Things that make you go humble

Today I started working with the full set of VCL controls from DevExpress. We used a couple already, but we decided to buy the lot. Mainly because I was working on some much needed tidying up of our dialogs and I got sick and tired of moving controls a pixel left or a pixel right. I already had some logic in place for my own VCL controls (I have created about 20 or so) to do some automated formatting and placing, but that wasn't good enough.

I knew DevExpress had something called dxLayoutControl, but also noticed there weren't many questions about it in the support database. I had the feeling it didn't get much attention, so I nevergave it much thought. But, when the pixel movements were required again, I decided to give it a go.

The demo led me to believe there was actually something good in it, although I was not fully convinced. There were a couple of other libraries that I was interested in, so we did decide to buy the lot.

I couldn't be happier after working with it a couple of hours. It takes a bit of hassle to convert your current dialogs to ones that are built with dxLayoutControl, but once you get the hang of it, it's just a bit of work. After that, you don't have to look at it again and the layoutcontrol takes over and care of everything.

I feel so relieved to know that I don't have to think about placing controls again. As a matter of fact: I will probably redesign some of my compound controls to take more advantage of the capacbilities of dxLayoutControl.

This component by DevExpress might not get the best exposure, but it sure is worth every dollar you pay for it. It really relieves you from the troubles you have to make a real nice form. I can recommend it wholehartedly.

Bye,
Bart