What's new in LMD ElPack 6?
• • • Introduction
• • • LMD 2007 Shared Runtime
• • • Vista style controls and support
• • • New XML and RegEx engine
• • • Support of compression formats
• • • Improved ThemeEngine support
• • • Native PNG and TLMDBitmap support
• • • SVN access and DevUtil support
LMD ElPack 6 provides two major changes against release 5: Henceforth VCL.NET releases are made available - like all other LMD VCL packages, ElPack can be used to created sophisticated .NET applications. Furthermore LMD ElPack truely integrates into the LMD 2007 product line, sharing major parts (the LMD Shared Runtime) with other main LMD products (LMD-Tools, LMD IDE-Tools). Check the LMD 2007 Package Structure for more info.
Besides that new global objects and classes were introduced and existing ones improved. At last numerous improvements and fixes to existing components were added.
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| • LMD 2007 Shared Runtime |
LMD-Tools, LMD ElPack and LMD IDE-Tools share the same core runtime. This avoids redundant code and provides common advanced features for all major LMD products. This includes a shared Unicode library, improved HTMLRenderer (including support for display of TGraphic descendants) and shared imagelist support (all main LMD imagelist container are part of the LMD Shared Runtime packages), advanced designtime support (completely new editors for all LMD container controls, new component editor for TLMDGraphicList) and much more.
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| • Vista style controls and support |
Support of Vista features - even in IDEs before Delphi/C++ 2007! Use TLMDVistaFormExtension, TLMDFormGlass, TLMDFileOpen- and TLMDFileSaveDialog to add features not available in older Delphi/C++ releases. Besides that methods for Vista and Aero Glass detection are provided. Includes updated TLMDTaskDialog (now with HTML and Unicode support) - use vista style dialogs even on non-Vista systems!
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| • New XML and RegEx engine |
The LMD 2007 Shared Runtime contains a new XML support library, which is extremly fast, fully unicode-enabled and adds only a small footprint to your Exe-files. XML data can be loaded from files, custom streams, resources or strings. Like other new support libraries this one is written completely in Pascal - no need for additional DLL's or Object files.
Besides that Regular Expression evaluation support was updated! The RegEx support from previous version was replaced by a new unicode-enabled native RegEx library with PRCE compatible syntax.
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| • Support of compression formats |
Support for additional compression formats was added. Besides LZRW and other simple compression formats, which were supported already in previous releases, two new major compression formats are available: On the one hand ZLlib support, which is similar to the known implementation with C++ object files - except that it is a true native Pascal solution which was also ported to VCL.NET. Using ZLIB compression any kind of data (including TStream objects) is possible. On the other hand support of compressing/decompressing CAB files was added as well.
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| • Improved ThemeEngine support |
The native ThemeEngine of ElPack 5 was improved and moved to the LMD 2007 Shared Runtime. New in this release are theming support of windows Caption and NC areas and improved loading/unloading/switching themes functionality at runtime. Like in previous releases any .MSStyles theme file can be used at runtime. Such .MSStyles can be also encapsulated in compressed CAB files.
Besides that an addtional controller component was added, which allows centralized control of application wide theme settings (including specification of behaviour for readonly, disabled and other states).
Please note, that by default native ThemeEngine is switched off. To enable native ThemeEngine, corresponding compiler switch must be changed and all files recompiled (Source version required).
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| • Native PNG and TLMDBitmap support |
The LMD 2007 Runtime includes native support for PNG files (as TGraphic implementation and with TLMDPNGImageList control). PNG files can be used in your apps like any other TGraphic formats like TBitmap or TJpeg. Besides that the new TLMDBitmap class was introduced, which is derived from TBitmap and mainly utilizes the Windows built-in OleLoadPicture function. GIF, JPEG, Icon or Bitmap Files can be loaded without additional special VCL libs (features are not available In VCL.NET, because support of different graphic formats is available through ImageFormat in TBitmap property already.
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| • SVN access and DevUtil support |
LMD ElPack can be purchased as standalone package or as part of LMD VCL Complete. The LMD VCL Complete Package includes all LMD 2007 VCL(.NET) packages distributed by LMD Innovative. This product is also available as Subscription release with SVN access (the LMD-Tools source repository). The LMD VCL 2007 source branch is quite complex with three main products and various sub- and standalone packages: Therefore LMD DevUtil was created, which allows simple and fast compiling and installing of any possible package combination (check DevUtil instructions for more info) into any supported IDE. This is a complete automated process and saves a lot of time against compiling and installing the package within the IDE by loading project groups.
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• • • Continue with "LMD ElPack 6 Key Features"
• • • Back to LMD ElPack 6 Product Page
