History.txt

BarMenu Components Version History:

Legend; (*) notes, (-) changes to the code

  -- Version 2.3.9 -- (2003-09-10)
     * Added missing Delphi 7 package (why no one did report this earlier?:)
     * Demo3 added: A demo showing how to have different menuitem fonts while 
       letting BarMenus to do the default drawing.


  -- Version 2.3.8 -- (2003-04-02)
     * Added Delphi 7 packages (you probably could use the D6 packages just fine
       too)
     * No source modifications

  -- Version 2.3.7 -- (2003-02-13)
     * I'm not sure if the C++Builder packages work as they are now. Hopefully
       I can fix those, however if you recreate the packages BarMenus should work
       just fine. I have no way testing myself. Sorry.
     - Updated DFS.inc for Delphi 7 compatibility. Thanks goes to
       Magnus Flysjö for making those modifications. Use the Delphi 6 packages for 
       now.
     - Fixed "$ObjExportAll On" bug when using DCC32.EXE through command line.

  -- Version 2.3.6 -- (2002-07-21)
     - If MenuItem ShortCut has csWinKey = $0200 set it will be intepreted as
       Win key. This is my own extension to the TShortCut. To add Win key to
       ShortCut use eg. code MenuItem.ShortCut := MenuItem.ShortCut + $0200;
       Note that this is only visual, you need to do own handling for the
       actual key press. BcShortCutToText() is provided for proper shortcut
       translation.
     - Better handling with MenuFont and menuitem sizes. It's not perfect, but
       better.

  -- Version 2.3.5 -- (2002-07-09)
     * Big thanks for Yury Zaytsev, member of Binary Insight SDT
       (www.binary-insight.com), for testing and providing packages for C++Builder 6.

  -- Version 2.3.4 -- (2001-12-19)
     * Now you can license your copy of BarMenu Components under Corporation
       License. Read Register.txt and CorpLicense.txt. License fee is $29.90 (USD).
       You can still use this package under Public License even for commercial
       applications. Corporation License is just an alternative and has terms
       which probably make it a bit more suitable for corporations.
     * BarMenu Components can be downloaded now from (old url is not updated anymore
       after this release),  http://www.bluecave.net/products/barmenus/
       
     - Fixed MenuItem Check/RadioItem Glyph drawing if no Images assigned to the
       menu.

  -- Version 2.3.3 -- (2001-12-03)
     - MenuStyle property. It will allow you to select msStandard, msWindowsXP
       or msAuto. msAuto will select drawing style depending on the Windows in
       which the application is run. msStandard is the VCL old way and msWindowsXP
       is Windows XP way.
     - Now calls to BeginUpdate are cumulative; for every call to BeginUpdate
       there must be a corresponding call to EndUpdate.
     - ssShortLines and ssNormal separators can have Fading ends.
     - Separators.FlatLines property. Draws the separators lines as a single line.
     - New demo application. File Explorer through menus. Read the comments in the
       project for more information about the hacks used in the application
       to boost dynamic menu creation to be about 300 (!) times faster (especially
       when menu will have *many* items). If you recompile the project, be sure
       to check that the hack class definition matches the one in the VCL 
       Menus.pas - otherwise you'll end up with Access Violation.

  -- Version 2.3.2 -- (2001-11-28)
     * BarMenu Components Mailing list: barmenus@freelists.org. To join the list
       go to http://www.freelists.org/list/barmenus

     * This update is mainly a Windows XP compatiblity update.
     * BiDiMode drawing does not work correctly for FarEast locale. (requires
       more changes than I have time to do now). Not that it would work in earlier
       versions either.. If you need this support I'll add it whenever I get
       request about it.
     - Small bug in TBcBarMainMenu top menu measuring if no menu Images were
       assigned.
     - I could have fixed the small bug (in VCL) which made the background
       color of TMainMenu toplevel items to be drawn incorrectly but I decided
       to copy the whole item drawing code from the VCL and make the changes
       there. I've had this in mind earlier as this way I can change the drawing
       more. So now the TBcMainMenu draws it's toplevel items correctly under
       Windows XP.
     - Item drawing under XP is done now XP way (I did use the Windows Movie Maker
       as a guide). Especially Checked items (Item Height is defaulted always even
       because of the checked glyph frame. This makes the items a bit larger under
       XP).
     - Item glyphs are now centered to the item height. This applies all platforms.
     - Documented the BeginUpdate and EndUpdate methods. Those should be used
       when creating menus dynamically at runtime.
     - Demo application custom drawmodule code draws now disabled items as grayed
       now.
     - Demo application has RadioItems in the main menu Windows menu to demonstrate
       the new drawing for the items.
     - Demo application supports now Windows XP visual styles.
     - Now RadioItems have dot as a default checked glyph instead of a check mark.
     - Added OnMeasureMenuItem events to TBcBarMainMenu and TBcBarPopupMenu. This
       event is global for all items in the menu and is called before requesting
       DrawModule for measurement. So you can override the default Item Width
       and/or Height here before those are processed further. If you change the
       DefaultMeasure var parameter to False then DrawModule measuring is omitted.

