Quartex Media Desktop, new compiler and general progress

It’s been a few weeks since my last update on the project. The reason I dont blog that often about Quartex Media Desktop (QTXMD), is because the official user-group has grown to 2000+ members. So it’s easier for me to post developer updates directly to the audience rather than writing articles about it.

Quartex Media Desktop ~ a complete environment that runs on every device

If you haven’t bothered digging into the project, let me try to sum it up for you quickly.

Quick recap on Quartex Media Desktop

To understand what makes this project special, first consider the relationship between Microsoft Windows and a desktop program. The operating system, be it Windows, Linux or OSX – provides an infrastructure that makes complex applications possible. The operating-system offers functions and services that programs can rely on.

The most obvious being:

• A filesystem and the ability to save and load data
• A windowing toolkit so programs can be displayed and have a UI
• A message system so programs can communicate with the OS
• A service stack that takes care of background tasks
• Authorization and identity management (security)

I have just described what the Quartex Media Desktop is all about. The goal is simple:

to provide for JavaScript what Windows and OS X provides for ordinary programs.

Just stop and think about this. Every “web application” you have ever seen, have all lacked these fundamental features. Sure you have libraries that gives you a windowing environment for Javascript, like Embarcadero Sencha; but im talking about something a bit more elaborate. Creating windows and buttons is easy, but what about ownership? A runtime environment has to keep track of the resources a program allocates, and make sure that security applies at every step.

Target audience and purpose

Take a second and think about how many services you use that have a web interface. In your house you probably have a router, and all routers can be administered via the browser. Sadly, most routers operate with a crude design and that leaves much to be desired.

Router interfaces for web are typically very limited and plain looking. Imagine what NetGear could do with Quartex Media Desktop instead

If you like to watch movies you probably have a Plex or Kodi system running somewhere in your house; perhaps you access that directly via your TV – or via a modern media system like Playstation 4 or XBox one. Both Plex and Kodi have web-based interfaces.

Netflix is now omnipresent and have practically become an institution in it’s own right. Netflix is often installed as an app – but the app is just a thin wrapper around a web-interface. That way they dont have to code apps for every possible device and OS out there.

If you commute via train in Scandinavia, chances are you buy tickets on a kiosk booth. Most of these booths run embedded software and the interface is again web based. That way they can update the whole interface without manually installing new software on each device.

Plex is a much loved system. It is based on a mix of web and native technologies

These are just examples of web based interfaces you might know and use; devices that leverage web technology. As a developer, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a system that could be forked, adapted and provide advanced functionality out of the box?

Just imagine a cheap Jensen router with a Quartex Media Desktop interface! It could provide a proper UI interface with applications that run in a windowing environment. They could disable ordinary desktop functionality and run their single application in kiosk mode. Taking full advantage of the underlying functionality without loss of security.

And the same is true for you. If you have a great idea for a web based application, you can fork the system, adjust it to suit your needs – and deploy a cutting edge cloud system in days rather than months!

New compiler?

Up until recently I used Smart Mobile Studio. But since I have left that company, the matter became somewhat pressing. I mean, QTXMD is an open-source system and cant really rely on third-party intellectual property. Eventually I fired up Delphi, forked the latest  DWScript, and used that to roll a new command-line compiler.

Web technology has reached a level of performance that rivals native applications. You can pretty much retire Photoshop in favour of web based applications these days

But with a new compiler I also need a new RTL. Thankfully I have been coding away on the new RTL for over a year, but there is still a lot of work to do. I essentially have to implement the same functionality from scratch.

There will be more info on the new compiler / codegen when its production ready.

Progress

If I was to list all the work I have done since my last post, this article would be a small book. But to sum up the good stuff:

• Authentication has been moved into it’s own service
• The core (the main server) now delegates login messages to said service
• We no longer rely on the Smart Pascal filesystem drivers, but use the raw node.js functions instead  (faster)
• The desktop now use the Smart Theme engine. This means that we can style the desktop to whatever we like. The OS4 theme that was hardcoded will be moved into its own proper theme-file. This means the user can select between OS4, iOS, Android and Ubuntu styling. Creating your own theme-files is also possible. The Smart theme-engine will be replaced by a more elaborate system in QTX later
• Ragnarok (the message api) messages now supports routing. If a routing structure is provided,  the core will relay the message to the process in question (providing security allows said routing for the user)
• The desktop now checks for .info files when listing a directory. If a file is accompanied by an .info file, the icon is extracted and shown for that file
• Most of the service layer now relies on the QTX RTL files. We still have some dependencies on the Smart Pascal RTL, but we are making good progress on QTX. Eventually  the whole system will have no dependencies outside QTX – and can thus be compiled without any financial obligations.
• QTX has it’s own node.js classes, including server and client base-classes
• Http(s) client and server classes are added to QTX
• Websocket and WebSocket-Secure are added to QTX
• TQTXHybridServer unifies http and websocket. Meaning that this server type can handle both orinary http requests – but also websocket connections on the same network socket. This is highly efficient for websocket based services
• UDP classes for node.js are implemented, both client and server
• Zero-Config classes are now added. This is used by the core for service discovery. Meaning that the child services hosted on another machine will automatically locate the core without knowing the IP. This is very important for machine clustering (optional, you can define a clear IP in the core preferences file)
• Fixed a bug where the scrollbars would corrupt widget states
• Added API functions for setting the scrollbars from hosted applications (so applications can tell the desktop that it needs scrollbar, and set the values)
• .. and much, much more

I will keep you all posted about the progress — the core (the fundamental system) is set for release in december – so time is of the essence! Im allocating more or less all my free time to this, and it will be ready to rock around xmas.

When the core is out, I can focus solely on the applications. Everything from Notepad to Calculator needs to be there, and more importantly — the developer tools. The CloudForge IDE for developers is set for 2020. With that in place you can write applications for iOS, Android, Windows, OS X and Linux directly from Quartex Media Desktop. Nothing to install, you just need a modern browser and a QTX account.

The system is brilliant for small teams and companies. They can setup their own instance, communicate directly via the server (text chat and video chat is scheduled) and work on their products in concert.

Porting TextCraft to Oxygene

TextCraft is a simple yet powerful text parser, designed for general purpose parsing jobs. I originally implemented it for Delphi, it’s the base-parser for the LDEF bytecode assembler amongst other things. It was ported to Smart Pascal, then Freepascal – and now finally Oxygene.

