I am tasked to develop a training simulator to teach people how to use a unix based system. Do you know where I can find a third party component or where to get information on how to make a form in Delphi that looks and operates like a form in unix. (Buttons and caption on top different). Or if you can tell me how to do it that would be great as well. I can use either Delphi 5 or 7 for the project and Windows 2000. Questions and comments appreciated. Thanks for any help.
Rich
richard.glisson@keesler.af
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I wouls suggest a theme engine or component that allows your forms to take on many different styles or themes.
One is called Theme Engine a commercial product at about $130 USD.
Might check it out at :
http://www.ksdev.com/
or SuiPack at:
http://www.sunisoft.com/su
Hope this helps you a bit.
Thanks for the input. I guess I didn't really explain very well exactly what I needed. Basically I just needad a custom form with a custom title bar and border. I think I found what I need now at the following link: http://www.mindspring.com/
I am going to try this out and try to make a few changes. I will let you know how it works out. Stay Tuned as I may need a little bit of help with some changes on it.
Rich
hello coondog , , , I have done several "Custom" window (form) Captions, and when I did it with the methods that are in the
http://www.mindspring.com/
web site, it was a mess, difficult, confusing. . . Now what I do is have a Caption less form (No border) and draw my own form "Caption" and buttons and text, animations, flashing icons, It seems easier to me just to draw it myself and not have to deal with all of the WM_NCxxxx Messages and methods (like hit testing). . .
You might take a look at this EE question -
http://www.experts-exchang
which draws a "Custom" caption on a form, . . .
however I am not familar with the UNIX caption look, but you may need to custom draw your buttons and Icon (if it has an Icon) and you may need to emplement a custom "Menu" look, if unix has a system caption menu
You should use some 3rd-party skinning engine - this would be the best way.
You may choose the one meeting your needs from a lot of alternatives here:
DevArchive.Com :: Delphi :: User interface :: Skins and themes management
http://www.devarchive.com/
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by: mikelittlewoodPosted on 2005-08-10 at 07:58:00ID: 14642574
Well you would need to tell us what is needed to "behave" like a unix form.
A sample screenshot/functionality notes would be a nice starter.
Designing something to look like a unix form would be the easy part I would think, its just up to your own skills on general form design :o)