Visual Component

What is a VisualComponent? It is used to define a component used in a program in such a way as to be visual, graphic, or pictorial. It means different things to different people. This page attempts to illustrate the variety of uses to which it can be put and the many implementations which may employ it.

---

It is a 3D simulation building block for creating working 3D plant layouts and automation lines in minutes!

• More at: http://licensor.visualcomponents.net/portal/company/

It may be used via a library or a framework

• JEDI VisualComponent Library
  • More at: http://homepages.borland.com/jedi/jvcl/
• Borland VisualComponent Library
  • More at: http://www.visualcomponentlibrary.com/
• A VisualComponent Framework is intended as a cross platform class library, that supports, among other things, an advanced GUI framework strongly influenced by Borland's Visual Component Library and Java's Swing framework.
  • More at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vcf/
• More on VisualComponent Framework - CodeGuru? Libraries and Projects
  • Read Article at: http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/frameworks/advancedui/componentlibraries/article.php/c3211/

It is a vital part of RapidApplicationDevelopment (RAD) paradigm that makes a UserInterface easy to program, easily utilized by the EndUser, and when well done, Intuitive.

• Basic GUI Element:
  • Button
  • Checkbox
  • Textbox
  • Label
  • Listbox
  • Menu
  • Popupmenu
  • Pulldownmenu
• Image
  • Picture (many formats)
  • Graphic
  • Plot
• BasicGUIContainer:
  • Form (a window containing nested controls)
  • Frame (for placement of controls in a group in a Form)
  • Panel and Layout Manager (allowing a form to be divided in rectangular sub-sections upon which a control may be placed
  • Drawing Canvas (for painting or drawing arbitrary geometric shapes on)
• RichGuiElement:
  • Grid or Spreadsheet views
  • Bar or Line or Pie Charts
  • DataAwareControl (where a visual control or controls are linked to a database for viewing or editing.)
  • Browser Forms (For HTML)
  • Richtextbox
  • Syntax Highlighting Editor Controls
  • UserDefinedControl (other constructions and implementations for the EndUser as designed and imagined using new or existing elements and made available for more than one application program.

---

• Implementation:
  • To implement a VisualComponent, you might write an ActiveXControl in VisualBasic or CeePlusPlus or BorlandDelphi, or a native VCL control in BorlandDelphi, or using Java, Perl, Python, or other ProgrammingLanguage.

---

Discussion, Questions and Answers:

Q: What's the difference between a RAD VisualComponent vs the common usage of VisualComponent as a synonym for a GUI widget as in Java?

A: It is an ImplementationDependency, that is each RapidApplicationDevelopment program has tools which make it suitable for use as an environment for development in a language or set of languages.

VisualBasic and Csharp can utilize a Rapid Development implementation called DotNet.

• http://sharptoolbox.madgeek.com/Pages/Category03977dec-a18e-49c9-8623-72b0c50ce83d.aspx
• There is also a DotNetForLinux.

Perl has a RAD called Prima.

• http://www.prima.eu.org/

Python has

• ...

Ruby had one called Gnome (It is already obsolete)

• ...

There are many components which are present in nearly all such implementations. This page presents some of them.

Q: That's fine, but the point is that VisualComponents are not limited to only a RAD environment, nor to Microsoft technology, thus the emphasis of this page is provincial -- the definition given so narrow as to be wrong.

A: Which is precisely what a definition should be "provincial" and "narrow".

Q: This is getting annoying. The term "Visual Component" is used outside of RAD and Microsoft, so any definition should include the non-RAD and non-Microsoft aspects. Is that so hard to grasp?

A: No, it should probably include these aspects. I will in the process of refactoring this page include several aspects which are unfamiliar to many. It will require additional research into these aspects. It will take some time. The additional definitions, satisfying the need of inclusion of "many" more aspects will be completed. Any additions you feel have been omitted, feel free to add when I am done. I will be RefactoringUntil? 20040417.

So, are you done yet?