Introducing Delphi 7's Eye Candy (making a Dashboard)

[ONiX]

Preamble

Back in 1985 when I started working with George Hase, he used to say "People by with their eyes, eg. Eye Candy is something you need to focus on". As a server developer, I never really worried about Eye Candy, as I had to focus upon Stability and Robustness. However, in 2026, I am finding myself developing solutions for End-Users, and I need to make a Modern Component Suite (MCS).

Originally, this started as a TDashboardControls suite... something that would allow me to make Night mode Dashboard screen for my PCBoard 15.5 BBS suite. However, as TDashboard evolved, it went from 13+/- Delphi 7 components, to now well over 101 components across 7 packages and 61 units. These are counted from the RegisterComponents calls.

In 2026, if your screens still look like descendants of Windows 95, you are using Classic looking components. Bigger, Flatter, and a fixed color palette is all part of MSC, or Modern looking components.

So, would you be willing to pay a flat rate of $99 for 101 components?

[ONiX]

Once I hit 20+ components, I realized, I literally painted (pun intended) myself into a corner. I stopped, and redesigned what I was calling Dashboard Smooth to support Night and Day mode. Also, living in the modern Browser age, jagged corners and "Windows" looking fonts are not acceptable. Crack open my trusty GDI+ unit to compensate for the horrible jagged corners on curves... and of course, since Windows Vista, we have access to a windows feature to truly improve "Windows" looking fonts, and be more like Steve Jobs' focus - near perfect text!

Dashboard Smooth Screenshot:

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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But wait! That's Night mode - you mentioned Day mode...

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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[ONiX]

And if you caught the page control titles ... I started on the next 10+ controls to make cool planner support!

Night Mode:

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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Day Mode:

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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[ONiX]

Swim Lanes

Some people call it SCRUMM, others call it Swim Lanes (I too call them "swim lanes"):

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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Day Mode:

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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In 1997, I started working for Heil Environmental... which had a plant in Japan, and we learned Lean manufacturing (Kaizen and Kanban):

Kaizen methodology is a continuous improvement approach focused on small, incremental changes driven by all employees, originating from post‑WWII Japan and widely applied in systems like the Toyota Production System.

Kanban methodology is a visual workflow management approach that limits work‑in‑progress (WIP), uses boards and cards to track tasks, and focuses on continuous flow and improvement, originating from the Toyota Production System in the late 1940s.

[ONiX]

Since DXSock is the perfect tool for making EMail and Newsgroup Servers with minimal effort... Why not Message Components???

Message Components

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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Day Mode:

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[ONiX]

36 Charts

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Day Mode:

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• Category / value (bar and line family)
  
  Line: smooth (Catmull-Rom) or straight, stepped, filled, stacked
  Area: Line with filled areas, stackable
  Bar: grouped or stacked, vertical or horizontal
  Mixed: bars and lines in one chart, per dataset
  Lollipop: stem plus dot, vertical or horizontal
  Waterfall: running total with increase/decrease/total colours
  Pareto: sorted bars plus a cumulative-% line on a second axis and an 80% threshold
  Bump: ranking over time instead of values
  Range: low–high values as a band, floating bars or dumbbells
  Error bar: bars or points with ± error whiskers
  Sparkline: tiny trend line with min/max/last markers, no axes

• Statistics / distribution
  
  Histogram: automatic binning of raw samples
  Box & whisker: quartiles, whiskers, outliers, mean

• Scatter family
  
  Scatter: numeric X/Y, optional connecting line
  Bubble: X/Y plus bubble size
  Packed bubbles: circles packed by value

• Part-of-whole
  
  Doughnut (and Pie from the same unit): multi-ring, hover pop-out, centered text
  Treemap: squarified rectangles
  Sunburst: hierarchical rings from paths like Europe/France/Paris
  Marimekko: 100% stacked bars with widths proportional to column totals
  Funnel: stages narrowing into each other
  Pyramid: triangle split into layers

• Radial / polar
  
  Polar area: equal-angle slices, radius = value
  Radar: spider/web chart
  Radial bar: concentric progress rings
  Wind rose: stacked polar bars by compass direction
  Polar plot: points by angle and radius (TeeChart style)

• KPI / progress
  
  Gauge: dial with warning/danger zones and a needle
  Bullet: actual vs target vs qualitative ranges

• Grid / time
  
  Heat map: row × column colour grid, optional values (highlight table)
  Calendar heat map: GitHub-style activity by day

• Financial
  
  Candlestick: OHLC as candles or open/close ticks

• Flow / text
  
  Sankey: flows between nodes as ribbons
  Word cloud (chart): weighted words placed on a spiral

• Scientific / engineering
  
  Smith chart: impedance / reflection coefficient (RF)
  Ternary plot: three-part compositions (e.g. clay/sand/silt)

Some companies chart over $295 just for these charts!

[ONiX]

Web like validation (in real-time)

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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Day Mode:

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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The first time you fill out the form, you click validate - and you see all of the errors (like field required messages). However, from that point forward, as you as you start to enter data - the red error bubble turns green - in real-time!

[ONiX]

Law Firm Software

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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[ONiX]

FinTech - Asset Management Software

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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[ONiX]

Auto Body Repair Center

(C) 2026 by Brain Patchwork DX, LLC.

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