Lars Fosdal

Has Andy's site gone belly up?

Originally a comment to I find Attributes to be an excellent feature of Delphi. Saves me a lot of variations of init code which instead is done with attributes.

I see that I've cut off the source I pasted. If you had the full source, you would have seen that the numbers are the default widths in pixels. This is the initial default value. I.e. those you need before you have a config to load. The same default as you would define in a constructor or design in the form editor. Likewise, with the type of the field, there is a default alignment which can be overridden with the attribute. These are indeed presentation properties and they are defaults explicitly bound to each instance of a field. The idea is to keep the default properties together with the field declarations instead of having them spread out through the code or defined in the .dfm. Unfortunately, I cannot use record constants to initialize the titles or specify the secondary sorting columns due to limitations in the language.

The grid sets are multipurpose. I can create gridsets dynamically from an SQL query, or dynamically from records or objects, or I can specify the design as in the example. All the actual grids have the same features, look and feel and the same behaviour. Visual inheritance is a nightmare. Just the same way as values in a constructor or in a designtime form are hardcoded. Except - the values are in code, right next to the declaration. Please elaborate? Where and how? As for torture of fingers. It is not like you need a huge amount of square brackets and using them is no different from when using them for arrays. [InitField(50, hcLeftJustify), UniqueField, DefaultSortField, ReadOnlyField] GlobalLocId: TFieldInteger; Anyways... Don't be blinded by one man's implementation in a specific context tailored for his needs. Attributes can be very useful and applied for a wide range of purposes.

AWS and Azure already have virtual TPMs for VMs.

Well, every other piece of hardware is virtual in a VM, so why not the TPM?

Both AWS and Windows Server Hyper-V VMs can have virtualized TPMs. I would expect VMWare and others to go the same way. I am curious towards what you would need to do to move a VM from one workstation to another if it relies on a physical TPM. Perhaps an export/import thing? BTW: Currently, Generation 8 of Intel is the CPU cutoff point. For anything older than that, Windows 10 21H2 will be available and patched until 2025. https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/25/22550376/microsoft-windows-11-tpm-chips-requirement-security

I am pretty sure that the syntax of attributes won't change, so that discussion is not really interesting. Your suggested helper separates the attributes from the field/property declarations, which is not a good thing, IMO. As for cross platform - there would be two means of managing that. Defines around the attributes, or ensuring that values are appropriately scaled in the TGridView class (See last paragraphs). The attributes are just the means to change a default. I can (and do) change attributes of the fields in a Create method as well. I would have loved to be able to set all these from attributes as well, but the compiler won't allow it. If we had lambda expressions and the compiler would accept complex constants as arguments, I'd move of this to attributes. constructor TSiteGridSet.Create; begin inherited; LocationNo.Title := titles.LocationNo; GlobalLocId.Title := titles.GlobalLocId; Name.Title := titles.Name; Environment.Title := titles.Environment; Role.Title := titles.Role; AppServer.Title := titles.AppServer; LocationType.Title := titles.LocationType; DBInfo.Title := titles.DBInfo; BuildName.Title := titles.LocationType; LocationBuildTrack.Title := xlt.Create('Build'); LocationBuildTrack.Formatter := function (const aValue: TPSDLocationBuildTrack): string begin case aValue of lbtDefault, lbtLive : Result := 'Live'; lbtPilot : Result := 'Pilot'; lbtTrunk : Result := 'Trunk'; else Result := ''; end; end; RowStyler := HighlightOffline; Environment.SecondaryKeys := [LocationType, Role, Name]; Environment.Formatter := function(const aValue: TPSDEnviroment):String begin Result := aValue.ToString end; Name.ColumnStyler := Self.ServerNameColor; Role.SecondaryKeys := [LocationType, Environment, Name]; Role.Formatter := function(const aValue: TPSDServerRole):String begin Result := aValue.ToString; end; Role.CellStyler := ServerRoleColor; LocationType.SecondaryKeys := [Environment, Role, Name]; LocationType.Formatter := function(const aValue: TPSDLocationType):String begin Result := aValue.ToString; end; Param.OwnsReference := True; FComboLayout := Layout.AddLayout(xlt.Create('Combo'), [LocationNo, Name, Environment, LocationBuildTrack, Role, GlobalLocId]); end; FYI - the TGridSet is non-visual. There is a TGridView proxy class that takes a TGridSet and applies the visual stuff to the actual grid. TSiteQueryGrid = class(TGridViewPSD<TPSDLocation, TSiteGridSet>); Currently, the TGridView was written to only support TMS TAdvStringGrid, but could be refactored into a multiplatform/multigrid adapter.

