7 ms·

Lazarus/FreePascal? There's a dedicated group of troopers who have kept the flame alive. It's cross platform. There's an Android port in progress. There's a Ja

Lazarus/FreePascal? There's a dedicated group of troopers who have kept the flame alive. It's cross platform. There's an Android port in progress. There's a JavaScript backend. The IDE is like all the good things about Delphi 7, none of the drawbacks.

themodelplumber 7y ago
Yes! I use it and really enjoy it so far. There are obviously some people using it for _very_ advanced work in medicine and the sciences, to see some of the community posts and shared libraries... Personally I think I'm building yet another text editor (starting with a text viewer) but the experience has been great. The community is really a nice bonus, too.
- brnt 7y ago
  Where does that community hang out? I find it very difficult to find Pascal projects on Github for instance.
  - FpUser 7y ago
    All you have to do is enter delphi in search box of github and you get whole pile of projects. Alternatively you can enter pascal instead of delphi. this agail will get you pile of projects albeit smaller. If that is difficult I am not sure what easy is.
    - brnt 7y ago
      Its a very small set you find that way...
      - FpUser 7y ago
        shows 6000 entries for me. there is also that thing called google.
        brnt 7y ago
        Im beginning to see that welcoming community I think!
        FpUser 7y ago
        Even though I was using Turbo Pascal/Delphi/Lazarus since 80's I am not really part of community. I do not think you'll find a single post of mine. So do not take me as an example. I have to admit being a prick in this particular matter. Not being able to find subject when search on Google, Githab etc reveals a ton of info I think says something. One extra thing. I do use Linux and find it very useful. Do I need to abandon it because Linus is not a shining example of polite person?
        brnt 7y ago
        I think on here you can safely assume I have tried to Google, and do a codesearch on Github. Like another poster shows, certianly comparatively, you won't find much. That which I did find is nearly always Delphi (which does not translate to Freepascal, the only platform that would be interesting now I'd say). Very few complete and modern(-ish) repo's, rather than someone throwing their 15 year old Delphi project online. I've done some Pascal coding, and this lack of libraries or projects is for me a practical impediment. Freepascal (and Delphi) come with very complete stdlibs (if they are called that), but I'd not be satisfied with merely Python's stdlib either. On top of that, string handling is imho very uncomfortable in Pascal, feels like nothing changed much in 20 years. I found a recent Freepascal university course, but source files with 10kLoC do not make it helpful to get started. So, while the Freepascal forums seem helpful, it's a meager resource if that's basically all the community is.
    - nick_meister 7y ago
      I agree with brnt, while Delphi/Object Pascal seem to be quite popular according to the Tiobe Index, https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/delphi-object-pascal/ https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/delphi-object-pascal/, I find it hard to find open-source projects when comparing it with other programming langs. Example: https://github.com/search?q=Rust 85,885 repository results https://github.com/search?q=delphi 9,938 https://github.com/search?q=pascal 9,259 Maybe: * Open source Delphi/Pascal are shared elsewhere? * Delphi Programmers do not like to showcase or open-source their projects? * Delphi/Pascal is used to create mainly proprietary software? Either way, I think that for Free Pascal to prosper in the long term, something should change. Perhaps more open source projects published on Github/Gitlab.
      - FpUser 7y ago
        FreePascal/Delphi are used by large number of developers. I do not think there is a need for them to prosper in a sense of high Tiobe index. There are way more obscure languages some pretty big companies are using for their internal stuff without much ado about popularity. You are confusing "hard to find" with "less". There is way less projects on github (the original question specifically mentioned github). However 9,000 is still a big number and one can find virtually anything needed from a practical standpoint. On top of that both delphi and lazarus come with huge system libraries. C++ for example dwarfs delphi on github. However when I am doing C++ I am looking for very few projects in very specific areas (network, file management, db connectivity etc). Suddenly your choice becomes not that big when you separate all the noise. Also whole bunch of delphi projects are located elsewhere due to various reasons. Hence my advice to ask Google. Finally delphi projects tend to be rather large and high quality, check this one for example: https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasvulkan https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasvulkan or other repos from the same guy.