The LDEF Assembler is a part of the Quartex Media Desktop

The LDEF assembler and bytecode engine is currently implemented in Smart and compiles for Javascript. It’s a complete assembler and VM allowing coders to approach Asm.js from an established instruction-set. In short: you feed it source-code, it spits out bytecodes that you can execute super fast in either the browser or elsewhere. As long as there is a VM implementation available.

The Javascript version works really well, especially on node.js. In essence, i don’t need to re-compile the toolchain when moving between arm, x86, windows, linux or osx. Think of it as a type of Java bytecodes or CLR bytecodes.

Getting the code to run under Oxygene, means that I can move the whole engine into WebAssembly. The parser, assembler and linker (et-al) can thus run as WebAssembly, and I can use that from my JavaScript front-end code. Best of both worlds – the flamboyant creativity of JavaScript, and the raw speed of WebAssembly.

The port

Before I can move over the top-level parser + assembler etc, the generic parser code has to work. I was reluctant to start because I imagined the porting would take at least a day, but luckily it took me less than an hour. There are a few superficial differences between Smart, Delphi, Freepascal and Oxygene; for example the Copy() function for strings is not a lose function in Oxygene, instead you use String.SubString(). Functions like High() and Low() on strings likewise has to be refactored.

But all in all the conversion was straight-forward, and TextCraft is now a part of the QTX library for Oxygene. I’ll be uploading a commit to GIT with the whole shabam soon.

Well, hope the WordPress parser doesnt screw this up too bad.

namespace qtxlib;

//##################################################################
// TextCraft 1.2
//  Written by Jon L. Aasenden
//
//  This is a port of TC 1.2 from Freepascal. TextCraft is initially
//  a Delphi parser framework. The original repository can be found
//  on BitBucket at:
//
//  https://bitbucket.org/hexmonks/main
//
//##################################################################

{$DEFINE USE_INCLUSIVE}
{$define USE_BMARK}

interface

uses
  qtxlib, System, rtl,
  RemObjects.Elements.RTL.Delphi,
  RemObjects.Elements.RTL.Delphi.VCL;

type

  // forward declarations
  TTextBuffer         = class;
  TParserContext      = class;
  TCustomParser       = class;
  TParserModelObject  = class;

    // Exceptions
  ETextBuffer   = class(Exception);
  EModelObject  = class(Exception);

  // Callback functions
  TTextValidCB = function (Item: Char): Boolean;

  // Bookmark datatype
  TTextBufferBookmark = class
  public
    property bbOffset: Integer;
    property bbCol:    Integer;
    property bbRow:    Integer;
    function Equals(const ThisMark: TTextBufferBookmark): Boolean;
  end;

  {.$DEFINE USE_BMARK}

  TTextBuffer = class(TErrorObject)
  private
    FData:      String;
    FOffset:    Integer;
    FLength:    Integer;
    FCol:       Integer;
    FRow:       Integer;
    {$IFDEF USE_BMARK}
    FBookmarks: List;
    {$ENDIF}
    procedure   SetCacheData(NewText: String);
  public
    property    Column: Integer read FCol;
    property    Row: Integer read FRow;
    property    Count: Integer read FLength;
    property    Offset: Integer read FOffset;
    property    CacheData: String read FData write SetCacheData;

    // These functions map directly to the "Current"
    // character where the offset is placed, and is used to
    // write code that makes more sense to human eyes
    function    CrLf: Boolean;
    function    Space: Boolean;
    function    Tab: Boolean;
    function    SemiColon: Boolean;
    function    Colon: Boolean;
    function    ConditionEnter: Boolean;
    function    ConditionLeave: Boolean;
    function    BracketEnter: Boolean;
    function    BracketLeave: Boolean;
    function    Ptr: Boolean;
    function    Punctum: Boolean;
    function    Question: Boolean;
    function    Less: Boolean;
    function    More: Boolean;
    function    Equal: Boolean;
    function    Pipe: Boolean;
    function    Numeric: Boolean;

    function    Empty: Boolean;
    function    BOF: Boolean;
    function    EOF: Boolean;
    function    Current: Char;

    function    First: Boolean;
    function    Last: Boolean;

    // Same as "Next", but does not automatically
    // consume CR+LF, used when parsing textfragments
    function    NextNoCrLf: Boolean;

    // Normal Next function, will automatically consume
    // CRLF when it encounters it
    function    Next: Boolean;

    function    Back: Boolean;

    function    Bookmark: TTextBufferBookmark;
    procedure   Restore(const Mark: TTextBufferBookmark);
    {$IFDEF USE_BMARK}
    procedure   Drop;
    {$ENDIF}

    procedure   ConsumeJunk;
    procedure   ConsumeCRLF;

    function    Compare(const CompareText: String;
                const CaseSensitive: Boolean): Boolean;

    function    Read(var Fragment: Char): Boolean; overload;
    function    Read: Char; overload;
    function    ReadTo(const CB: TTextValidCB; var TextRead: String): Boolean; overload;
    function    ReadTo(const Resignators: TSysCharSet; var TextRead: String): Boolean; overload;
    function    ReadTo(MatchText: String): Boolean; overload;
    function    ReadTo(MatchText: String; var TextRead: String): Boolean; overload;

    function    ReadToEOL: Boolean;   overload;
    function    ReadToEOL(var TextRead: String): Boolean;   overload;

    function    Peek: Char; overload;
    function    Peek(CharCount: Integer; var TextRead: String): Boolean; overload;

    function    NextNonControlChar(const CompareWith: Char): Boolean;
    function    NextNonControlText(const CompareWith: String): Boolean;

    function    ReadWord(var TextRead: String): Boolean;

    function    ReadQuotedString: String;
    function    ReadCommaList(var cList: List): Boolean;

    function    NextLine: Boolean;

    procedure   Inject(const TextToInject: String);

    function    GetCurrentLocation: TTextBufferBookmark;

    function    Trail: String;

    procedure   Clear;
    procedure   LoadBufferText(const NewBuffer: String);

    constructor Create(const BufferText: String); overload; virtual;

    finalizer;
    begin
      {$IFDEF USE_BMARK}
      FBookmarks.Clear();
      disposeAndNil(FBookmarks);
      {$endif}
      Clear();
    end;
  end;

  TParserContext = class(TErrorObject)
  private
    FBuffer:    TTextBuffer;
    FStack:     Stack;
  public
    property    Buffer: TTextBuffer read FBuffer;
    property    Model: TParserModelObject;

    procedure   Push(const ModelObj: TParserModelObject);
    function    Pop: TParserModelObject;
    function    Peek: TParserModelObject;
    procedure   ClearStack;

    constructor Create(const SourceCode: String); reintroduce; virtual;

    finalizer;
    begin
      FStack.Clear();
      FBuffer.Clear();
      disposeAndNil(FStack);
      disposeAndNil(FBuffer);
    end;
  end;

