ch11.htm

delphi自学的好教材！特别适合刚刚起步学习delphi的人员！同样对使用者具有参考价值！

    AdjustWindowRectEx
    BeginPaint
    CallNextHookEx
</PRE>
<H2><A NAME="Heading18"></A>CallWindowProcA</H2>
<PRE>    CharLowerA
... (more DLL imports) ... 
</PRE>
<P>Typically you run TDUMP from the command line. Because the output from TDUMP is
usually long, you are better off if you redirect the output to a text file. The following
illustrates this:</P>
<P>
<PRE>tdump MyApp.exe &gt; dump.txt
</PRE>
<P>Now you have an ASCII text file that you can browse with the Delphi Code Editor
or any other text editor. Although you might not use TDUMP often, it can be invaluable
when you need it.</P>


<BLOCKQUOTE>
	<P>
<HR>
<strong>NOTE:</strong> TDUMP is mostly used for obtaining a list of exported functions and
	procedures in a DLL. 
<HR>


</BLOCKQUOTE>

<H2><A NAME="Heading19"></A>The Package Collection Editor</H2>
<P>The Package Collection Editor provides a way of deploying several packages that
are meant to work together. To invoke the Package Collection Editor, choose Tools|Package
Collection Editor from the main menu. The Package Collection Editor has a help menu
that explains more about how to use it.</P>
<P>This tool is primarily meant for component vendors who ship several packages together.
The Package Collection Editor has undergone some change in Delphi 4 and is therefore
more useful than it was in Delphi 3. You'll have to experiment with this tool to
see if it is something that you can use. Still, you might find that it is not robust
enough to be used in heavy-duty commercial component deployment.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="Heading20"></A>Configuring the Delphi Tools Menu</H2>
<P>The Delphi Tools menu is configurable. By default, the Delphi Tools menu has items
for Database Desktop and Image Editor. You can add your own tools to the Tools menu,
add other Delphi tools, or add any other program you use frequently. You can also
change the order of items on the Tools menu or even delete items.</P>
<P>
<H3><A NAME="Heading21"></A>Using the Configure Tools Dialog Box</H3>
<P>Just about any application you use frequently can be added to the Tools menu.
By adding items to the Tools menu, you can quickly load any program you frequently
use during program development. Adding a tool to the Tools menu is a trivial task
and takes only a few minutes. Adding, deleting, and moving items on the Tools menu
is accomplished through the Tool Options dialog box. To display the Tool Options
dialog box, choose Tools|Configure Tools from the main menu (see Figure 11.11).</P>
<P><A HREF="javascript:popUp('28671111.gif')"><B>FIGURE 11.11.</B></A><B> </B><I>The
Tool Options dialog box.</I></P>

<P>The list box labeled Tools shows the tools that currently appear on the Tools
menu. The tools are listed in the order in which they appear on the Tools menu. To
reorder the list of tools, click the tool you want to move and click either the up
or down arrow button. To remove a tool from the Tools menu, select the tool from
the list box and click the Delete button. The tool will be removed from the menu.</P>
<P>
<H3><A NAME="Heading22"></A>Adding Tools to the Menu</H3>
<P>To add a tool to the Tools menu, click the Add button. The Tool Properties dialog
box is displayed, and you can enter the properties for the tool you are adding. The
Tool Properties dialog box is shown in Figure 11.12 with the properties for Windows
Explorer displayed.</P>
<P><A HREF="javascript:popUp('28671112.gif')"><B>FIGURE 11.12.</B></A><B> </B><I>The
Tool Properties dialog box.</I></P>

<P>The Title field is where you type the tool's title as you want it to appear on
the Tools menu. You can use an ampersand to indicate the shortcut key character.
The Program field is where you enter the tool's path and filename. To ensure finding
the program, you should enter the program's full path. If you don't know the exact
path and filename, you can click the Browse button and go hunting for the file. The
Working dir field is used to set the working directory for the tool. If you browse
to find the tool, the working directory will be automatically set to the directory
where the program resides.</P>
<P>The Parameters field requires some explanation. In its simplest form, this field
is used to set the tool's command-line parameters. Type any parameters needed to
run the tool. You can, however, use Delphi's predefined macros in the Parameters
field. If you click the Macros button in the Tool Properties dialog box, you get
a list of macros from which you can choose.</P>
<P>To use a macro, you can type it in directly or you can choose it from the list
and click the Insert button. Figure 11.13 shows the Tool Properties dialog box with
the list of macros displayed.</P>
<P><A HREF="javascript:popUp('28671113.gif')"><B>FIGURE 11.13.</B></A><B> </B><I>The
Tool Properties dialog box showing macros.</I></P>