      - benibela 7y ago
        It is elsewhere: https://sourceforge.net/directory/?q=rust 27 programs https://sourceforge.net/directory/?q=pascal 2268
  - themodelplumber 7y ago
    Last week I saw that kind of content on freshcode.club as well as at least one of the Facebook groups.
  - analognoise 7y ago
    The Lazarus forums! They're great; wonderful community of people who are really great.
  - superdisk 7y ago
    Definitely the Lazarus Forum as others have noted. In my opinion, it's a really delightful time capsule of how internet communities used to be before Facebook/Reddit. Insanely helpful and knowledgeable members that will answer any question, a bunch of eccentric characters, plenty of n00bs asking mundane questions, and the compiler developers themselves. Probably my favorite language ecosystem. https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php
    - brnt 7y ago
      That's the only resource I could find too, but few linked repos of complete or modern projects, or am I missing something? Github has some repos but mostly dumps of old Delphi projects, not really a great resource.
- unnouinceput 7y ago
  I don't. Whoever thought recompiling Lazarus whenever you need to simply add another component to its pallet really lost the spirit of Pascal/Delphi on that one.
  - themodelplumber 7y ago
    Interesting. I haven't needed to do so, but I thought I had heard that was a pretty quick recompile, on the order of < 10 seconds? I know there are some tips to speed it up. Here's the wiki page on component authoring: https://wiki.freepascal.org/How_To_Write_Lazarus_Component https://wiki.freepascal.org/How_To_Write_Lazarus_Component
    - unnouinceput 7y ago
      Except when you need to, it's not working, or creepy bugs won't let you do it. Do try it on Lazarus for Raspberry Pi for example (you can do it on a virtual machine if you lack the real device). You'll see what I mean.
      - badsectoracula 7y ago
        Are you using the official releases? If you are using Lazarus from Debian or some other repository, it will not work due to these packages not setting up permissions for the executable to be replaced. In general IME on Linux the best approach is to install FPC (either from repositories or, better, using the official release) and then download the Lazarus source code and compile it somewhere in your home directory with 'make bigide'. This will avoid any problems with Lazarus packaging that often tends to be broken (again, IME).
        unnouinceput 7y ago
        I used in home instead in it's official release. Also I sudo-it when launch it, so it will have full rights. On some packages it didn't work, no matter what I did. I had to use official apt from repositories for those packages (lucky me they had that).
TheAceOfHearts 7y ago
I'd love to hear a bit about your experiences with Lazarus. A few years ago I tried playing around with it on macOS, but all I remember is that I wasn't able to get things up and running because I kept encountering problems. Maybe I was doing something wrong or I didn't invest enough time in setting up and learning how to properly use the tool. I think I tried using Homebrew to install everything during my previous attempt, but since I'm not seeing any mention of this option as part of their macOS installation instructions [0] then I'm guessing that might've been the source of my problems. Would you still recommend learning Lazarus and FreePascal in 2020? I've mostly done web development, but I'm also interested in traditional native application development. My hypothesis is that learning to use some of these older tools or systems can teach you a lot of lessons which carry over across languages and platforms. For example: learning a bit of Qt helped me refine my internal models for various UI widgets. I want to learn to write faster and higher quality applications than our current highly-frustrating standard. [0] https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Installing_Lazarus_on_macOS https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Installing_Lazarus_on_ma...

themodelplumber 7y ago

Yes! I use it and really enjoy it so far. There are obviously some people using it for _very_ advanced work in medicine and the sciences, to see some of the community posts and shared libraries... Personally I think I'm building yet another text editor (starting with a text viewer) but the experience has been great. The community is really a nice bonus, too.