  -- Version 2.3.1 -- (2001-10-23)
     - Fixed DrawModule updating a bit. Added RedrawMenus method for
       TBcBarMenusDrawModule. (There is a small workaround how the updating
       is done for mainmenu items. If someone finds the "problem" tell me)
       This fixes also the top item measuring/drawing on custom DrawModules.
     - Fixed demo project code for the TBcCustomDrawModule

  -- Version 2.3.0 -- (2001-10-21)
     * Hopefully the Delphi 6 and C++Builder 5 packages work because I had
       to manually edit the package sources (I don't have Delphi 6 or CB5
       installed)
     - Implemented DrawModule concept. DrawModule centralizes drawing of
       all menuitems within the menu. If there is no DrawModule assigned then
       the default drawing implemented in BarMenus is used.
       You can create own DrawModules by inheriting from TBcBarMenuDrawModule
       class and implementing the two abstract methods. Look BcDrawModule for
       more info. There is a example (TBcCustomDrawModule) DrawModule in the
       package which allows the drawing through events OnDrawMenuItem and
       OnMeasureMenuItem events. Example usage in the demo project.
     - Fixed bug with AdvancedBeforeDrawBar event calling (thanks for the
       guy who pointed it out; cannot check his name now :( )
     - Changed menuitem event loading for BcBarPopupMenu to use Loaded
       method as well. Should make the popup faster if there are large
       number of menuitems..  I have not tested how the menus handle
       menuitems added on runtime but it should reset the events on Rebuild
       (though not very optimal solution).
     - Updated Readme.txt and FAQ.txt (forgot to do this in the 2.2.0 :/ ).
       Install/Uninstall instructions more complete
     - Gradient drawing is now done using 32-bit DIB. Faster and should
       save some resources. There is a function DrawGradient() which you can
       use to draw gradients to your own TBitmaps or TCanvas'. Preferred to
       use TBitmap as with TCanvas it uses a bit more resources. See demo
       project for example usage. As a small note that the new code in the
       BarMenus.DrawGradient() is A LOT faster than the old code used in the
       Demo project.
     - Gradient has GradientStyle property (gsVertical, gsHorizontal,
       gsDiagonalLeftRight, gsDiagonalRightLeft). Note that gsDiagonalRightLeft and
       gsDiagonalLeftRight uses Pixels[] if not using the TBitmap. This is not
       good if accessing directly to screen visible canvas. So using TBitmap
       buffer is recommended (atleast my ATI Radeon VE had side effect of
       hardly noticable trembling, but annoying, in the whole screen if not using
       buffer).
     - Fixed couple of Range Checking Errors and now the clBtnFace (plus others)
       work as Caption highlight/shadow colors.
     - Added Visible properties to BarPicture, BarBackPicture and BarCaption.
       You can use OnAdvancedBeforeDrawBar to override the drawing set.
     - Added gradient support Separators ssCaption (for upgraders as a note that
       CaptionColor property was removed).
     - Now Separators.Alignment works with SeparatorStyle ssShortLine too.