  TCustomParser = class(TErrorObject)
  private
    FContext:   TParserContext;
  protected
    procedure   SetContext(const NewContext: TParserContext);
  public
    property    Context: TParserContext read FContext;
    function    Parse: Boolean; virtual;
    constructor Create(const ParseContext: TParserContext); reintroduce; virtual;
  end;

  TParserModelObject = class(TObject)
  private
    FParent:    TParserModelObject;
    FChildren:  List;
  protected
    function    GetParent: TParserModelObject; virtual;
    function    ChildGetCount: Integer; virtual;
    function    ChildGetItem(const Index: Integer): TParserModelObject; virtual;
    function    ChildAdd(const Instance: TParserModelObject): TParserModelObject; virtual;
  public
    property    Parent: TParserModelObject read GetParent;
    property    Context: TParserContext;
    procedure   Clear; virtual;
    constructor Create(const AParent: TParserModelObject); virtual;

    finalizer;
    begin
      Clear();
      FChildren := nil;
    end;

  end;

implementation

//#####################################################################
// Error messages
//#####################################################################

const
  CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY  = 'Buffer is empty error';
  CNT_ERR_OFFSET_BOF    = 'Offset at BOF error';
  CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF    = 'Offset at EOF error';
  CNT_ERR_COMMENT_NOTCLOSED = 'Comment not closed error';
  CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EXPECTED_EOF = 'Expected EOF error';
  CNT_ERR_LENGTH_INVALID = 'Invalid length error';

//#####################################################################
// TTextBufferBookmark
//#####################################################################

function TTextBufferBookmark.Equals(const ThisMark: TTextBufferBookmark): boolean;
begin
  result := ( (ThisMark  nil) and (ThisMark  self) )
        and (self.bbOffset = ThisMark.bbOffset)
        and (self.bbCol = ThisMark.bbCol)
        and (self.bbRow = ThisMark.bbRow);
end;

//#####################################################################
// TTextBuffer
//#####################################################################

constructor TTextBuffer.Create(const BufferText: string);
begin
  inherited Create();
  if length(BufferText) > 0 then
    LoadBufferText(BufferText)
  else
    Clear();
end;

procedure TTextBuffer.Clear;
begin
  FData := '';
  FOffset := -1;
  FLength := 0;
  FCol := -1;
  FRow := -1;
  {$IFDEF USE_BMARK}
  FBookmarks.Clear();
  {$ENDIF}
end;

procedure TTextBuffer.SetCacheData(NewText: string);
begin
  LoadBufferText(NewText);
end;

function TTextBuffer.Trail: string;
begin
  if not Empty then
  begin
    if not EOF then
      result := FData.Substring(FOffset, length(FData) );
      //result := Copy( FData, FOffset, length(FData) );
  end;
end;

procedure TTextBuffer.LoadBufferText(const NewBuffer: string);
begin
  // Flush existing buffer
  Clear();

  // Load in buffertext, init offset and values
  var TempLen := NewBuffer.Length;
  if TempLen > 0 then
  begin
    FData := NewBuffer;
    FOffset := 0; // start at BOF
    FCol := 0;
    FRow := 0;
    FLength := TempLen;
  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.GetCurrentLocation: TTextBufferBookmark;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  if not Empty then
  begin
    result := TTextBufferBookmark.Create;
    result.bbOffset := FOffset;
    result.bbCol := FCol;
    result.bbRow := FRow;
  end else
  raise ETextBuffer.Create
  ('Failed to return position, buffer is empty error');
end;

function TTextBuffer.Bookmark: TTextBufferBookmark;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  if not Empty then
  begin
    result := TTextBufferBookmark.Create;
    result.bbOffset := FOffset;
    result.bbCol := FCol;
    result.bbRow := FRow;
    {$IFDEF USE_BMARK}
    FBookmarks.add(result);
    {$ENDIF}
  end else
  raise ETextBuffer.Create
  ('Failed to bookmark location, buffer is empty error');
end;

procedure TTextBuffer.Restore(const Mark: TTextBufferBookmark);
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  if not Empty then
  begin
    if Mark  nil then
    begin
      FOffset := Mark.bbOffset;
      FCol := Mark.bbCol;
      FRow := Mark.bbRow;
      Mark.Free;

      {$IFDEF USE_BMARK}
      var idx := FBookmarks.Count;
      if idx > 0 then
      begin
        dec(idx);
        FOffset := FBookmarks[idx].bbOffset;
        FCol := FBookmarks[idx].bbCol;
        FRow := FBookmarks[idx].bbRow;
        FBookmarks.Remove(idx);
        //FBookmarks.SetLength(idx)
        //FBookmarks.Delete(idx,1);
      end else
      raise ETextBuffer.Create('Failed to restore bookmark, none exist');
      {$ENDIF}
    end else
    raise ETextBuffer.Create('Failed to restore bookmark, object was nil error');
  end else
  raise ETextBuffer.Create
  ('Failed to restore bookmark, buffer is empty error');
end;

{$IFDEF USE_BMARK}
procedure TTextBuffer.Drop;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  if not Empty then
  begin
    if FBookmarks.Count > 0 then
      FBookmarks.Remove(FBookmarks.Count-1)
    else
      raise ETextBuffer.Create('Failed to drop bookmark, none exist');
  end else
  raise ETextBuffer.Create
  ('Failed to drop bookmark, buffer is empty error');
end;
{$ENDIF}

function TTextBuffer.Read(var Fragment: char): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    result := FOffset <= length(FData);
    if result then
    begin
      // return character
      Fragment := FData[FOffset];

      // update offset
      inc(FOffset)
    end else
    begin
      // return invalid char
      Fragment := #0;

      // Set error reason
      SetLastError('Offset at BOF error');
    end;
  end else
  begin
    result := false;
    Fragment := #0;
    SetLastError('Buffer is empty error');
  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.Read: char;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    result := Current;
    Next();
  end else
  result := #0;
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadToEOL: boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty() then
  begin
    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    // Keep start
    var LStart := FOffset;

