Re: "RFS:" (Request For Sponsor) for MSEide+MSEgui FreePascal GUI development kit

[Bobyr Raisa Efimovna <brefi@yandex.ru>]

1. Name of the package: "mseide-msegui"

2. The licence the package is provided under : IDE is under GPL, library under 
modified LGPL like FPC-RTL.

3. Short description by subpackage basis: 
 3.1) package "mseide-msegui" - the dependency package 
 which sews the below packages
 3.2) package "msegui" - FreePascal-based GUI development library: 
 3.3) package "msegui-tools" - the utility binaries:
 3.4) package "mseide" - the GUI IDE to develop using the library:
 3.5) package "mseide-msegui-contrib" - contributed software to MSEgide+MSEgui
 3.6) mseide-msegui-doc - the documentation

4. Long description by subpackage basis: 
 4.1) package "mseide-msegui" - the top dependency package 
 4.2) package "msegui"
 Features:
  - uses some powerful approaches:
    = a grid of any widgets(including lookup comboboxes and imaging ones)
    = design-time in-memory multi-field arrays(lookup buffers) to fill list widgets
    = on-fly generating virtual PostScrip fonts to print several codepages 
      in one file
    = on-open filtering comboboxes
    = off-lime mode of dataset with local storage(BLOB data also supported)
    = full featured in-memory dataset(BLOB data also supported,local storage,
      indexes,events)
    = global and local skinning(facets, bevels, gradients, images, 
      transparency, blending)
    = layout engine, spacers, spliters, anchors, size limiting
    = x/y centering text in widgets and grid cells
    = adjusting grid cells to fit the grid
    = stat files for persistent storage of application settings, variable values, 
      value apperance and position of widgets, grid contents
    = x-scalable text in widgets and reports
  - no external widget library needed
  - orthogonal design.
  - internal character encoding is UCS2
  - uses anti-aliased fonts on Linux
  - all screen drawing is double buffered
  - has docking forms and MDI
  - has embedded forms(similar to TFrame) and form inheritance
  - has database(PostgreSQL,MySQL,SQlite3/SQL,FireBird,ODBC, MS SQL etc with 
    optional ZeosDBO) access components, data edit widgets, database events, 
    loading and saving and diplaying BLOB data
  - internationalization functionality with resource modules
  - report generator(to PostScript) and GUI-designer capable of printing multiple 
    charset text, prepass to count pages(for the "N of M" functionality), 
    printing grayscale and color images
 4.3) package "msegui-tools"
 Provides:
  - msei18n: assists to produce loadable libraries for i18n-localization purposes
  - bmp2pas: generates Pascal language constants from bitmap files
  - form2pas: generates Pascal language constants from MSEide form files
  - doc/msegui/*: uses "makeskel+fpdoc" to produce library reference from
    MSEgui sources
  - svn_upd_script/*: helps to download latest MSEide+MSEgui sources(for
    custom building)
  - xft2gs: generates a prototype of "Fontmap.GS" based on current font set and
    "fontconfig" settings(useful for achieving inentical look on screen and
    paper)
 4.4) package "mseide"
 Provides:
  - Integrated debugging
  - Source code highlighting
  - Source code navigation with support for include files
  - Code completion for classes
  - Integrated visual form designer with source code update for components
    and events
  - flexible and handy build system with switchable macros
  - Visual form inheritance(both subclassing and superclassing)
  - Integrated report designer
  - WYSIWYG layout management
  - development of C and mixed language projects
  - development of embedded projects with AVR32 or CPU32
 4.5) package "mseide-msegui-contrib"
 Provides:
  - RAW text printer unit
  - printer selection dialogue(for CUPS)
  - themes dialogue
  - i82555 LPT access
  - examples of :
    = MDI application
    = SQLite3 datatypes in s simple DB application
    = report printing
 4.6) package "mseide-msegui-doc"
 Provides:
  - short library reference
  - examples and tutorials:
    = database
    = chart recording
    = remote form execution
    = treading
    = RAW printing

5. MSEide+MSEgui is reliable and already used in production.

6. Where the package can be obtained from :

  1) the current development version: 
  svn https://mseide-msegui.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mseide-msegui/trunk  

  2) the latest stable sources:
  http://dfn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mseide-msegui/mseide_msegui_src_2_0.zip

  3) the NEWS group to discuss:
 "public.mseide-msegui.talk" at "news://news.grid-sky.com";

 7. The package is already debianized(search for "mseide-msegui" in the "Sid") but the current sponsors can't be contacted for some reasons for a long time as long as the packages have no updates more than 100 days. 
 The upstream sources can be found at:

 http://bollin.googlecode.com/svn/mseide-msegui/trunk/