OK, so there is a new floating form designer in Delphi 10.1 Berlin, because everybody loved that in Delphi <=7. (Did they really? I haven't missed it after I got used to the "new" IDE.)
OK, so there is a new floating form designer in Delphi 10.1 Berlin, because everybody loved that in Delphi <=7. (Did they really? I haven't missed it after I got used to the "new" IDE.)
Surprise: In Delphi 7 F12 toggled between the form and the editor, just as it does now when using the embedded form designer. Only the floating one stays in front of the editor. What was the advantage again?
Oh, yes, you can close the designer window, so it goes away, but F12 does not close it.
(Hm, maybe an opportunity for GExperts. ;-) )
Surprise: In Delphi 7 F12 toggled between the form and the editor, just as it does now when using the embedded form designer. Only the floating one stays in front of the editor. What was the advantage again?
Oh, yes, you can close the designer window, so it goes away, but F12 does not close it.
(Hm, maybe an opportunity for GExperts. ;-) )
I think it would be very useful with 2 monitors. As much as D7 and its floating windows suck, having an optional (it is optional right?) floating form designer sounds cool to me.
ReplyDeleteIf both windows are on the same monitor the behavior should be different obviously. A distinction precious few applications make.
Unfortunately toggling between embedded and floating form designer requires restarting the IDE. I does work with the undocked layout, much as it used to in Delphi 7.
ReplyDeleteOH, btw: F12 does not toggle between the form designer and the code editor, it toggles between the form designer and the IDE window.
ReplyDeleteHm, adding a floating edit windows (View -> New Edit Window) gets the Delphi 7 behaviour between the floating edit window and the floating form designer, both stay on top of the main IDE window though. Of course, as Johan Bontes said: Moving these windows to a different screen works.
ReplyDeleteI think a floating form designer just isn't for me, I'll switch back. Thanks for listening. ;-)
I was waiting for this option, with 2 monitor in the past i found this useful.... Ok so i activated it and..... Hey, what's this old style?😬
ReplyDeleteI immediately return to new style. 2o monitor can be used for Google!
There is actually one advantage: For large forms, the embedded designer requires scrolling, the floating one can get as large as your monitor allows.
ReplyDeleteAnother point about this change that is different from the <=D7 style. The designed form is still hosted into another top-level window. This allows you to move whatever forms to whatever monitor and never actually modify the project. This is because relative to the hosted window, the designed form never moves (the Top, Left remain constant).
ReplyDeleteThis also means that where you place the forms and then save the project desktop, will remain on your machine only. Your co-worker with a different monitor arrangement will not affect your arrangement and placement.
That was one of the reasons for moving to the embedded designer in the first place. In a team environment, having a coworker with a crazy multi-monitor setup affecting every other developer, is bad form (no pun intended ;-).
With 3 monitors, being limited to just panels in a single window feels like early MDI apps... Docked UI is fine for phones, tablets and small laptops, not do much for workstations.
ReplyDeleteMain issue with Delphi 's approach was that form runtime position and design position were tied, but the docked designer was more a workaround than a solution to that, just a waste if desktop space and a loss of ability to see both code and form at the same time.
What was and still is missing would be a work area with multiple forms on it in design time position, you could have that on a monitor and the code in another.
FWIW it's one of the thing I like when working with chrome: one monitor for the render/interactive UI, another for code, and the last for network/debugger /documentation... Yes I could use a 4th monitor...