    // Enum until match of EOF
    {$IFDEF USE_INCLUSIVE}
    repeat
      if (FData[FOffset] = #13)
      and (FData[FOffset + 1] = #10) then
      begin
        result := true;
        break;
      end else
      begin
        inc(FOffset);
        inc(FCol);
      end;
    until EOF();
    {$ELSE}
    While FOffset < High(FData) do
    begin
      if (FData[FOffset] = #13)
      and (FData[FOffset + 1] = #10) then
      begin
        result := true;
        break;
      end else
      begin
        inc(FOffset);
        inc(FCol);
      end;
    end;
    {$ENDIF}

    // Last line in textfile might not have
    // a CR+LF, so we have to check for termination
    if not result then
    begin
      if EOF then
      begin
        if LStart = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset <= high(FData) ) )
        and ( (FData[FOffset] = '= Low(FData)) and (FOffset ') );
end;

function  TTextBuffer.Equal: boolean;
begin
  result := (not Empty)
        and ( (FOffset >= Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset = Low(FData)) and (FOffset  LStart then
        begin
          // Any text to return? Or did we start
          // directly on a CR+LF and have no text to give?
          var LLen := FOffset - LStart;
          TextRead := FData.Substring(LStart, LLen);
          //TextRead := Copy(FData, LStart, LLen);
        end;

        // Either way, we exit because CR+LF has been found
        result := true;
        break;
      end;

      inc(FOffset);
      inc(FCol);
    until EOF();
    {$ELSE}
    While FOffset  LStart then
        begin
          // Any text to return? Or did we start
          // directly on a CR+LF and have no text to give?
          var LLen := FOffset - LStart;
          TextRead := copy(FData, LStart, LLen);
        end;

        // Either way, we exit because CR+LF has been found
        result := true;
        break;
      end;

      inc(FOffset);
      inc(FCol);
    end;
    {$ENDIF}

    // Last line in textfile might not have
    // a CR+LF, so we have to check for EOF and treat
    // that as a terminator.
    if not result then
    begin
      if FOffset >= high(FData) then
      begin
        if LStart  0 then
          begin
            TextRead := FData.Substring(LStart, LLen);
            //TextRead := Copy(FData, LStart, LLen);
            result := true;
          end;
          exit;
        end;
      end;
    end;

  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadTo(const CB: TTextValidCB; var TextRead: string): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  TextRead := '';

  if not Empty then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    if not assigned(CB) then
    begin
      SetLastError('Invalid callback handler');
      exit;
    end;

    {$IFDEF USE_INCLUSIVE}
    repeat
      if not CB(Current) then
        break
      else
        TextRead := TextRead + Current;

      if not Next() then
        break;
    until EOF();
    {$ELSE}
    while not EOF do
    begin
      if not CB(Current) then
        break
      else
        TextRead := TextRead + Current;

      if not Next() then
        break;
    end;
    {$ENDIF}
    result := TextRead.Length > 0;

  end else
  begin
    result := false;
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadTo(const Resignators: TSysCharSet; var TextRead: string): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  TextRead := '';
  if not Empty then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    {$IFDEF USE_INCLUSIVE}
    repeat
      if not Resignators.Contains(Current) then
        TextRead := TextRead + Current
      else
        break;

      if not Next() then
        break;
    until EOF();
    {$ELSE}
    while not EOF do
    begin
      if not (Current in Resignators) then
        TextRead := TextRead + Current
      else
        break;

      if not Next() then
        break;
    end;
    {$ENDIF}

    result := TextRead.Length > 0;
  end else
  begin
    result := false;
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadTo(MatchText: string): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty() then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    var MatchLen := length(MatchText);
    if MatchLen > 0 then
    begin
      MatchText := MatchText.ToLower();

      repeat
        var TempCache := '';
        if Peek(MatchLen, TempCache) then
        begin
          TempCache := TempCache.ToLower();
          result := SameText(TempCache, MatchText);
          if result then
            break;
        end;

        if not Next then
          break;
      until EOF;
    end;

  end else
  begin
    result := false;
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadTo(MatchText: string; var TextRead: string): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  result := false;
  TextRead := '';

  if not Empty() then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    if MatchText.Length > 0 then
    begin
      MatchText := MatchText.ToLower();

      repeat
        var TempCache := '';
        if Peek(MatchText.Length, TempCache) then
        begin
          TempCache := TempCache.ToLower();
          result := SameText(TempCache, MatchText);
          if result then
            break
          else
            TextRead := TextRead + Current;
        end else
          TextRead := TextRead + Current;

        if not Next() then
          break;
      until EOF;
    end;

  end else
  begin
    result := false;
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
  end;
end;

procedure TTextBuffer.Inject(const TextToInject: string);
begin
  if length(FData) > 0 then
  begin
    var lSeg1 := FData.Substring(1, FOffset);
    var lSeg2 := FData.Substring(FOffset + 1, length(FData));
    //var LSeg1 := Copy(FData, 1, FOffset);
    //var LSeg2 := Copy(FData, FOffset+1,  FData.Length);
    FData := lSeg1 + TextToInject + lSeg2;
  end else
    FData := TextToInject;
end;

function TTextBuffer.Compare(const CompareText: string;
    const CaseSensitive: boolean): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty() then
  begin
    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    var LenToRead := CompareText.Length;
    if LenToRead > 0 then
    begin
      // Peek will set an error message if it
      // fails, so we dont need to set anything here
      var ReadData := '';
      if Peek(LenToRead, ReadData) then
      begin
        case CaseSensitive of
        false: result := ReadData.ToLower() = CompareText.ToLower();
        true:  result := ReadData = CompareText;
        end;
      end;
    end else
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_LENGTH_INVALID);

  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

procedure TTextBuffer.ConsumeJunk;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    repeat
      case Current of
      ' ':
        begin
        end;
      '"':
        begin
          break;
        end;
      #8, #09:
        begin
        end;
      '/':
        begin
          (* Skip C style remark *)
          if Compare('/*', false) then
          begin
            if ReadTo('*/') then
            begin
              inc(FOffset, 2);
              Continue;
            end else
            SetLastError(CNT_ERR_COMMENT_NOTCLOSED);
          end else
          begin
            (* Skip Pascal style remark *)
            if Compare('//', false) then
            begin
              if ReadToEOL() then
              begin
                continue;
              end else
              SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EXPECTED_EOF);
            end;
          end;
        end;
      '(':
        begin
          (* Skip pascal style remark *)
          if Compare('(*', false)
            and not Compare('(*)', false) then
          begin
            if ReadTo('*)') then
            begin
              inc(FOffset, 2);
              continue;
            end else
            SetLastError(CNT_ERR_COMMENT_NOTCLOSED);
          end else
          break;
        end;
      #13:
        begin
          if FData[FOffset + 1] = #10 then
            inc(FOffset, 2)
          else
            inc(FOffset, 1);
          //if Peek = #10 then
          //  ConsumeCRLF;
          continue;
        end;
      #10:
        begin
          inc(FOffset);
          continue;
        end;
      else
        break;
      end;

      if not Next() then
        break;
    until EOF;

