What's the easiest way to write a please wait screen with Delphi?

Question

I just want a quick and dirty non-modal, non-closable screen that pops up and goes away to make 2 seconds seem more like... 1 second. Using 3-5 lines of code.

Answer 1

I show a hint for a quick message, sth. like this:

function ShowHintMsg(Form: TForm; Hint: string): THintWindow;
var
  Rect: TRect;
begin
  Result := THintWindow.Create(nil);
  Result.Canvas.Font.Size := Form.Font.Size * 2;
  Rect := Result.CalcHintRect(Form.Width, Hint, nil);
  OffsetRect(Rect, Form.Left + (Form.Width - Rect.Right) div 2,
                   Form.Top + (Form.Height - Rect.Bottom) div 2);
  Result.ActivateHint(Rect, Hint);

// due to a bug/design in THintWindow.ActivateHint, might not be
// necessary with some versions.
  Result.Repaint;
end;

procedure HideHintMsg(HintWindow: THintWindow);
begin
  try
    HintWindow.ReleaseHandle;
  finally
    HintWindow.Free;
  end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Button3Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  HintWindow: THintWindow;
begin
  HintWindow := ShowHintMsg(Self, 'Please Wait...');
  try

    Sleep(2000);  // do processing.

  finally
    HideHintMsg(HintWindow);
  end;
end;