  -- Version 2.2.0 -- (2001-10-16)
     * Changed the minor version number because of the "parameter incorrect"
       bug fix.
     - Caption Highlight and Shadow colors. Set to clNone to disable.
       Use Depth property to control highlight and shadow distance
       (you can probably use negative values too).
     - Added overloaded procedure Popup(P: TPoint) method for
       TBcCustomBarPopupMenu. Added PopupAtCursor which will popup the
       popupmenu at mouse cursor position.
     - Fixed some Assign methods.
     - FINALLY FOUND the "parameter incorrect" bug. It did not occur
       of menu animations were disabled.. and I don't use those myself :)
       The Windows apparantly creates different DC handle for the
       menu animation and it made the WindowFromDC -> GetClientRect
       return something very incorrect. If the animation is disable,
       then it returns right values. Now it checks if the GetClientRect
       returns valid value. If it is not valid then it uses the
       height calculated in the measure event.
       If the "parameter incorrect" still exists, please tell me ..
       Because of this window handle problem I removed the Opacity and
       Flat properties (well, moved to protected).

  -- Version 2.1.0 -- (2001-10-11)
     - Separated the Designtime registering to own designtime package.
     - MenuFont property. Note, Menu items aren't sized correctly. Either
       use font which is small enough or use OnMeasureMenuItem to do own
       measuring.
     - Fixed the MenuChanged a bit. Now it should redraw the menu bar
       only if really needed. Makes especially the TBcMainMenu faster.
       Also other optimization done.
     - Changed the Picture properties to TBcPicture which is just a map
       to TBitmap or TPicture depending on the PICTUREASTBITMAP define.
       By default it is set, so Pictures are TBitmaps. I hope this fixes
       the "Parameter incorrect" errors. If you got the error earlier,
       please try both ways to compile the package and let me know the
       results. Note that the demo project works when PICTUREASTBITMAP is
       defined.
     - TBitmap Transparency problem should have been fixed. It was
       strange bug in the code which did not appear under NT. I've tested
       the code under Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 98.
       Also used MemProof to check any resource leaks or peaks and
       found nothing.
     - Added FlushDoubleBuffer methods for the TBcBarPopupMenu and
       TBcMainMenu. It will free the internal DoubleBuffer and force
       it to be redrawn when it's needed next time. Normally the bar
       is stored there for fast access.
     - Updated Demo project.
     - Delphi 6 and C++Builder 5 compatibility with own packages.
       Couldn't test C++Builder 5 packages, so if they work let me know.

  -- Version 2.0.3 -- (2001-10-07)
     * Skipped version 2.0.2.
     * Long time since last release. I've been using my working version,
       so kind of forgot to release this fixed version :) 

     - Many thanks to Magnus Flysjö (magnus.flysjo@visuellkommunikation.com)
       for providing new (alternative) separator line drawing code.

     - Design time preview for TBcBarMainMenu. The changes can be seen
       in the form mainmenu. Naturally doesn't preview custom events.

     - Added OnAdvancedDrawBar event. It get the all possible barparts as
       parameter. You can select which the internal drawing will draw.
       Note: If you disable gradient and backbitmap, or grandient and backbitmap
       is transparent, you should draw somekind of background to the canvas
       in this event.

     - Opacity property. This is just an experiment. Don't take
       it seriously. If you find it useful, that's great.. :) Note: Works
       only in Windows 2000 and above.

     - Flat property.
       * There are some constants in the code near DrawMenuWindowBorder(),
         which allows you to try obilique angled corners. It
         doesn't work as expected, and couldn't find solution to
         fix it. So, no properties about it ..

     - Improved menu bar height calculation. It is not calculated
       in MeasureItem anymore.

     - Fixes with changing property values at runtime and changes not
       showing within the menu bar. Not complete.

     - Fixed a bug of losing custom OnDraw events when recompiling the
       package while having the form open.

     - Compatibility layer fixed so that it should not require any
       additional maintanance anymore (easier for me..). That fixes
       the missing events too.

     - BarBitmap and BarBackBitmap changed to BarPicture and BarBackPicture.
       Those have new property Picture instead of Bitmap. It accepts various
       graphic formats not just TBitmap. The old Bitmap property is is
       depricated. Sorry for this, but it is better this way.

     - Fixed drawing with menus with bar and menu breaks. No more empty
       space.

     - Fixed the Demo project.

  -- Version 2.0.1 -- (2001-07-20)
     - Fixed a bug with TBcMainMenu and PopupHeight growing all the time..

     - Fixed a bug with changing menuitems' Visible in runtime. Doublebuffer
       was not updated.

  -- Version 2.0.0 -- (2001-07-18)
     * Package now without debug information and compatibilty layer.
       Now it is time to post this to several component sites and
       wait for Your email :-)

     * Added simple FAQ.txt.