  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

procedure TTextBuffer.ConsumeCRLF;
begin
  if not Empty then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    if  (FData[FOffset] = #13) then
    begin
      if FData[FOffset + 1] = #10 then
        inc(FOffset, 2)
      else
        inc(FOffset);

      inc(FRow);
      FCol := 0;
    end;

  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.Empty: boolean;
begin
  result := FLength < 1;
end;

// This method will look ahead, skipping space, tab and crlf (also known
// as control characters), and when a non control character is found it will
// perform a string compare. This method uses a bookmark and will restore
// the offset to the same position as when it was entered.
//
// Notes: The method "NextNonControlChar" is a similar method that
// performs a char-only compare.
function TTextBuffer.NextNonControlText(const CompareWith: string): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    var Mark := Bookmark();
    try
      // Iterate ahead
      repeat
        if not (Current in [' ', #13, #10, #09]) then
          break;

        Next();
      until EOF();

      // Compare unless we hit the end of the line
      if not EOF then
        result := Compare(CompareWith, false);
    finally
      Restore(Mark);
    end;

  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

// This method will look ahead, skipping space, tab and crlf (also known
// as control characters), and when a non control character is found it will
// perform a string compare. This method uses a bookmark and will restore
// the offset to the same position as when it was entered.

function TTextBuffer.NextNonControlChar(const CompareWith: char): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    var Mark := Bookmark();
    try
      repeat
        if not (Current in [' ', #13, #10, #09]) then
          break;
        Next();
      until EOF();

      //if not EOF then
      result := Current.ToLower() = CompareWith.ToLower();
      //result := LowerCase(Current) = LowerCase(CompareWith);

    finally
      Restore(Mark);
    end;

  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

function TTextBuffer.Peek: char;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  if not Empty then
  begin
    if (FOffset  0 do
        begin
          TextRead := TextRead + Current;
          if not Next() then
            break;
          dec(CharCount);
        end;
      finally
        Restore(Mark);
      end;

      result := TextRead.Length > 0;

    end else
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

function TTextBuffer.First: boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    FOffset := Low(FData);
    result := true;
  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

function TTextBuffer.Last: boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    FOffset := high(FData);
    result := true;
  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

function TTextBuffer.NextNoCrLf: boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    // Check that we are not EOF
    result := FOffset <= high(FData);
    if result then
    begin
      // Update offset into buffer
      inc(FOffset);

      // update column, but not if its in a lineshift
      if not (FData[FOffset] in [#13, #10]) then
        inc(FCol);

    end else
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

function TTextBuffer.Next: boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty() then
  begin

    if BOF() then
    begin
      if not First() then
        exit;
    end;

    if EOF() then
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
      exit;
    end;

    // Update offset into buffer
    inc(FOffset);

    // update column
    inc(FCol);

    // This is the same as ConsumeCRLF
    // But this does not generate any errors since we PEEK
    // ahead into the buffer to make sure the combination
    // is correct before we adjust the ROW + offset
    if FOffset  Low(FData));
    if result then
      dec(FOffset)
    else
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_BOF);
  end else
  SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
end;

function TTextBuffer.Current: char;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  // Check that buffer is not empty
  if not Empty then
  begin
    // Check that we are on char 1 or more
    if FOffset >= Low(FData) then
    begin
      // Check that we are before or on the last char
      if (FOffset <= high(FData)) then
        result := FData[FOffset]
      else
      begin
        SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_EOF);
        result := #0;
      end;
    end else
    begin
      SetLastError(CNT_ERR_OFFSET_BOF);
      result := #0;
    end;
  end else
  begin
    SetLastError(CNT_ERR_BUFFER_EMPTY);
    result := #0;
  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.BOF: boolean;
begin
  if not Empty then
    result := FOffset  high(FData);
end;

function TTextBuffer.NextLine: boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    // Make sure we offset to a valid character
    // in the buffer.
    ConsumeJunk();

    if not EOF then
    begin
      var ThisRow := self.FRow;
      while Row = ThisRow do
      begin
        Next();
        if EOF then
        break;
      end;

      result := (Row  ThisRow) and (not EOF);
    end;
  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadWord(var TextRead: string): boolean;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  TextRead := '';

  if not Empty then
  begin
    // Make sure we offset to a valid character
    // in the buffer.
    ConsumeJunk();

    // Not at the end of the file?
    if not EOF then
    begin
      repeat
        var el := Current;

        if (el in
        [ 'A'..'Z',
          'a'..'z',
          '0'..'9',
          '_', '-' ]) then
          TextRead := TextRead + el
        else
          break;

        if not NextNoCrLf() then
          break;

      until EOF;

      result := TextRead.Length > 0;

    end else
    SetLastError('Failed to read word, unexpected EOF');
  end else
  SetLastError('Failed to read word, buffer is empty error');
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadCommaList(var cList: List): boolean;
var
  LTemp: String;
  LValue: String;
begin
  if cList = nil then
    cList := new List
  else
    cList.Clear();

  if not Empty then
  begin
    ConsumeJunk();

    While not EOF do
    begin
      case Current of
      #09:
        begin
          // tab, just skip
        end;
      #13, #10:
        begin
          // CR+LF, consume and continue;
          ConsumeCRLF();
        end;
      #0:
        begin
          // Unexpected EOL
          break;
        end;

      ';':
        begin
          //Perfectly sound ending
          result := true;
          break;
        end;
      '"':
        begin
          LValue := ReadQuotedString;
          if LValue.Length > 0 then
          begin
            cList.add(LValue);
            LValue := '';
          end;
        end;
      ',':
        begin
          LTemp := LTemp.Trim();
          if LTemp.Length>0 then
          begin
            cList.add(LTemp);
            LTemp := '';
          end;
        end;
      else
        begin
          LTemp := LTemp + Current;
        end;
      end;

      if not Next() then
        break;
    end;

    if LTemp.Length > 0 then
      cList.add(LTemp);

    result := cList.Count > 0;

  end;
end;

function TTextBuffer.ReadQuotedString: string;
begin
  if not Empty then
  begin
    if not EOF then
    begin

      // Make sure we are on the " entry quote
      if Current  '"' then
      begin
        SetLastError('Failed to read quoted string, expected index on " character error');
        exit;
      end;

