrome. Implementing this in delphi is non-trivial, although a substantial amount of the code you would need to do it has been done once already in the VCL Ribbon control, and again by others like DeveloperExpress in their ribbon controls. I implemented something similar as part of the AppWave Browser, a product that I helped work on when I worked at Embarcadero.
My 14 year old son just asked me how he could make a UI "just like Google Chrome" using Delphi. It's funny that today is the day I also saw Paul's post.
What I'd like to add is a non-visual component that would work along with this control, and would do the job of hooking into your main window's TForm, and let you make an app that really looks entirely like Google Chrome. For example, in the image below are three sections. The left most is how the TChromeTabs demo looks today, with a standard full height Non Client Area (also called Title Bar or Grabber bar by some people), whereas the right-most image below (in dark gray) is an actual screenshot from the top left of my Google Chrome browser. Note how it doesn't have a full height title bar, rather it has about a 16 pixel "grabber area" without a caption. When you maximize the window that 16 pixel grabber area is removed. This is a huge usability element of the "minimal chrome" UI design of Google Chrome. Implementing this in delphi is non-trivial, although a substantial amount of the code you would need to do it has been done once already in the VCL Ribbon control, and again by others like DeveloperExpress in their ribbon controls. I implemented something similar as part of the AppWave Browser, a product that I helped work on when I worked at Embarcadero.
My 14 year old son just asked me how he could make a UI "just like Google Chrome" using Delphi. It's funny that today is the day I also saw Paul's post.
This is good idea and yes, this is not a trivial task
ReplyDeleteWarren Postma I don't see any image. Can you post a link? If I understand you correctly though it is something I have in mind for a future release. I think Chris Rolliston's article (http://delphihaven.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/setting-up-a-custom-title-bar-reprise/) would be a good starting point.
ReplyDeleteAlas I seem to have deleted it. If you look at the title bar of Google Chrome you'll see what I mean. :-)
ReplyDelete