<P>The $EXENAME macro will return the full path of the project's target executable.
For example, if you have a project named MyApp in a directory called Projects, the
$EXENAME parameter will pass the string c:\Projects\MyApp.exe to the program. Some
macros require parameters. To use only the path from your project's target without
the filename, you would specify a parameters string of $PATH($EXENAME). Continuing
with this example, that combination of parameters would yield c:\Projects\. For a
complete list of the macros available, see the Delphi online help.</P>
<P><BR>
<B>Editing Tools on the Menu</B></P>

<P><B><BR>
</B>Editing a tool on the Tools menu is as easy as clicking the Edit button on the
Tool Options dialog box. The Tool Properties dialog box is displayed, and you can
change any of the fields as necessary.</P>
<P>When you are done adding, editing, or rearranging your tools, click the Close
button. The Delphi Tools menu will reflect your changes.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="Heading23"></A>Setting the Environment Options</H2>
<P>The Delphi Environment Options enable you to make changes to the Delphi IDE at
the global level. (The Project Options dialog box controls settings at the project
level.) To display the Environment Options dialog box, choose Tools|Environment Options
from the main menu. This is a tabbed dialog box with nine pages. You learned about
the Editor, Display, Color, Code Insight, and Explorer pages when you looked at the
Code Editor and Code Explorer on Day 9. You'll look at the Preferences, Library,
and Palette pages now.</P>


<BLOCKQUOTE>
	<P>
<HR>
<strong>NOTE:</strong> The Environment Options dialog box also contains a page for the Browser
	settings. This requires more explanation than I can provide in this chapter, so I
	won't attempt to cover the Browser or the Browser options.
<HR>


</BLOCKQUOTE>

<H3><A NAME="Heading24"></A>The Preferences Page</H3>
<P>The Preferences page of the Environment Options dialog box is where you set general
Delphi preferences: how the Delphi IDE controls compiling, autosaving, and the appearance
of the Form Designer. You can also set the Form Designer preferences on this page
(see Figure 11.14).</P>
<P><A HREF="javascript:popUp('28671114.gif')"><B>FIGURE 11.14.</B></A><B> </B><I>The
Preferences page of the Environment Options dialog box.</I></P>

<P>The Desktop contents section determines how much of the desktop layout Delphi
will save when the project is saved.</P>
<P>The Autosave options section enables you to specify that either the Editor files
or the Desktop be saved automatically every time the program is run. Personally,
I do not like to have my editor files saved automatically; I want the ability to
abandon current edits if necessary. Still, I know others who really like this feature
and wouldn't program without it.</P>
<P>For one, if your application misbehaves and crashes the Delphi IDE or Windows,
you know that your last edits have been saved. The Desktop option saves the current
size and position of the Code Editor, all forms, the Alignment palette, the Object
Inspector, and so on.</P>
<P>For the most part, the Form Designer section is self-explanatory. The Display
grid option turns the visible grid in the Form Designer on and off. This affects
only the grid's visible display, not whether objects snap to the grid. The Snap to
grid option determines whether components placed and moved will snap to the grid
points. The X and Y grid size fields enable you to set the size of the grid. By default,
it is set at eight pixels. The Show component captions option pertains to nonvisual
components placed on your forms. When this option is on, the Form Designer displays
the Name property of nonvisual components below the icon representing the component.</P>
<P>The Compiling and Running section has four options as follows:</P>
<P>

<UL>
	<LI>The Show compiler progress option controls whether Delphi displays the compiler
	progress dialog box when compiling projects. Most of the time you will leave this
	option off because Delphi compiles your programs so quickly you really don't need
	to watch the progress.
	<P>
	<LI>The Warn on package rebuild option warns you before you rebuild a package that
	is currently loaded in the Component Palette.
	<P>
	<LI>The Hide designers on run option hides the Form Designer, Object Inspector, and
	other Form Designer support windows when the program is run. The Delphi main window
	and Code Editor are still visible, however.
	<P>
	<LI>The Minimize on run option is similar to Hide designers on run. When this option
	is on, the entire Delphi IDE minimizes whenever the target program is run from the
	IDE.
</UL>



<BLOCKQUOTE>
	<P>
<HR>
<strong>NOTE:</strong> When the Minimize on run option is on, any action in the program
	that requires the debugger (exceptions, breakpoints, and so on) results in the Delphi
	IDE being displayed again. 
<HR>