      // Skip the entry char
      if not NextNoCrLf() then
      begin
        SetLastError('Failed to skip initial " character error');
        exit;
      end;

      while not EOF do
      begin
        // Read char from buffer
        var TempChar := Current;

        // Closing of string? Exit
        if TempChar = '"' then
        begin
          if not NextNoCrLf then
            SetLastError('failed to skip final " character in string error');
          break;
        end;

        result := result + TempChar;

        if not NextNoCrLf() then
          break;
      end;

    end;
  end;
end;

//##########################################################################
// TParserModelObject
//##########################################################################

constructor TParserModelObject.Create(const AParent:TParserModelObject);
begin
  inherited Create;
  FParent := AParent;
  FChildren := new List;
end;

function TParserModelObject.GetParent:TParserModelObject;
begin
  result := FParent;
end;

procedure TParserModelObject.Clear;
begin
  FChildren.Clear();
end;

function TParserModelObject.ChildGetCount: integer;
begin
  result := FChildren.Count;
end;

function TParserModelObject.ChildGetItem(const Index: integer): TParserModelObject;
begin
  result := TParserModelObject(FChildren[Index]);
end;

function TParserModelObject.ChildAdd(const Instance: TParserModelObject): TParserModelObject;
begin
  if FChildren.IndexOf(Instance) < 0 then
    FChildren.add(Instance);
  result := Instance;
end;

//###########################################################################
// TParserContext
//###########################################################################

constructor TParserContext.Create(const SourceCode: string);
begin
  inherited Create;
  FBuffer := TTextBuffer.Create(SourceCode);
  FStack := new Stack;
end;

procedure TParserContext.Push(const ModelObj: TParserModelObject);
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();

  try
    FStack.Push(ModelObj);
  except
    on e: Exception do
    SetLastError('Internal error:' + e.Message);
  end;
end;

function TParserContext.Pop: TParserModelObject;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  try
    result := FStack.Pop();
  except
    on e: Exception do
    SetLastError('Internal error:' + e.Message);
  end;
end;

function TParserContext.Peek: TParserModelObject;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  try
    result := FStack.Peek();
  except
    on e: Exception do
    SetLastError('Internal error:' + e.Message);
  end;
end;

procedure TParserContext.ClearStack;
begin
  if Failed then
    ClearLastError();
  try
    FStack.Clear();
  except
    on e: Exception do
    SetLastError('Internal error:' + e.Message);
  end;
end;

//###########################################################################
// TCustomParser
//###########################################################################

constructor TCustomParser.Create(const ParseContext: TParserContext);
begin
  inherited Create;
  FContext := ParseContext;
end;

function TCustomParser.Parse: boolean;
begin
  result := false;
  SetLastErrorF('No parser implemented for class %s',[ClassName]);
end;

procedure TCustomParser.SetContext(const NewContext: TParserContext);
begin
  FContext := NewContext;
end;

end.

QTX IDE for freepascal

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks that’s for sure. I’ve been called the death of freepascal, a devil with anterior motives, a civil war monger and much, much more. It’s quite dramatic don’t you think? I mean “civil war” (insert dark voice here) and all that. We are talking about programming languages, not the borders of Bosnia. Yet drama these guys spin like spiders on drugs.

And killing the guy that raises the red flag, when did that become popular? So when I go “yo — there is something wrong here, be careful”, they just respond “Why did you say that, I don’t want to know there are bad things in the world!”. Guess I should be glad we’re not in the army together huh? That could get messy.:”Me: Guys there are mines here, go around, seven o’clock!” — “FPC/Lazarus: Everyone into the minefield and twirk like mad! That’s an order!”.

So the entertainment is priceless. Just wonderful to watch people allergic to the words “im sorry i thrash talked you, my bad, you were right to tell us” squirm around like vipers being cooked alive on a chinese barbeque .. pride can be an ugly thing.

Be very careful when using CodeTyphon, wait until it’s clear of all GPL and copyright violations. I wouldnt go near it personally.

Well, despite all the bad news, the slandering and negativity – I remain cheerful through it all. Why? Because rather than stealing code from others or trying to bypass laws and regulations, I put my time into writing the Quartex IDE from scratch without the help on anyone. And I did that exactly to avoid the awful mess PilotLogic and freepascal now find itself in.

It’s really simple:

• If i need help, I ask politely
• If i want to use a component which is free, I ask politely
• If i want to use a full GPL piece of code, I still ask politely!
• I dont remove author names, but instead put them in the About box to respect the authors, thanking them for their work
• I try to solve things first myself before asking for help
• I use standard packages like SynEdit and Jedi exactly to avoid GPL/copyright problems

Incidentally I was trying to stop problems from happening, but everyone needs someone to blame so if blaming me for pointing out copyright theft and GPL violations — whatever makes you happy I guess. I honestly don’t care any more what happens to these systems. I should not have wasted my time trying to help FPC/Lazarus and CodeTyphon. I guess there is a reason these groups have a bad reputation – sadly I have them the benefit of the doubt.

The best comment on the FPC forum must have been “Who has given you the right to prosecute pilotlogic!” — well, in that case: who has give you the right to make FPC better? Because protecting FPC was what I was doing. So who the hell made you king and decided that you could fix bugs? Do you think you’re better than anyone else?  Huh? — that’s the kind of insane thinking I’m faced with. It’s just unbelievable.

QTX for freepascal

That would be a no I think. Since people actually believe that I am a devil incarnate in all of this, it would only serve to make their insanity a self-fulfilling prophecy. And QTX will render Lazarus useless, so … dont think they would be to happu about that either. They would no doubt scream “I told you so, he was plotting this all along!”. Which is fun because I’m not that diabolical even on my best of days, I couldn’t because there is a limit to how much evil scheming I get done with 3 kids, homework, brownie baking and a full time day job as a C# programmer.

Freepascal is a great product, but the forum is full of “characters” which do more harm to the product then good.. All projects get’s nutcase “groupies” but usually the leaders have the sense to get rid of them. This has sadly not been the case here

So, I guess the plans to support freepascal has to be canceled. Which is really a shame because I truly believe in FPC/Lazarus as a universal platform. QTX would sort of be the icing on the cake. And even if you don’t like it – it would still be good to have it, because the more alternative we have the better.

But nope, I will not be supporting freepascal or lazarus after all. If people want it they can ask of course, I might change my mind in a couple of years; but right now I wont go near that copyright mess with a 10 foot pole. Nor would I support people who verbally abuse supporters when trying to help them (months in advance btw). They can blame themselves. A user group that hostile serves little or no purpose what so ever.

