> I'm new to both Pascal, VCL and IBO so please bear with me or
> simply igonre the question if it's too stupid. I hope it's not
> all too confused, either.

Certainly not a stupid question, but a difficult one to answer in
brief, but I will try.

You cannot change the derivation heirarchy, without going to the
the bottom and starting again. For example, most of the IBO edit
related controls derive from TCustomMaskEdit and you cannot change
this this without starting a again from this level and building
everything you need all over again.

If you want an example of exactly this contact me privately and
I will give you access to my Enh components that show you how
such a thing is done. Enh derives from TCustomEdit, creates its
own mask processing and then derives its own combos, lookup and
datetime controls (not to mention various other things).

You can get the ability to drop onto IB_Grid by using interfaces.
I specifically configured IBO with the IIB_GridWinControl (see
the IB_ControlInterface.pas unit) so that controls other than
the IBO native controls can be placed on IB_Grid (including my
Enh stuff). This interface also gives you access to various other
features such as the autolabel as well.

In short, anything other than simple derivation from existing
controls that do almost what you want is a long hard process.
I know, I've been there.

If you are new to Pascal and the VCL then I suggest that you dont
even try just yet. Build some apps with what is already available
and you may be pleasantly surprised with what you can do with
starting such a long hard climb to begin with.

--
Geoff Worboys
Telesis Computing