The LCL in various platforms

Introduction

Many LCL properties, methods and other functionality represent a concept, which is then mapped to a specific native behavior in each platform in order to provide the user with a platform-sensitive environment. This sections aims at clarifying LCL behavior which changes across platforms by clarifying what is to be expected in each platform so that more reliable software can be built.

Linker options

The LCL passes various linker options depending on platform. Here is the conditionals script from the LCL:

// linker options
if TargetOS='darwin' then begin
  if LCLWidgetType='gtk' then
    UsageLibraryPath := '/usr/X11R6/lib;/sw/lib'
  else if LCLWidgetType='gtk2' then
    UsageLibraryPath := '/usr/X11R6/lib;/sw/lib;/sw/lib/pango-ft219/lib'
  else if LCLWidgetType='carbon' then begin
    UsageLinkerOptions := '-framework Carbon'
      +' -framework OpenGL'
      +' ''-dylib_file'' ''/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib:/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib''';
  end else if LCLWidgetType='cocoa' then
    UsageLinkerOptions := '-framework Cocoa';
end else if TargetOS='solaris' then begin
  UsageLibraryPath:='/usr/X11R6/lib';
end;

TForm.BorderStyle

The BorderStyle of a Form represents a kind of form, and different platforms have different standards about how should the border of each kind of form be, and the LCL respects that. For example, message dialogs are usually not resizable under Windows, but resizable under X11-based Unixes. By using bsDialog it is possible to create a form which will have the adequate dialog appearance in every platform. Below is a full list of expected behaviors:

Windows

BorderStyle	Has Border?	Resizable?	Decoration
bsNone	No	No	None
bsDialog	Yes	No	Only X (Close)
bsSingle	Yes	No	All
bsSizable	Yes	Yes	All
bsSizeToolWin	Yes	Yes	Only X and small title
bsToolWin	Yes	No	Only X and small title

Windows CE

For Windows CE see here: Positioning and size of Dialogs and Forms

Gtk

Under Gtk on X11 the best one can do is ask the window manager to set a certain style, and it may ignore our request, so nothing, except sizable border vs. no border at all is guaranteed. i.e. only bsSizable and bsNone have a guaranteed behavior and the other ones will be either somewhere in between or equal to bsSizable.

	Gtk 1			Gtk 2
BorderStyle	Has Border?	Resizable?	Decoration	Has Border?	Resizable?	Decoration
bsNone	No	No	None	No	No	None
bsDialog	Yes	Yes*	All*	Yes	Yes*	All*
bsSingle	Yes	No (WM)	All	Yes	No (WM)	All
bsSizable	Yes	Yes	All	Yes	Yes	All
bsSizeToolWin	Yes	Yes	All*	Yes	Yes	All*
bsToolWin	Yes	No (WM)	All*	Yes	No (WM)	All*

Values with * differ from the Windows Implementation.

Values with (WM) indicate that the feature is Window Manager specific.

Associated bug track items: [1]

macOS

	Carbon			Cocoa1
BorderStyle	Has Border?	Resizable?	Decoration	Has Border?	Resizable?	Decoration
bsNone	No	No	None	Yes	Yes	All
bsDialog	Yes	No	All	Yes	Yes	All
bsSingle	Yes	No	All	Yes	Yes	All
bsSizable	Yes	Yes	All	Yes	Yes	All
bsSizeToolWin	Yes	Yes	All	Yes	Yes	All
bsToolWin	Yes	No	All	Yes	Yes	All

¹Note: The Cocoa widgetset is still in development. Details of implementation may change, as well as adherence to GUI guidelines.

Shortcut Keys

Some Key sequences cannot be used by the Application in some platforms because the Operating System or Windows Manager is already using them. Below is a list for each platform.

macOS

You should refer to Apple Human Interface Guidelines for system reserved shortcuts.

Key Sequence	Alternative	Description
F8 / ⇧ Shift+F8	?	F8 activates Spaces
F9 / ⇧ Shift+F9	?	F9 shows all windows in Exposé
F10 / ⇧ Shift+F10	?	F10 shows all windows of the current program
F11 / ⇧ Shift+F11	?	F11 shows the Desktop
F12 / ⇧ Shift+F12	?	F12 activates the Dashboard

Windows

Key Sequence	Alternative	Description
F1	?	F1 invokes the program-specific help system

Popup Menus

Normally the popup menus are the items in the TPopupMenu assigned to the PopupMenu property.

GTK (1+2)

The GTK automatically adds to the TNoteBook and TPageControl headers for each page a menu item to quick jump to the page.

GTK2

The GTK2 automatically adds to all edit controls like TEdit and TComboBox unicode and accessibility items.

Command line parameters

Some widgetsets parse the command line parameters and react to some parameters.

GTK

• --gtk-module
• --g-fatal-warnings
• --gtk-debug
• --gtk-no-debug
• --gdk-debug
• --gdk-no-debug
• --display
• --sync
• --no-xshm
• --name
• --class