</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>The Shared Repository section enables you to specify where the Object Repository
information is saved by specifying the appropriate path in the Directory edit box.
This can be very helpful in the case of repository items being used by a group of
people working on the same project. You can set the Shared Repository's Directory
to point to a place on the network, and all the items that you add to the Object
Repository will be saved to the location on the network and can be inherited from
by the other group members.</P>
<P>
<H3><A NAME="Heading25"></A>The Library Page</H3>
<P>The Library page of the Environment Options dialog box has just three fields.
The Library Path field is used to specify the path to the library files that Delphi
uses for the Component Palette. Normally you don't have to change this path. The
BPL output directory and DCP output directory fields are used to specify directories
in which package output files will be placed. For example, you might opt to have
your packages (.bpl files) created in your Windows\System or Winnt\System32 directory
(package files need to be on the system path).</P>
<P>
<H3><A NAME="Heading26"></A>The Palette Page</H3>
<P>The Palette page of the Environment Options dialog box enables you to customize
the Component Palette (see Figure 11.15).</P>
<P><A HREF="javascript:popUp('28671115.gif')"><B>FIGURE 11.15.</B></A><B> </B><I>The
Palette page of the Environment Options dialog box.</I></P>

<P>This page enables you to change the order in which the pages appear in the Component
Palette. The Pages list box on the left side of the dialog box shows all the pages
currently in the Component Palette. Note that depending on the version of Delphi
you own, the palette pages you see listed might differ from those shown in Figure
11.15. (The Midas tab, for example, is only available for the Client/Server version
of Delphi.) At the bottom of the list you will see an item labeled [All]. This item
shows all the installed components in all pages of the Component Palette. The Components
list box shows the components appearing in the page that is selected in the Pages
list box.</P>
<P>To reorder the pages, drag a page within the Pages list box to the position you
want it to occupy in the Component Palette. If you want the Samples page to appear
first on the Component Palette, you can drag it to the top of the list in the Pages
list box and drop it. You can also click on a page and use the Move Up or Move Down
buttons to move the page to a new location.</P>
<P>Pages can be added, deleted, or renamed, and those operations work exactly as
you would expect. To add a page, click the Add button. You will be prompted for a
name for the page. After you supply the page name, the new page is created. You might
add a page, for example, if you have created your own components and want them on
their own page in the Component Palette. You can also take any of the VCL components
that you use a lot and move them to a new page so that you can get to them quickly.</P>


<BLOCKQUOTE>
	<P>
<HR>
<strong>TIP:</strong> You can move components from page to page, but you cannot copy components
	from one page to another. You can, however, add any installed component to any page
	on the Component Palette. First select [All] in the Pages list box. Then drag a component
	from the Components list box to any of the pages in the Pages list box. 
<HR>


</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>Deleting and renaming pages is straightforward. As with the Object Repository,
you delete a page only after it has been emptied of its components.</P>
<P>Components on a page can be rearranged just as pages can. To move a component,
drag it to its new position in the Components list box or use the Move Up or Move
Down buttons. To move a component to a new page, drag and drop it on the name of
the page in the Pages list box where you want it to appear. To delete a component,
first select the component and then click the Delete button.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="Heading27"></A>Summary</H2>
<P>So now you know more about the tools included as part of the Delphi suite. Some
of these tools are easy to miss, so it helps to have an overview of what is available
to you. Some tools you might not use right away, but in the future you can take another
look at what's available to you. I ended the day by going over the Environment Options
dialog box. For the most part, you can leave these settings on their defaults. When
you begin customizing the IDE, you will have a better understanding of what the individual
options do.</P>
<P><B>Workshop</B></P>
<P>The Workshop contains quiz questions to help you solidify your understanding of
the material covered and exercises to provide you with experience in using what you
have learned. You can find answers to the quiz questions in Appendix A, &quot;Answers
to the Quiz Questions.&quot;</P>
<P>
<H3><A NAME="Heading28"></A>Q&amp;A</H3>

<DL>
	<DT></DT>
	<DD><B>Q I'm creating an icon and trying to get an ellipse with a black border and
	a yellow fill. I set the foreground color to black and the background color to yellow,
	but all I get is a black circle. What do I have to do to get what I want?</B>
	<P>
	<DT><B></B></DT>
	<DD><B>A</B> The Image Editor works differently than some bitmap editors in this
	regard. To accomplish what you're after, you have to first draw a black, hollow ellipse