Advice on cleaning up code

JoshuA,
.
Thanks for your thoughts.  Since I started adding more comments, the code is a little easier to read.  But I still think it's a mess.
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When you mentioned Derek's suggestion to separate the forms instead of trying to program in a bunch of variations, I think that makes sense.
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My many IF statements, with some nested inside each other, are just too confusing to keep straight.  I'm going to look into  more forms and less IF statements to see if I can improve things.  It'll take some re-design, but probably not any more time than I'm spending now to figure things out.
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Thanks
Frank

Your source code is total messy and a perfect example who not to write source code.

If you would give me this quality of source code your would be fired.

- To many unneeded comments.
- No termination/exit point if action has been closed
- depended if then clauses where it is not needed
- unneeded repeats of if then

This is slow, full of possible malfunctions, crappy and against all common rules for writing source codes in Delphi or C++.

Simple rule: If you can not read it without comments, it is shit.
Read about "Clean Code" or read the MISRA Rules.

There are only two reasons for comments in a source code
- procedure/function header to inform about input and output parameters and there possible values
- a Line of //----------------------------  for optical separation of logical function parts in a procedure/function.

My Version:

pocedure frmEquip_OnShow (Sender: TObject; Action: string);
 
begin 
  if action = 'NewRecord' then 
  begin 
    frmEquip.EqSvcOverDue.Visible := false ; 
    frmEquip.GrpSvcBox.Visible := false ; 
  end;

  //---------------------------------------------------------
 
  if frmEquip.cboSpare.Text = 'Installed' then 
    frmEquip.GrpSvcBox.Visible := true 
  else 
    frmEquip.GrpSvcBox.Visible := false ;

  //---------------------------------------------------------

  if action = 'ShowRecord' then 
  begin 
    frmEquip.EqSvcOverDue.Visible := false ; 
    // showmessage('Equip OnShow, ShowRecord, EqSvcOverDue.Visible = false') ; // test 

    if frmEquip.cboSpare.Text <> 'Spare' then 
    begin 
      // showmessage('ShowRecord is NOT a SPARE') ; 
      // CHECK TO MAKE SURE THE DATE IS NOT BLANK 
  
     if frmEquip.NextSvcDate.Text <> '' then 
      begin 
        // showmessage('Equip OnShow, ShowRecord, NextSvDate not BLANK') ; 
        // CHECK FOR OVERDUE DATE 
      
        if StrToDate(frmEquip.NextSvcDate.Text) < Date then 
        begin 
          frmEquip.EqSvcOverDue.Visible := true ;
          frmEquip.EqSvcOverDue.Text := 'Overdue' ; 
          // showmessage('Overdue should be SET') ; 
          TableID := frmEquip.btnSave.dbGeneralTableId; 
        end; 
      
      end;

  //---------------------------------------------------------

      if frmEquip.cboSpare.Text = 'Installed' then 
      begin 
        frmEquip.btnPrintInstalled.Visible := true; 
        frmEquip.btnPrintSpare.Visible := false; 
      end; 
    
    end;

  //---------------------------------------------------------

    if frmEquip.cboSpare.Text = 'Spare' then 
    begin 
      frmEquip.btnPrintInstalled.Visible := false; 
      frmEquip.btnPrintSpare.Visible := true; 
      frmEquip.GrpSvcBox.Visible := false ; 
    end; 
  end;

  //---------------------------------------------------------

  TableID := frmEquip.btnSave.dbGeneralTableId; 
  if action = 'NewRecord' then 
    vNew := 'y' ; 
    
end;

Hi Frank, Joshua, Sibprogsistem, Teco,
A couple of general observations to take on board or ignore - LOL!
1.  Comments
I didn't find it too easy to distinguish your comments from your code and I think this might add to the confusion.
Perhaps you could put your comments on discrete lines (or even double-line spaced).  Typing them in uppercase can also help to make them stand out.
Teco049's suggestion is a good example of how you can make them much easier to differentiate from the code itself.
2.  Consistent indentation
It makes your code a lot more readable if you consistently indent.
I notice that you indent (some of the time) by 1 and, for me, it doesn't make it stand out enough (but it's just my preference).
I personally indent by 2 spaces but to make it stand out more, try 3 or 4 even.
3.  Line Separators
Perhaps use Line separators to put 'if statements', sub clauses etc into discrete visual 'blocks' that make it much it much easier to  distinguish different segments of code..
4.  Scratchpad (for want of a different term!).
It's possible to rather 'overdo' the comments (and end up with more comment that code!) so, if I'm needing to be more descriptive, I use the space below the final begin.... end. at the bottom of the script as a 'scratchpad'.  Any long explanations etc as to what I'm doing and why get put in there so I can refer back to them at some later stage to refresh my memory!

Derek.

Well, I'm reconsidering my suggestion for commenting now
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I've been enrolled in a few programming classes over the past year or so.  And I realize these are entry level courses, but they emphasize heavy commenting on our code.  We get penalized otherwise.
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I guess there is a fine line here because Teco would fire me
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I appreciate the feedback and also for the references.  And thanks to derek for being sypathetic on us