feature: Eliah tabbed component bar (Lazarus-style, with icons)

• Type: feature (Track B)
• Status: done
• Track: B
• Parent: feature-eliah-ide
• Opened: 2026-06-24

Goal

Replace (or augment) the flat palette combo with a tabbed component bar along the toolbar — Lazarus/Delphi style: tabs (Standard / Additional / Non-visual / …) each holding a row of icon buttons, one per registered component. Click an icon to arm Place for that component.

Why

The combo is registry-driven but cramped and text-only. A tabbed icon bar is the expected RAD-IDE affordance and scales better as more components register.

Scope

• A tab strip + per-tab icon row, driven by the same registry enumeration the combo uses (EnumDescendants('TComponent') + CompPlaceKind). Grouping by the category the combo already computes (visual vs non-visual; later finer groups).
• Icons: needs small per-component glyphs. Options — a tiny built-in icon font / drawn glyphs (TPaintBox per cell), or bundled PNGs in apps/ide/eliah/icons/. Start with drawn placeholders (first letter / shape) so it works before art.
• Clicking an icon sets the active palette selection + arms Place (sticky), same path the combo + OnDesignMouseDown already use — no new placement logic.
• Keep it data-driven: a newly RegisterClass'd component appears as a new icon with no IDE edit, exactly like the combo today.

Dependencies / notes

• PCL gap: there is no tab control yet (TPageControl/TTabSheet) and no toolbar icon-button container. Either add a minimal TTabBar to PCL (TWidgetSet virtuals are safe again — see done/bug-widgetset-virtual-arg-corruption) or build it directly via gtk3_c (gtk notebook + button box), like graphics.pas.
• Concept art may exist under concept-art/ (untracked) — check before drawing.
• Could live in eliah.lfm once a tab/iconbar widget exists (dogfood-friendly).

Acceptance

A tabbed icon bar replaces/augments the palette combo; clicking an icon arms Place for that component; tabs group visual vs non-visual; adding a registered component surfaces a new icon with no IDE edit. gui_suite green; screenshot of the bar.

Log

• 2026-06-24 — filed from GUI-testing feedback (Lazarus-style component bar).

Log

• 2026-07-12 (opus-night) — landed.
  • PCL: TTabBar in extctrls (GtkNotebook of horizontal button rows, built directly on gtk3_c like graphics.pas; gtk3_c.h gained the 4 notebook decls). AddTab(caption), AddButton(tab, caption, onClick) (real TButtons → normal click trampoline), TabCount/ActiveTab/ SetActiveTab. New test/gui/test_pcl_tabbar.pas in the gui suite.
  • Eliah: CompBar: TTabBar under the button row (TOOLBAR_H 40 → 104), tabs Standard / Non-visual, driven by the SAME registry enumeration as the combo (BarRows maps buttons to palette rows); clicking a component button selects its palette row and arms Place (sticky). Combo kept (augment, not replace). Captions are 3-char placeholders until glyph art exists (the ticket's intended bootstrap). Smoke asserts: 2 tabs, buttons present, a real gtk click selects the row + arms Place.
  • Compiler bug found + filed: [[bug-tobject-param-truncated-32bit]] (Track A, prio 60) — a Sender: TObject parameter arrives 32-bit truncated in methods (and is rejected outright in plain routines); every PCL handler that reads Sender's value is affected. Eliah's handler is typed Sender: TButton as the workaround (commented).
  • make gui-test fully green (incl. the 3 real-window xvfb cases). Remaining (cosmetic follow-up, not blocking): real per-component glyphs to replace the caption placeholders; finer tab groups beyond visual/non-visual.
• 2026-07-12 — resolved, commit d20d35dc.