Free Vision for Modern Delphi

A experimental port of the Free Vision (FV) text-mode UI framework from Free Pascal to modern Delphi (10.x, 11.x, 12.x, 13.x).

Free Vision is a classic console-based GUI toolkit originally derived from Borland's Turbo Vision. This port brings the full framework to modern Delphi while maintaining compatibility with the original API and the legacy OBJECT syntax.

Features

• Complete TUI Framework: Windows, dialogs, menus, status bars, buttons, input fields, and more
• Text Editor: Full-featured editor with find/replace, clipboard, undo, and file operations
• Standard Dialogs: Message boxes, file open/save dialogs, color selection, ASCII table
• Advanced Controls: Tab controls, outline/tree views, progress gauges, timed dialogs
• Input Validation: Built-in validators for ranges, patterns, and lookups
• Windows Console: Native Windows Console API for display and input

Requirements

• Delphi 10.x, 11.x, 12.x, 13.x
• Windows 32-bit or 64-bit target

Getting Started

1. Open FVTest.dproj in the Delphi IDE
2. Build and run the project
3. Explore the Test menu to see various components in action

Minimal Application

program MyApp;

uses
  App, Views, Menus, Drivers;

type
  PMyApp = ^TMyApp;
  TMyApp = object(TApplication)
    procedure InitMenuBar; virtual;
    procedure InitStatusLine; virtual;
  end;

procedure TMyApp.InitMenuBar;
var
  R: TRect;
begin
  GetExtent(R);
  R.B.Y := R.A.Y + 1;
  MenuBar := New(PMenuBar, Init(R, NewMenu(
    NewSubMenu('~F~ile', hcNoContext, NewMenu(
      NewItem('E~x~it', 'Alt-X', kbAltX, cmQuit, hcNoContext, nil)),
    nil))));
end;

procedure TMyApp.InitStatusLine;
var
  R: TRect;
begin
  GetExtent(R);
  R.A.Y := R.B.Y - 1;
  StatusLine := New(PStatusLine, Init(R,
    NewStatusDef(0, $FFFF,
      NewStatusKey('~Alt-X~ Exit', kbAltX, cmQuit, nil),
    nil)));
end;

var
  App: TMyApp;
begin
  App.Init;
  App.Run;
  App.Done;
end.

Project Structure

src/
  FVCommon.pas    - Common types and definitions
  Objects.pas     - Base object system, streams, collections
  Video.pas       - Console output abstraction
  Drivers.pas     - Keyboard and mouse input handling
  Views.pas       - View hierarchy (TView, TGroup, TWindow, etc.)
  Menus.pas       - Menu system (TMenuBar, TMenuBox, TStatusLine)
  App.pas         - Application framework (TApplication)
  Dialogs.pas     - Dialog controls (TDialog, TButton, TInputLine, etc.)
  Validate.pas    - Input validation
  MsgBox.pas      - Message box helpers
  StdDlg.pas      - Standard file dialogs
  Editors.pas     - Text editor components
  ColorSel.pas    - Color selection dialog
  Outline.pas     - Tree/outline view
  Tabs.pas        - Tab control
  Statuses.pas    - Progress gauges
  Gadgets.pas     - Clock and heap views
  ...

Porting Notes

• Uses legacy Turbo Pascal OBJECT syntax (not CLASS)
• ShortString used for FV string types (Sw_String, PString)
• Windows Console API for video output and input
• Range checking should be OFF ({$R-}) in units using pointer arithmetic or better on Project level

See PORTING_STATUS.txt for detailed porting status and known issues.

Known Limitations

1. ANSI Encoding: Editor, like rest of FV uses ANSI encoding; UTF-8 files may not display correctly
2. Ressource based Serialization: Not ported, stubs and rudiments still present
3. New edge-cases, oversights or errors may be introduced in this project

License

This library is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) with the following linking exception:

As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that module. An independent module is a module which is not derived from or based on this library. If you modify this library, you may extend this exception to your version of the library, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version.

See COPYING.TXT for the complete license text.

Credits

• Original Turbo Vision by Borland International
• Free Vision by the Free Pascal Development Team
• Delphi port by Claude Code (Anthropic)

Contributing

Bug reports and contributions are welcome. Please ensure any modifications maintain compatibility with the original Free Vision API where possible.