I split the Attribute discussion into a separat thread

They are far from perfect. They don't support generics, nor can you send a structured constant as an argument, even with if they were declared as {$WRITEABLECONST OFF}. For my grids wrappers, I have a load of them... type TGridSetAttribute = class abstract(TCustomAttribute); /// <summary> Disable automatic field creating for GridSet </summary> GridManuallyCreateFieldsAttribute = class(TGridSetAttribute); /// <summary> Allow MultiSelect in Grid</summary> GridMultiSelectAttribute = class(TGridSetAttribute) MultiSelect: Boolean; constructor Create; overload; constructor Create(DoMultiSelect:Boolean); overload; end; GridMultiLineCellsAttribute = class(TGridSetAttribute) MultiLineCells: Boolean; constructor Create; overload; constructor Create(DoMultiLineCells:Boolean); overload; end; /// <summary> Autosize entire grid </summary> GridAutoSizeAttribute = class(TGridSetAttribute) AutoSizeEnabled: Boolean; constructor Create; overload; constructor Create(DoAutoSize:Boolean); overload; end; /// <summary> Turn on filters for grid </summary> GridShowFiltersAttribute = class(TGridSetAttribute) ShowFilters: Boolean; constructor Create; overload; constructor Create(DoShowFilters:Boolean); overload; end; GridEditModeAttribute = class(TGridSetAttribute) EditMode: Boolean; constructor Create; overload; constructor Create(DoEditMode:Boolean); overload; end; /// ----------------- Field attributes ----------------- TQueryFieldAttribute = class(TCustomAttribute) constructor Create; virtual; end; /// <summary> Allow MultiSelect in Grid</summary> CheckBoxAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute); /// <summary> Text to show as hint for column header </summary> HeaderHintAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) Hint: xlt; constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(const aHint: string); reintroduce; overload; constructor Create(const aHint: xlt); reintroduce; overload; end; /// <summary> Mark field as UniqueField </summary> UniqueFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute); /// <summary> Read-Only field attribute </summary> ReadOnlyFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) ReadOnly: Boolean; constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(const IsReadOnly: Boolean); reintroduce; overload; end; /// <summary> Mark field as hidden </summary> HiddenFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) WhenBlank: boolean; //Hides columns if all the data is empty string og 0 constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(const aWhenBlank: Boolean); reintroduce; overload; end; InternalFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute); /// <summary> Enable filtering for column </summary> DontFilterFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) constructor Create; override; end; /// <summary> Custom Field - populate in DoAfterConvert </summary> CustomFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute); /// <summary> Toggle visibility of hidden field</summary> ToggleFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute); /// <summary> Grouping column </summary> GroupingAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) Priority: Integer; constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(const aPriority: Integer); reintroduce; overload; end; UseFieldAsCategoryAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute); /// <summary> Category Name for GridEdit </summary> CategoryAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) Name: string; Priority: Integer; constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(const aName: string; const aPriority: Integer = MaxInt); reintroduce; overload; end; /// <summary> Autosize field </summary> AutoSizeAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) AutoSizeEnabled: Boolean; MinSize: Integer; MaxSize: Integer; constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(DoAutoSize:Boolean); reintroduce; overload; constructor Create(aMinSize, aMaxSize: Integer); reintroduce; overload; end; /// <summary> Set OwnsReference to true for field:TFieldReference<T> instance </summary> OwnsReferenceAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute); /// <summary> Mark field as using WordWrap </summary> WordWrapAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) public WordWrap: TFieldWordWrap; constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(const aWordWrap: TFieldWordWrap); reintroduce; overload; end; /// <summary> Mark field as using WordWrap </summary> NoWordWrapAttribute = class(WordWrapAttribute) public constructor Create; override; end; /// <summary> Mark field as default sort-by column </summary> DefaultSortFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) public SortDescending: Boolean; constructor Create; overload; override; constructor Create(const aSortDescending: Boolean); reintroduce; overload; end; /// <summary> [InitField(64 {, alignment})] <br/> /// [InitField('Title', 64 {, alignment})] <br/> /// [InitField('Title', 'Name Override for SQL', 64 {, alignment})]</summary> InitFieldAttribute = class(TQueryFieldAttribute) Here is an example of how I use them for what I call a GridSet. I have a large number of grids that uses gridsets instead of having visual form designed grids. type TSiteGridSet = class(TGridSet<TPSDLocation>) public [GridShowFilters, GridAutoSize] [CustomField] Ticked: TFieldCheckBox; [InitField(40), UniqueField] GlobalLocId: TFieldInteger; [InitField(50, hcRightJustify )] LocationNo: TFieldString; [InitField(110)] Name: TFieldString; [InitField(70), DefaultSortField] Environment: TFieldEnum<TPSDEnviroment>; [InitField(70)] Role: TFieldEnum<TPSDServerRole>; [InitField(70)] LocationBuildTrack: TFieldEnum<TPSDLocationBuildTrack>; [InitField(70), HiddenField] BuildName: TFieldString; [InitField(70)] AppServer: TFieldString; [InitField(70)] LocationType: TFieldEnum<TPSDLocationType>; [InitField(300)] DBInfo: TFieldString; [InitField(300)] DBHostName: TFieldString; [HiddenField] Param: TFieldReference<TPSDCreateParameters>;

