Its been suggested that I should use TFrames rather than MDI for an app. Anyone care to share reasons why (or why not)? Is TFrame better for resource usage, more stable or.......

Roy Lambert

Roy,

<< Its been suggested that I should use TFrames rather than MDI for an app.
Anyone care to share reasons why (or why not)? Is TFrame better for resource
usage, more stable or....... >>

One thing that we're using now with the upcoming EDB Manager is normal forms
manually docked into a TPageControl. It works quite well and provides an
easy way to switch between the various open forms.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim

>One thing that we're using now with the upcoming EDB Manager is normal forms
>manually docked into a TPageControl. It works quite well and provides an
>easy way to switch between the various open forms.

Interesting - so come on and issue the new version

Roy Lambert

> << Its been suggested that I should use TFrames rather than MDI for an
> app. Anyone care to share reasons why (or why not)? Is TFrame better for
> resource usage, more stable or....... >>
>
> One thing that we're using now with the upcoming EDB Manager is normal
> forms manually docked into a TPageControl. It works quite well and
> provides an easy way to switch between the various open forms.

I too used to use MDI forms in my applications until I was advised against
it. (Personally, I thought that MDI would have been great for more than what
it was designed for, but alas - I guess that wasn't to be).

I now have a couple of applications also using normal forms docked onto
Tabsheets / Page Controls. Took a little bit of getting used to (as some
events like OnActivate don't fire for the form when you expect them to), but
with the help of inherited forms and some other traps elsewhere in my code,
I was able to get around this.

It now works quite well, and I no longer have to worry about the limits of
MDI. (Putting them on a page control still allows my users to switch between
open forms in my application).

Cheers

Adam.

"Roy Lambert" <roy.lambert@skynet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:C1CDCE70-BF66-4F5A-B2B6-C5D701C6CDA6@news.elevatesoft.com...
>
> Interesting - so come on and issue the new version
>
> Roy Lambert
>

Have a peak here: http://www.delphiness.com/articles.htm
Notably article 3 - might be of interest?
D.

Adam


>I too used to use MDI forms in my applications until I was advised against
>it.

This is my sticking point - I've been advised to use frames rather than MDI but that's it - no justification, no reason, the best I've been able to find is M$ says MDI is a bad thing - and we all totally believe M$ don't we

Roy Lambert

Hi Roy,

>>I too used to use MDI forms in my applications until I was advised against
>>it.
>
> This is my sticking point - I've been advised to use frames rather than
> MDI but that's it - no justification, no reason, the best I've been able
> to find is M$ says MDI is a bad thing - and we all totally believe M$
> don't we

Absolutely - and that's the main reason I rushed straight into .Nyet.  

Boy - I'm glad I didn't port my projects to .net - I'd be kicking myself
atm.

I wish I could remember the reasons why, but I can't off the top of my head.
(Will let you know if I do), but from what I recall, I was having a number
of issues with MDI forms in my application, and pretty much the responses
were that MDI forms were designed for a particular environment only, and
enhancements (or bug fixes) to MDI were not going to be forthcomming, so the
issues I had then were never going to be fixed. Thus being the case,
embedded forms became the best option for me anyway.

IIRC, these issues weren't going to be show stoppers, but being told that
bugs are never going to be fixed scares me. I don't think it was a
"Delphi" issue, as much as a Microsoft MDI issue.

'Tis a pitty though. I believe that MDI (or at least MDI like) forms are a
great way to develop, and wish that they were taken more seriously.

If you're not having any issues with MDI forms, and they're working
perfectly for you, I wouldn't be in any rush to move, but if you do have a
few issues - from what I was told, they'll never be fixed.

Cheers

Adam.

Roy Lambert <roy.lambert@skynet.co.uk> wrote in
news:7208B552-1EAA-4D35-9DFF-86C136FE9C1E@news.elevatesoft.com:

> Its been suggested that I should use TFrames rather than MDI for an
> app. Anyone care to share reasons why (or why not)? Is TFrame better
> for resource usage, more stable or.......

Roy,

 I used TFrames for a short while in D5, and threw them out in despair
after ALMOST getting them to work as expected for the umpteenth time.

I seem to recall that my main problem was trying to inherit forms with
Tframes on them, and also using the same frame multiple times on the same
form. I think that one was a frame allowing users to switch money edits
from Francs to Euros without altering the underlying data - things got
mixed up between frames, and I couldn't work out how to avoid it - much
worse than AdvStringGrid

Like Tim, I'm now well into inserting normal forms onto panels, and I've
no problems with that at all, which was rather a surprise.

I register all my forms in the dpr, and all except the Mainform and the
Datamodule are created dynamically when needed and released when not.

No forms need to "use" any others, and all can drop any other onto a
panel at the click of a TJvTabControl. As soon as they're there, each
knows about the other and can set up master/detail relationships if
required, to as many levels of forms-in-forms-in-forms as seems
reasonable.

Good luck!

--
Chris
(XP-Pro + Delphi 7 Architect + DBISAM 4.25 build 4 + EDB 1.04 build 3)

Chris


You're the second person that's brought up a problem with inheritance.

On the other hand no-one has yet been able to tell me what's so evil about MDI


Roy Lambert

Roy Lambert <roy.lambert@skynet.co.uk> wrote in
news:CBF38979-4CFB-47B7-A251-2E9510E5CFF7@news.elevatesoft.com:

> On the other hand no-one has yet been able to tell me what's so evil
> about MDI
>

Not surprising - it's ideal for some applications, imho.

--
Chris
(XP-Pro + Delphi 7 Architect + DBISAM 4.25 build 4 + EDB 1.04 build 3)