The Long Glow

"It was around 2005 when I landed my first job at a small software company," writes Derek, "I was the youngest programmer on the team by at least a decade, and my coworkers certainly made sure I remembered it. Fortunately, it was all in good fun, but they reminded me that I had a long way to go and that I should learn from older, more experienced folks – presumably like them."

"In the midst of 'learning' from them, I noticed that on many of the companies projects used the same pattern where the main window five different buttons and three stock photos. Each button had a glow that appeared on hover and the first three buttons would trigger a corresponding stock photo to display. Nothing too crazy, though this hi-tech feature took my predecessor astonishing 280 lines of code… in each project it was implemented in."

var  semafor_pic1, semafor_pic2, semafor_pic3, semafor_pic4, semafor_pic5 : boolean;

procedure TForm1.Image2MouseMove(Sender: TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer); begin
  if semafor_pic1 <> True then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := true;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := true;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := true;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Image6MouseMove(Sender: TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer); begin
  if semafor_pic3 <> True then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := true;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := true;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Image3MouseMove(Sender: TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer); begin
  if semafor_pic2 <> True then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := true;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := true;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Image1MouseMove(Sender: TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer); begin
  if semafor_pic1 <> false then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;

  if semafor_pic2 <> false then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;

  if semafor_pic3 <> false then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;

  if semafor_pic4 <> false then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;

  if semafor_pic5 <> false then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Image8MouseMove(Sender: TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer); begin
  if semafor_pic4 <> true then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := true;
      Image11.Visible := false;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := true;
      Image14.Visible := false;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := true;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := false;
    end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Image10MouseMove(Sender: TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer); begin
  if semafor_pic5 <> true then
    begin
      Image4.Visible := false;
      Image9.Visible := false;
      Image11.Visible := true;
      Image7.Visible := false;
      Image5.Visible := false;

      Image2.Visible := true;
      Image8.Visible := true;
      Image10.Visible := true;
      Image6.Visible := true;
      Image3.Visible := true;

      Image12.Visible := false;
      Image13.Visible := false;
      Image14.Visible := true;

      semafor_pic1 := false;
      semafor_pic2 := false;
      semafor_pic3 := false;
      semafor_pic4 := false;
      semafor_pic5 := true;
    end;
end;

procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject); begin
  semafor_pic1 := true;
  semafor_pic2 := false;
  semafor_pic3 := false;
  semafor_pic4 := false;
  semafor_pic5 := false;
end;

"Blame it on my inexperience, but it seemed like a simpler solution was a bit more appropriate. When I had to modify one of the projects, I changed the above logic to the following."

procedure TForm2.ImageMouseMove
  (Sender: TObject; Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer); var t : integer; begin
  // glow "buttons"
  t := TImage(Sender).Tag;
  Image4.Visible  := t = 1;   // first button glow
  Image9.Visible  := t = 2;   // second button glow
  Image11.Visible := t = 3;   // third button glow
  Image7.Visible  := t = 4;   // fourth button glow
  Image5.Visible  := t = 5;   // fifth button glow
  // show photos when hover first three buttons
  Image12.Visible := t = 1;   // stock photo1
  Image13.Visible := t = 2;   // stock photo2
  Image14.Visible := t = 3;   // stock photo3
end;

Derek added, "unsurprisingly, the original author was not too impressed. 'Phmph,' he grumbled, 'my way worked fine, too.' It was a pretty good lesson to learn."

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Featured Comments

ochrist (cs) in reply to Derek 2012-05-31

Derek:
OMG, they posted it. I submited this code about month ago, I thought it wasn't good enough, perhaps it took them that long just to decipher my non-native-english. Thanks!

No, that's just because Alex is an older, more experienced programmer and wants you to know your place.