Restoring the C++Builder visual component from VTK 7 and 8

Development
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Hello. VTK versions 7 and 8 shipped with a visual component/widget for C++Builder (eg: VTK-7.1.1\Examples\GUI\Win32\vtkBorland\Package). This is not present in VTK 9.

Is it possible to restore this please?

I filed an issue request but it was closed with a comment about CMake. C++Builder supports CMake, including for component packages. We are currently trying to contribute toolchain support back to CMake itself.

I would simply make a pull request myself – we’ve had several bug reports filed by customers about this – but it takes time to get approval to contribute to external code bases :frowning: I apologise for that. I can absolutely help in any way short of directly making a pull request with code I write until I get that approval. FWIW, the existing component from v8 should work unless VTK itself has made API changes. On the CB side we are 100% backwards compatible in this area.

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The VTK CMake API changed, but it probably shouldn’t be too hard to port the relevant bits from the example. The examples themselves have changed a bit too. I don’t think anyone here has access to test any such support here, but if you’d like to submit an MR with support that works as you need, I think that would be acceptable.

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Just an FYI for anyone reading this, here is a link to the code:

https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/tree/v8.2.0/Examples/GUI/Win32/vtkBorland?ref_type=tags

Even though it was included with VTK 7 and 8, my understanding is that it has been unmaintained since VTK 5.

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Yes - it has not been maintained since VTK 5.
But it was still usable.
I use VTK 7.1.1 with C++ Builder 11.3 and with the current version 12.2.
The current C++Builder version is CMake compatible again.
The current VTK can be build with it.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to re-include the code for the visual component/widget.

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The README and other files (.bpk, .bpr) would need to be updated, because library names and contents have changed since VTK 5. And references to “Borland” changed to “Embarcadero”. Plus testing to demonstrate that it actually works with VTK 9.4. None of that is difficult, but it would still take time (several hours at least) and access to a C++Builder environment.

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​This is a nice project, but I do not think it should be inside of VTK. Such a project deserve its own repository with maintainers dedicated to keep it working and its own CI.