LCD Canvas 1.1

Author: Ian L. Price: free Download: Realbasic café (Hotline)

   Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) are what are used to display digits in non-graphing calculators. They're fairly simple. The calculator's chip sends a binary number to a converter, which lights up the appropriate sections out of the seven used per digit (see picture to the left). These displays are cheap, and easy to make, which makes them perfect for low-cost calculators. The LCD Canvas tries to imitate these displays, and does a very good job of it.

   This class is very simple. It has one main method (drawnumber), but it also allows you to control other aspects of it (such as the individual LED sections). To try it, all you need to do is drag the class into your project, make a new LCD Canvas, and put something like me.DrawNumber 9 in its opened event. Couldn't be simpler! However, if you try to draw a negative number, or a number larger than 10, it simply clears itself. The only way to show large numbers is to use multiple LCD Canvases, and the only way to show a negative sign is to manually set the middle LCD. These are the only major drawbacks of this class.

   LCD Canvas also lets you select colors for the LCDs and background. You can either do this manually, or by using the "UseBuiltInScheme" method. There are four built-in schemes, one of which is sure to satisfy you.

   Topping the cool-but-useless list for this control is the Animate feature. Yes, by using one method, you can tell the canvas to animate itself. You can even tell it which direction to animate it in! This looks pretty cool, but if it has any practical use, I sure can't think of it!

   LCD Canvas is a very simple control that accomplishes its purpose well. It's quick, looks good, and has more than enough features. However, lacking the ability to show multi-digit and negative numbers through the DrawNumber method is a major drawback.