     - Updated screenshot images. 

  -- Version 2.0.0 beta3 -- (2001-07-18)
     * The code is starting to look massive enough.. ;)

     * Eh, Forgot the License.txt from beta2.. =) Please read it before
       using this software.

     * I think that this is starting to really look like version 2.0.0.
       So, I think I'll just release this as final.

     - Added OnBeforeDrawBar and OnAfterDrawBar events which allows you to
       do your own custom bar in no time! See Readme.txt for usage.

     - Fixed the doublebuffer refreshing happening even if it was not
       needed. 

     - Added bar back bitmap. Now you can have bitmap instead of gradent
       bar. See Readme.txt for details.

     - Added bar border. You can select any color as border, if the color
       is clNone (Default), then the border is not drawn.

     - Add bar Side property. You can choose which side of the menu the
       bar is drawn. If you have submenus, then the submenu arrow is drawn
       over the bar. I think that the system draws the arrow, so I think
       there is very little I can do about it. So, do not use submenus
       or make the bar that way it looks good even if the arrow is at
       "wrong" place. Solutions to this problem are welcome..

     - Added Bar caption text direction. You can selection which direction
       the text is drawn. Defaults to dDownToUp.

     - Finally. Support for own OnAdvancedDrawItem and OnMeasureItem in
       the items. Note: If you do custom drawing at the menu which has the
       bar, the gradient bar isn't drawn. I try to do some workaround.

     - Bar.Width property tells now the real size of the graphical part
       of the bar. The space is not included anymore. Space is now a property
       which defaults to 1. This makes easier to fit bar background bitmaps.

     - Added Bar caption Alignment property. Note: OffsetY is now calculated
       from the alignment direction. Naturally with vaMiddle Alignment
       the OffsetY has no effect. In your old apps, this means that the
       old default OffsetY -6 needs to be changed manually to the new
       default value 6. Because of this, I changed the Alignment type names
       not to have the "Bitmap".

     - Drawing code made more procedural. In the process the bar
       doublebuffer is drawn now in a one phase. It makes the thing
       faster and the small delay of bar appearing to the screen is gone.

  -- Version 2.0.0 beta2 -- (2001-07-16)
     * Thanks to Magnus Flysjö (magnus.flysjo@visuellkommunikation.com)
       for solution to fix the TFont.Handle resource leak.

     * Note: You cannot use OnMeasureItem or OnAdvancedDrawItem events
       in the menuitems.

     * Readme.txt and License.txt. Finally.

     * Somebody might ask why I'm not creating custom drawn TForms to mimic
       the behaviour of menus (like the AnimatedMenus.com and ToolBar97/2000
       do). Well, answer are the resources. By using the "real" menus the
       resource usage isn't that big. I know I'm not able to add that much
       functionality as the alternative menu components have, but if you
       really need those features, use the alternative :)

     - Changed the lineitem caption behavious. Now the lineitems are
       done like normal lineitems. The Hint of the item is used as caption.
       I think it's this way a bit more convient. To prevent the line caption
       drawing even if there is Hint set, use the menuitem Enabled property.

     - Double buffer is created now on-demand. Means, if you have menu without
       the gradient bar the menu uses one TBitmap less. If you set the BarVisible
       True in runtime the double buffer is created when the menu is drawn first time.
       If you set the BarVisible to False, then the double buffer TBitmap is destroyed.
       This behaviour is done through the BarDoubleBuffer protected property.

     - Lineitem captions drawn better now. Different system menu font might
       cause problems. e.g. doesn't fit as the itemheight is fixed currently.

     - Fixed the ShortLines selection drawing

     - Some modifications which will make background image easier to
       implement.

     - Submenus are automatically set for correct Measure and Draw events.

     - Added TBcBarMainMenu !! The first visible menu in the mainmenu has the
       gradient bar. Comments are welcome. Note: This version DOES NOT WORK
       Borland TMenuBar component (downloadable from Borland website. With
       TMenuBar you can create menubar like in Delphi IDE). I will see what
       I can do.

     - There is now experimental Interface layer to patch the common anchestor
       problem with TbcBarPopupMenu and TBcBarMainMenu. Please tell me, if there
       are any problems. I have not seen this kind of solution anywhere else,
       so I don't know if there are any problems implementing interfaces within
       TComponent.

