4 ms·

I've been using Lazarus 2.6 for a free time project since August as I've used Delphi 1.0 in the early nineties and I wanted to see if this was any good. I've b

I've been using Lazarus 2.6 for a free time project since August as I've used Delphi 1.0 in the early nineties and I wanted to see if this was any good. I've been blow away with it, it's Delphi brought from the dead :) It has been a real pleasure to use and I've come to appreciate the productivity that it brings, as this open source IDE is on par with what I remembered from early Delphi versions and, amazingly, I feel this is the cleanest way to target mac and linux GUI apps today (YMMV). It's a shame that there is no support on SWIG for freepascal but it will get there eventually. So, kudos to the freepascal and lazarus teams and thank you very, very much!

alberte 11y ago
...Delphi's not dead - see http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi, now it's cross platform, modern language features - generics, lambdas etc etc. Writing a Mac app in it right now :-)
- kennydude 11y ago
  "cross platform" to whatever they feel like. I remember in college my teacher bought the new version for that. Turned out "Native Android support" was phonegap which isn't native.
  - TimJYoung 11y ago
    Absolutely false: http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/compiling_android_apps_delphi.html http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/compiling_android_apps_delph...
    - kennydude 11y ago
      College was before 2013 and I haven't looked at it since.
  - PeCaN 11y ago
    It's actually native now, albeit kind of a mess (or at least the C++ version is; I haven't used Delphi). For example, Windows/x86, Windows/x64, and ARM are all different compilers (OS X and ARM are both clang; x64 is an older clang, x86 is totally different) that support different features and have subtly different behavior sometimes. Then there are differences between VCL and Firemonkey, so don't even try porting an existing Win32 app. It's only portable if you try really hard.
- sevensven 11y ago
  You're right, I didn't intend to state that it was :) After starting to use lazarus, I've seen the youtube tutorials by Embarcadero on Delphi 10 targeting mobile apps and it looks like a very productive environment: https://www.youtube.com/user/EmbarcaderoTechNet/playlists https://www.youtube.com/user/EmbarcaderoTechNet/playlists I just find the price tag for the current delphi way too steep (+5k usd?) and I think that was part of decline of the suite. Being able to target linux GUI is really relevant for me and freepascal + lazarus provides that. Delphi doesn't.
- jrjr 11y ago
  current pricing makes it dead.
michaelbunny 11y ago
You missed out the whole hype. For us who use stuff on a regular basis the changes seem small but peu a peu these add up. Once an electrician still developing in spare time who know Turbo Pascal 5 from school while servicing the air conditioner saw me programming. When he heard that I would use Pascal he looked at my screen jumped from the ladder and left the office together with me after midnight. Freepascal is indeed a very solid approach I use on Linux especially. Works great on Windows too.

alberte 11y ago

...Delphi's not dead - see http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi, now it's cross platform, modern language features - generics, lambdas etc etc. Writing a Mac app in it right now :-)

kennydude 11y ago
"cross platform" to whatever they feel like. I remember in college my teacher bought the new version for that. Turned out "Native Android support" was phonegap which isn't native.
- TimJYoung 11y ago
  Absolutely false: http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/compiling_android_apps_delphi.html http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/compiling_android_apps_delph...
  - kennydude 11y ago
    College was before 2013 and I haven't looked at it since.
- PeCaN 11y ago
  It's actually native now, albeit kind of a mess (or at least the C++ version is; I haven't used Delphi). For example, Windows/x86, Windows/x64, and ARM are all different compilers (OS X and ARM are both clang; x64 is an older clang, x86 is totally different) that support different features and have subtly different behavior sometimes. Then there are differences between VCL and Firemonkey, so don't even try porting an existing Win32 app. It's only portable if you try really hard.
sevensven 11y ago
You're right, I didn't intend to state that it was :) After starting to use lazarus, I've seen the youtube tutorials by Embarcadero on Delphi 10 targeting mobile apps and it looks like a very productive environment: https://www.youtube.com/user/EmbarcaderoTechNet/playlists https://www.youtube.com/user/EmbarcaderoTechNet/playlists I just find the price tag for the current delphi way too steep (+5k usd?) and I think that was part of decline of the suite. Being able to target linux GUI is really relevant for me and freepascal + lazarus provides that. Delphi doesn't.
jrjr 11y ago
current pricing makes it dead.

michaelbunny 11y ago

You missed out the whole hype. For us who use stuff on a regular basis the changes seem small but peu a peu these add up. Once an electrician still developing in spare time who know Turbo Pascal 5 from school while servicing the air conditioner saw me programming. When he heard that I would use Pascal he looked at my screen jumped from the ladder and left the office together with me after midnight. Freepascal is indeed a very solid approach I use on Linux especially. Works great on Windows too.