Alternatives

But there are always solutions for those that look; in heaps and buckets. QTX is designed to be a transcending platform, meaning that it compiles to an intermediate format (LDEF) which in turn can be represented in other languages through a code-generator API. A bit like .net but on source level rather than binary.

This means that I will be focusing on vanilla C++, shipping QTX with the free GNU C++ compiler, which is the fastest most widely developed and used compiler in the world. And I do believe it has the widest support for hardware out there as well, so it’s not bad news at all.

So to sum up:

• You write object pascal just like Delphi or FPC
• The compiler compiles to LDEF
• LDEF is compiled into C++
• C++ is compiled to machine code using the free GNU C++ compiler
• Voila, you have a free path on both Unix, Linux, Windows, OS X and pretty much every platform out there

What have you been doing lately?

That is a good question. I have been very busy with my day-job coding in C# so there has been limited time for personal projects. But last weekend I added a new cool feature to QTX, namely a second way of opening units by cursor.

QTX is still young, but packs a mean punch

You know that you can CTRL + Click on a unit-keyword and the IDE opens the file automatically for you right? Well, what if that unit is a part of a package? Wouldnt it be great if the IDE not just opened the file – but mapped the file to the treeview so you can see all the files? This is optionally of course, but it will save you a lot of time when writing packages yourself or porting packages from Delphi/FPC.

This is a humble change I agree, but sometimes making the ground-level functions rock solid is valuable. It’s exactly those functions that have been crashing Lazarus for ages. Lazarus is really only perfect on Linux, on Ubuntu for instance it’s just bloody brilliant and really hits the mark. But on OS X and Windows it’s often the small functions, those you take for granted that crash and burn.

So I’ll be spending a few extra months before alfa release just doing those functions really well. The advanced stuff can wait. I’m going for stable and rock solid over super-modern and unstable.

Messages in Smart Mobile Studio

If you have missed message coding from Delphi under Smart Pascal then you are in for a treat. The QTX library now supports application-wide messages in the browser; allowing you to send and subscribe to as many messages as you like. More or less duplicating the stuff you are used to under WinAPI.

In fact, you can subscribe to the same message in the same object as many times as you want — and also instantiate as many subscription objects as you like.

Receiving messages

Here is how you would create and setup a message-subscription for a form:

procedure TForm1.InitializeObject;
begin
  inherited;
  {$I 'Form1:impl'}

  //create our message subscriber object
  FMsgPort:=TQTXMessageSubscriber.Create;

  // subscribe to message-type $100
  FMsgPort.Subscribe($100,procedure (Message:TQTXMessageData)
    begin
      writeln("Data received:" + message.data);
    end);

  // subscribe to message-type $200
  FMsgPort.Subscribe($200,procedure (Message:TQTXMessageData)
    begin
      writeln("Data received:" + message.data);
    end);
end;

To send real objects through messages, simply use JSON to serialize it, then de-serialize it in your message handler.

Sending messages

The simplest way to send messages are through the two API methods:

• QTX_SendMessage(Message:TQTXMessageData);
• QTX_BroadcastMessage(Message:TQTXMessageData);

Alternatively, although highly unpractical, you could create your own message-port. The whole message system uses just a single message-port so you would never really create these yourself. If all you want to do is send and receive messages – you have more or less the same support as Delphi as for WinAPI messages — but simpler and easier to use!

Practical uses

Messages have been a part of Windows since the beginning, and it’s also hard-coded into Delphi. Their uses are almost limitless and you can use then to notify changes across controls and forms, transport data from one place to another — it’s really only creativity that sets the bounds.

What is cool about Smart Mobile Studio – is that you now have the same system under JavaScript. It works in every browser and allows your HTML5 forms and controls to communicate indirectly.

The technology is based on the HTML5 message system, which is a part of modern browsers. It’s extremely efficient and very reliable.

QTX Library for Smart Mobile Studio updated

QTX (Quartex) is a library written for Smart Mobile Studio users. It extends the run-time library with a wide range of capabilities, including database (dataset) support, custom effects, tag-attribute storage and much, much more.

If you are a serious HTML5 developer using Smart Mobile Studio, then this library is a must. The font and content measurement alone is worth the download – and did I mention that it’s free?

Facebook clone, coded in a couple of hours using QTX for Smart Mobile Studio

Library overview

QTX is packed with classes and methods, and I have done my best to make it as easy as possible to understand. I take it for granted that you understand the concept of HTML-Tags, and that you understand that Smart Mobile Studio code creates TAGS when it’s constructor fires, and removes the tag when the destructor executes. As such, we have no need for libraries like JQuery – because the handle (reference) to the element is always known. JQuery is ultimately about extracting tags within a criteria from the DOM (hence “Query” in the title, as in SQL for querying a database).

What we do like however, is plenty of effects – and dead simple syntax for using them. Well it doesnt get any easier than with QTX. The QTX library extends TW3CustomControl with it’s own class helper, meaning that once you have included the qtx.effects unit – all your controls supports the whole range of effects.

Also, effects are executed in sequence. You can trigger 10 effects and they will execute one by one, which is no small feat under HTML5 (but easy with QTX tag attribute support).

Here is a brief overview of the classes and methods you get when installing QTX:

Database

• TQTXDataset
• TQTXDatasetField
• TQTXBooleanField
• TQTXIntegerField
• TQTXFloatField
• TQTXStringField
• TQTXDatasetFields
• TQTXFieldDef
• TQTXFieldDefs

Tag-Attribute Storage

• TQTXAttrAccess

CSS3 GPU powered animations

• TQTXMoveAnimation
• TQTXFadeAnimation
• TQTXSizeAnimation
• TQTXAnimationHelper

Effect management

• TQTXEffectsHelper
  • fxSetBusy
  • fxBusy:boolean
  • fxScaleUp
  • fxScaleDown
  • fxSizeTo
  • fxMoveDown
  • fxMoveUp
  • fxMoveBy
  • fxMoveTo
  • fxScaleTo
  • fxZoomOut
  • fxZoomIn
  • fxWarpIn
  • fxWarpOut
  • fxFadeIn
  • fxFadeOut

Font and content measurement

• TQTXTextMetric
• TQTXFontInfo
• TQTXFontDetector

Helper classes

• TQTXHandleHelper
• TQTXIntegerHelper
• TQTXStringHelper

Media IO management

• TQTXIOAccess
  • LoadXML
  • LoadFile
  • LoadCSS
  • LoadScript
  • LoadImage
  • PreloadImages

Delayed execution

• TQTXRuntime
  • DelayedDispatch
  • CancelDelayedDispatch
  • Execute
  • Ready
  • ExecuteDocumentReady

Dynamic stylesheets

• TQTXStyleSheet

Flicker free, smooth momentum scroll baseclasses

• TQTXScrollOptions,
• TQTXScrollController
• TQTXScrollWindow

3D for any HTML elements

• TQTXSprite3DController

Custom controls

• TQTXHeaderButton
• TQTXBackButton
• TQTXNextButton
• TQTXHeaderTitle
• TQTXHeaderBar
• TQTXLabel
• TQTXScrollText

Downloading

Simply point your SVN client to: svn checkout http://qtxlibrary.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ and grab the units.