     - New version of DFS.inc (though, it doesn't support Kylix).  

  -- Version 2.0.0 beta -- (2001-07-10)
     * Treat this version as "beta", as it might contain major bugs.
       I'll try to fix those (if any) when pointed out. There might be
       a memory leak on the TFont.Handle handling. Somebody wrote about
       it for me, but I'm not that sure about the solution.
     * This beta doesn't have new readme.txt (version 1 readme only),
       Some bugs that I know:
         * if used ShortLines the item image background is drawn with
           selected color too.

     * Never released the 1.2.0 as I knew that I would be doing some
       major changes.
     * Readme.txt for install/usage instructions (minimal) and
       History.txt (this file) for history.
     * If I have extra time, I'll look into possibility of Kylix version.
       I have only one computer and I'm too lazy to reboot to Linux...
       There is some preliminary Kylix support, which has not been tested
       under Kylix.
     * Also C++Builder version is in the ToDo-list. If somebody has this
       working in C++Builder, *please* let me know what changes it needs.
     * IDE integrated Help file is in the ToDo-list. If somebody knows
       good, easy to use and working *free* application to make Help
       files, let me know. I'm not refering now to the Microsoft's Help
       Workshop.
     * If you want to have some cool colors (e.g. dynamically same colors
       as the gradient caption in Windows 98/Windows 2000) check my
       TColor propertyeditor.
       http://mintus.codefield.com/download/BC_XPColorPropertyEditor.zip

     - Component features now with a own package. This because I separated
       some of the code to units. Also, the directory structure has
       now Packages, Source and Demo directories.

     - Gradient drawing optimized a bit. I don't know how much faster
       it is, but it is faster now.

     - Fixed random Range Checking error with TFont.Handle, if compiled
       Range Checking set off.

     - I think there was a memory leak with the double buffer. Now it
       has been fixed. Also to prevent some Assigned() parts to fail all
       Free-operations are done through FreeAndNil().
      
     - ShortLines property allows you to make the separator lines shorter
       like in Microsoft Office 2000.

     - Separator lines can have text in it. Just put the text after the
       "-" char like "-My Cool Separator". They don't draw correctly in
       design-time.

     - Overlapping menuitem text and shortcut text bug with menuitems 
       without itemimages should have been fixed now.

     - Most the of the properties are now grouped in the Object
       Inspector. Makes things a bit more easier to use. Sorry for this,
       as it makes this version not to be compatible with older versions.
       However, there is compatibility mode, but you need to enable
       it manually by editing file BarMenus.inc.

     - Class name is now TBcBarPopupMenu. This allows the old
       TBarPopupMenu and the new to co-exists.
       Bc is prefix from Bluecave. Bluecave Software is my software
       company; for more information go to http://www.bluecave.net/.
       The pages should be ready soon. (Notes: 2001-10-11, still not ready :)

     - More comments were added to the code. If you feel that some part
       isn't commented well enough, I'll use "documentation on demand"
       principle.

  -- Version 1.2.0 -- (2001-06-17)
     * Thank you for all of you who use my components. I appreciate
       it and all the e-mails I've received.
     * Component is released now under Bluecave Public License V 1.0.
       You may use this component same way as before, only the terms
       are explained a bit better.

     - Component uses now Delphi Free Stuff "DFS.inc" include and my
       "BcDirectives10.inc" include.

  -- Version 1.1.0 -- (2000-06-28)
     - Made the drawing to use double buffer. Now it can refresh the bar
       part when needed and doesn't give flicker. This modification also
       allows to e.g. animate the bar easily ... when I have the time to
       add animation stuff..

     - Bug: If you don't have menu glyphs assigned to any item, drawing
       of items bugs. This happens with normal TPopupMenu as well. Probably
       some VCL 'bug'. I have fix to this, but need to test it first.
       (note, this bug has been in all earlier versions too)

  -- Version 1.0.3 -- (2000-06-24)
     - Support for my Expanding menu component system ( ignores items with
       caption as '#' )

  -- Version 1.0.2 -- (2000-06-24)
     - property BarVisible: Boolean

  -- Version 1.0.1 -- (2000-06-23)
     - Fixed font assignment AV using elipses (...) button

  -- Version 1.0.0 -- (2000-06-22)
     - First release