I have just released a new experimental GExperts version with the sourcecode formatter. As always it is based on the current GExperts sources which may be a good or a bad thing. It officially supports RAD Studio 2009.
You can download the new version from the GExperts page.

There has recently been quite a lot of hubbub in the Delphi blogosphere about a blog posting by a guy called Branden Tanga, who was venting his frustration with Rad Studio 2007. Here is my analysis on his problem.

... under Wine. Since January I have got an Asus eeepc 700. Nice little machine, but it is part of the reason why I haven't been posting here for quite a while. That's because I am sitting in the living room with the little notebook rather than in my home office at the PC. But the tools for updating this site are installed on the PC. Starting from today, that excuse is no longer valid, everything I need is now on the eeepc.

What was it I was talking about? Delphi, yes, it works on the eeepc, if you install Wine. But the integrated debugger only starts for Delphi 5, more recent versions cannot register the required COM server. I have not even tried Delphi 2007, because that would mean installing the dotNET framework, and if I did that I could just use Windows instead.

GExperts contains an expert for renaming components. This expert has three functions:

• Provide a prefix for each component class, e.g. btn for TButton
• Automatically display a rename dialog when a new component is added
• Set additional properties in the same dialog, e.g. Caption or Text with a configurable default.

Since you probably don't want to add all component classes manually, you should check the option "Auto-add rules for new components". GExperts will then automatically add a rule for component classes that are not yet in the list so all you need to do manually is enter the prefix.

I myself also check the "Show rename dialog for new components" option, which lets GExperts show a rename dialog whenever I add a component to a form. If this option is not checked, you can call the dialog using Shift+F2.

One mostly unknown but very usefull function is to have GExperts ask for additional properties. For example I think it is a rather stupid thing to fill the TEdit's Text property with the component name. You never want that but most likely want to have it set to an empty string. GExpert can do that for you. Just add a rule for the TEdit class (or select the existing one) and click "Other Properties". GExperts will display a dialog where you enter

                          
      Text=''
                              

and that's it. If you now add a new TEdit component the Text property will automatically be set to an emtpy string. Another example is the Caption of a TLabel. You don't want it to display the label's name, do you? Instead you will always change it to some real text. In line with the example above you would add

                        
      Caption
                            

(without assigning a value) to the "Other Properties" for TLabel. Now the rename dialog will contain an additonal entry field for the Caption.