TRichView 19.6 - macOS FireMonkey platform

[Sergey Tkachenko]

TRichView is updated to version 19.6.

In this update:

• macOS support in FireMonkey version of TRichView
• End-user help in RichViewActions
• Option to auto-replace symbol fonts in RTF and DocX
• Improved installer

Trial versions are available: https://www.trichview.com/download/
A full version can be found in the protected section of this forum (or old setups can check for updates and download new versions).

Previous version
https://www.trichview.com/forums/viewto ... =6&t=10598

[Sergey Tkachenko]

macOS

Since this update, FireMonkey version of TRichView supports the following platforms:

• Windows 32-bit and 64-bit (Delphi and C++Builder XE6 and newer)
• macOS 64-bit (Delphi 10.3 Rio and newer)
• macOS 64-bit ARM (Delphi 11 Alexandria)

All features that TRichView supports in Windows are supported in macOS (including copying to the Pasteboard in multiple formats).

All TRichView demo projects were modified to support both Windows and macOS (a list of changes is posted in the forum for registered users).

trichview-firemonkey-demos-macos.jpg (231.56 KiB) Viewed 54320 times

[Sergey Tkachenko]

End-user help in RichViewActions

RichViewActions (VCL/LCL user interface components for TRichView and ScaleRichView editors) have been supporting end-user help files from the beginning, but this feature was abandoned.
Now it is revived and improved.
Like before, this feature is activated if UseHelpFiles = True for the active TRVAControlPanel component.

A help file can be provided for each UI language. You can define a help file for the specific language using RVA_SetHelpFile procedure.
Alternatively, if TRVAControlPanel.UseDefaultHelpFile = True, RichViewActions use Application.HelpFile.

If UseHelpFiles = True, and a help file is defined, a "Help" button appears on all RichViewActions dialogs (or the user can press F1).

You can use either HelpContext (an integer identifier of a help topic) or HelpKeyword (a text keyword associated with a help topic), depending on TRVAControlPanel.HelpType.

A table of HelpContext and HelpKeyword values used in RichViewActions dialogs can be found in the help file.

Help files are supported not only in core RichViewActions dialogs, but also in ScaleRichView and ReportWorkshop dialogs.

A real help file is not provided, sorry. But there is a template that you can use as a base. It is in <TRichView Dir>\RichViewActions\End-User Help\ folder.
This help file contains topics for all RichViewActions dialog windows (including ReportWorkshop dialogs) with a very brief description of each dialog.
This help file was created using Help and Manual, its project is included.

[Sergey Tkachenko]

Conversion of symbol fonts

A symbol font contains a set of glyphs specific for this font. Text formatted with such a font can be displayed properly only if this font is installed. Even if these fonts are common on Microsoft Windows computers, they can be missing on other platforms.

Symbol fonts should be avoided in favor of Unicode fonts.

1) DocX and RTF reading

A new property is added to TRichView.RTFReadProperties: ConvertSymbolFonts
The default value is False for VCL/LCL, and True for FireMonkey version.

If ConvertSymbolFonts = False, text of all symbol fonts is loaded as it is.
If ConvertSymbolFonts = True, characters of widely used symbol fonts are converted to the most similar Unicode characters.
Conversion of the following fonts is supported:

• Symbol
• Wingdings
• Wingdings 2
• Wingdings 3
• Webdings

2) Markdown import

Since this version, TRichView does not use symbol fonts for bullets loaded from Markdown (Unicode characters are used instead)

[Sergey Tkachenko]

Improved installer

TRichView installer was improved in this update.

Additional platforms

For Delphi & C++Builder packages, the installer supports Windows 32-bit, Windows 64-bit, macOS 64-bit, macOS ARM 64-bit platforms.
(If you choose an alternative C++Builder-only installation, still only Window 32-bit platform is supported)

Path to source/precompiled files (only for installation of full version of components)

For all platforms except for Windows 32-bit, the installer adds paths for precompiled files to RAD Studio library paths.
The older version of the installer always added paths to source files for Windows 32-bit platform.
For users who do not want to modify TRichView source code it is undesirable, because it increases a project compilation time (because TRichView units are recompiled with projects).
The new version of the installer provides an option for Windows 32-bit platform: path to source files / path to pre-compiled units.

You can see the "Options" button on the page of IDE selection.

IDEInstaller-options.png (14.56 KiB) Viewed 54281 times

You can see other options in this dialog, they are discussed below.

Browse paths (only for installation of full version of components)

If paths to pre-compiled files are added to IDE library paths, paths to source code are added to IDE browse paths, to simplify access to source code from RAD Studio IDE (for all supported platforms).

More details about an installation process

The installer shows a log of completed tasks.
Since this version, an additional text label describes the currently processed task with more details. For example, you can see which package is being compiled and for which platform.

IDEInstaller-macOS.png (15.2 KiB) Viewed 54281 times

Optimization

The installation and deinstallation is much faster now. Of course, I cannot make compilation of packages faster, but other operations are optimized.

Ability to stop installation

The user can abort the installation. He/she should still wait till a compilation of a current package is completed.

Additional options (only for installation of full version of components)

1) Installation may contain mandatory and optional packages.
Usually, optional packages require third-party components and are installed only if these third-party components are already installed.
Normally, errors of compilation of optional packages are ignored (because, most probably, the reason of these errors is missing third-party packages). If you have the necessary third-party components but the corresponding optional package cannot be installed, you can uncheck "Ignore errors for optional packages" in the Options dialog,

2) By default, only errors of compilation of packages for Windows platform are reported by the installer.
Most probably, errors when compiling packages for other platforms happen because this platform is not installed or is not configured in RAD Studio.
But if a package compilation of some non-Windows platform fails and you want to know why, uncheck "Ignore errors for non-Windows platform" in the Options dialog,

Using for other components

This installation utility is available for other component developers free of charge, with source code, under MPL Version 1.1.
Contact me if you are interested.

[Sergey Tkachenko]

Printing in FireMonkey

In FireMonkey, printer's DPI value ("dots per inch") is not assigned by default, and the programmer must choose from the list of DPI supported by the printer.
Previously, if you print using TRVPrint component, and DPI is not chosen, TRVPrint auto-selected the first available DPI.
In this version, a new property is added: BestDPI. By default it is (600, 600). If DPI is not chosen, TRVPrint selects DPI that matches best with this value.

[Sergey Tkachenko]

UI translations

Turkish translation of user interface of RichViewActions and ScaleRichView is updated, thanks to Ertan Küçükoglu.