aka.ms is about a decade old, I think 🙂 That is an interesting conundrum with the Parallels VM and the TPM. The whole point of a VM is that is is portable.

I use wrappers that fill my grids, and I clear the grid and set up the grid size before I start loading data.

Who knows... Oddly, Windows Product Name still says Windows 10 Pro

The current Windows 11 build shows (among lots of other values) PS C:\Windows\System32> get-computerinfo | format-list WindowsBuildLabEx : 22000.1.amd64fre.co_release.210604-1628 WindowsCurrentVersion : 6.3 WindowsEditionId : Professional WindowsInstallationType : Client WindowsProductName : Windows 10 Pro WindowsVersion : 2009 WindowsUBR : 51 OsName : Microsoft Windows 11 Pro OsType : WINNT OsOperatingSystemSKU : 48 OsVersion : 10.0.22000 OsCSDVersion : OsBuildNumber : 22000 OsHotFixes : {KB5004034, KB5004567, KB5004564, KB5004570} PS C:\Windows\System32>

Ok, I tried with the vertical offsets as well. No change. Maximized perfectly - even when spanning both displays. I suspect driver antics? What are the resolutions and scaling of monitor 1 and 2 ?

I didn't try that offset config. I always aligned the top or the bottom edges?

At least the thread suggests a replacement?

Also tried resizing the size of one monitor and aligning it to the top, as well as to the bottom. No unexpected size effects. Are you sure you are not running some Windows video driver software that manages windows?

I cannot replicate your problem on first try. Menu and title bar looks ok maximized on both screens. The size of the window adjusts according to DPI as I drag it from one screen to the other.

Well, from the VMs point - the virtual TPM is not software.

Interestingly, the TPM 2.0 spec appear to be as young as 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/work-groups/trusted-platform-module/ VMs can have virtual TPMs. I guess that will be necessary for running W11 on a Mac.

Can you zip the project and attach the minimal app source here so that I can try your exact experiment on my two screen solutiuon? I have two 4k screens, but of different size, and the smaller has a different scaling.

It has been a decade and a half since that question popped up http://www.delphigroups.info/2/5/259636.html

I wonder, will the peripheral market pick up on the TPM need? Is it technically feasible to deliver TPM over USB, PCIe, or even PCI?

Do the two screens have different DPI? What kind of HighDPI settings do you have in the manifest?