Installing

Copy the target folder into your Smart Mobile Studio -> Libraries folder and re-start the IDE. That’s it! Now include the units in your uses-clause and kick some serious HTML5 butt!

Caching effects

Sort of discovered this by surprise. I was making the typical “mouse-over” effects for buttons, where they grow a few pixels when you hover over them. But, since only one webkit transformation can be applied to an element at any given time, I decided to use a callback to catch effects that overlap.

Well, it’s pretty cool! Move the mouse pointer in and out of the control very quickly to see what I mean. And naturally, the element never looses its original size. This is perfect for music vumeter’s — or perhaps a ripple effect that never loses track of the original size?

  W3Button1.OnMouseEnter:=Procedure (sender:TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer)
  Begin
    if not w3button1.fxBusy then
    w3Button1.fxScaleUp(4,0.2) else
    w3_callback( procedure ()
      Begin
        w3Button1.OnMouseEnter(sender,shift,x,y);
      end, 100);
  end;

  w3button1.OnMouseExit:=procedure (sender:TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer)
  Begin
    if not w3button1.fxBusy then
    w3Button1.fxScaleDown(4,0.2) else
    w3_callback( procedure ()
      Begin
        w3Button1.onMouseExit(sender,shift,x,y);
      end, 100);
  end;

Oh, and remember to update the QTX svn library before trying it !

Updated

I decided to add this form of caching to the library itself. This completely removes the need for an effect-stack (linear “list” of effects to execute one after the other).

Well, everything is now in place to write some interesting, dynamic and awesome Smart Pascal visual components. I could be tempted to write a book on advanced Smart Mobile coding — interested?

Storing stuff inside the tag

User definable per-tag attributes

Another thing I learned today. As you probably understand by now, a Smart Visual Component consists of two parts. First, there is the javascript object which is what you compile from Object Pascal, secondly there is the HTML element which your control manages via code.

But what if you want to store some data which can be read/written without access to the JS code?

Let me introduce you to the problem. The effects library is capable of animating any TW3CustomControl based element, regardless of what basetype it implements (DIV, PRE, IFRAME etc..). But it does this via class helpers – so how can we store a boolean value informing us that an effect is active? We dont want to re-mold the RTL (at least not before the technology is rock solid) — so how can we attach data to an element without altering the virtual method table data?

Ta-Da! —  HTML5 introduces something called Data Attributes (read more here: http://html5doctor.com/html5-custom-data-attributes/) . Basically, whenever you use attributes on a tag which begins with “data-“, the browser leaves them in place (ordinarily it would remove them or not include them in the DOM). This allows us to do stuff like below, without affecting javascript, the RTL or the DOM negatively in any way (!):

<DIV ID="w3Panel1" data-fxActive="true">
..
</DIV>

In the QTX library read/write access to data-attributes is introduced in the class TQTXAttrAccess (qtxutils.pas). So if you include this unit in your project, all TW3CustomControl based elements gain an extra property called ElementData of type TQTXAttrAccess. Think of it like an unlimited box of TComponent.Tag values 🙂

Effects without stylesheet punching

Unless you have been living under a rock you would know that the GPU can only be accessed via CSS. This means you have to write stylesheet code (which you can edit inside Smart Mobile Studio). But this ties you down a bit, because what if you want to re-use some effects in another app? You either have to copy the CSS and Pascal code over — or… you can author the effect CSS in smart pascal directly.

And that my friend is why you will find a class called TQTXStyleSheet in the qtxstyles.pas unit. It allows you to write cutting edge GPU effects that are portable between projects — and you can leave the default, model view stylesheet intact.

You are welcome!

QTXLibrary on google code

Quartex is 4ever

To make things easier in the future I decided to push all my Smart Pascal examples into one basket and upload them to Google Code. That way people don’t have to copy & paste from this website, but rather just update their SVN repo folder.

Point your SVN client at: https://code.google.com/p/qtxlibrary/

Only human

I must however stress that these units should be considered “examples”. This blog is more about experimentation, research and education than it is anything else. I do not provide any form of support. I work full-time as a professional software developer, so there is quite frankly not enough time for large-scale hobby projects.

For new features and ideas around Smart Pascal, send an email to the Smart Mobile Studio team. It will be registered in the system and receive a proper ticket.

Ayways, do a checkout of the google repository – remember to check out to the Smart Mobile Studio Libraries folder – and have a peek 🙂

What can it do?

All sorts of cool stuff! You have the in-memory dataset class, which is very handy. And the latest additions are the effect helpers. Smart Mobile Studio RTL contains a lot of cool stuff – but for beginners it may be hard to get to grips with all the new terminology. If you are serious about y0ur HTML5 coding, you should get a book and learn some JS. It makes all the difference.

So how are the effect helpers useful? Well, for instance, to make buttons that “grow” when you move your mouse hovers over them, you would write this:

  W3Button1.OnMouseEnter:=Procedure (sender:TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer)
  Begin
    //grow the button by 4x4 pixels in 0.2 seconds
    w3Button1.fxScaleUp(4,0.2);
  end;

  w3button1.OnMouseExit:=procedure (sender:TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer)
  Begin
    // Shrink button back to original size
    w3Button1.fxScaleDown(4,0.2);
  end;

Effect stack

What I have been playing with lately (thought only for now) is an effect stack. Basically a “mini” effect language that you can use to script effect chains inside your SMS application.

For instance, a script could look like:

var script:String := #"fadeout(0);
  fadeIn(0.6);
  moveTo(100,100);
  rotate(-30,-60,-70);
  scale(200,200);
  Scew3d(-90,-90-36);
  warpOut(0.9);";
FStack.push(script,w3button1);
FStack.execute(esImmediate);

Reminds me a bit about the old Amos Basic “sprite language” that we used in the 90’s for writing shoot’em up enemies for games and demos.