brnt 7y ago
Where does that community hang out? I find it very difficult to find Pascal projects on Github for instance.
- FpUser 7y ago
  All you have to do is enter delphi in search box of github and you get whole pile of projects. Alternatively you can enter pascal instead of delphi. this agail will get you pile of projects albeit smaller. If that is difficult I am not sure what easy is.
  - brnt 7y ago
    Its a very small set you find that way...
    - FpUser 7y ago
      shows 6000 entries for me. there is also that thing called google.
      - brnt 7y ago
        Im beginning to see that welcoming community I think!
        FpUser 7y ago
        Even though I was using Turbo Pascal/Delphi/Lazarus since 80's I am not really part of community. I do not think you'll find a single post of mine. So do not take me as an example. I have to admit being a prick in this particular matter. Not being able to find subject when search on Google, Githab etc reveals a ton of info I think says something. One extra thing. I do use Linux and find it very useful. Do I need to abandon it because Linus is not a shining example of polite person?
        brnt 7y ago
        I think on here you can safely assume I have tried to Google, and do a codesearch on Github. Like another poster shows, certianly comparatively, you won't find much. That which I did find is nearly always Delphi (which does not translate to Freepascal, the only platform that would be interesting now I'd say). Very few complete and modern(-ish) repo's, rather than someone throwing their 15 year old Delphi project online. I've done some Pascal coding, and this lack of libraries or projects is for me a practical impediment. Freepascal (and Delphi) come with very complete stdlibs (if they are called that), but I'd not be satisfied with merely Python's stdlib either. On top of that, string handling is imho very uncomfortable in Pascal, feels like nothing changed much in 20 years. I found a recent Freepascal university course, but source files with 10kLoC do not make it helpful to get started. So, while the Freepascal forums seem helpful, it's a meager resource if that's basically all the community is.
  - nick_meister 7y ago
    I agree with brnt, while Delphi/Object Pascal seem to be quite popular according to the Tiobe Index, https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/delphi-object-pascal/ https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/delphi-object-pascal/, I find it hard to find open-source projects when comparing it with other programming langs. Example: https://github.com/search?q=Rust 85,885 repository results https://github.com/search?q=delphi 9,938 https://github.com/search?q=pascal 9,259 Maybe: * Open source Delphi/Pascal are shared elsewhere? * Delphi Programmers do not like to showcase or open-source their projects? * Delphi/Pascal is used to create mainly proprietary software? Either way, I think that for Free Pascal to prosper in the long term, something should change. Perhaps more open source projects published on Github/Gitlab.
    - FpUser 7y ago
      FreePascal/Delphi are used by large number of developers. I do not think there is a need for them to prosper in a sense of high Tiobe index. There are way more obscure languages some pretty big companies are using for their internal stuff without much ado about popularity. You are confusing "hard to find" with "less". There is way less projects on github (the original question specifically mentioned github). However 9,000 is still a big number and one can find virtually anything needed from a practical standpoint. On top of that both delphi and lazarus come with huge system libraries. C++ for example dwarfs delphi on github. However when I am doing C++ I am looking for very few projects in very specific areas (network, file management, db connectivity etc). Suddenly your choice becomes not that big when you separate all the noise. Also whole bunch of delphi projects are located elsewhere due to various reasons. Hence my advice to ask Google. Finally delphi projects tend to be rather large and high quality, check this one for example: https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasvulkan https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasvulkan or other repos from the same guy.
    - benibela 7y ago
      It is elsewhere: https://sourceforge.net/directory/?q=rust 27 programs https://sourceforge.net/directory/?q=pascal 2268
- themodelplumber 7y ago
  Last week I saw that kind of content on freshcode.club as well as at least one of the Facebook groups.
- analognoise 7y ago
  The Lazarus forums! They're great; wonderful community of people who are really great.
- superdisk 7y ago
  Definitely the Lazarus Forum as others have noted. In my opinion, it's a really delightful time capsule of how internet communities used to be before Facebook/Reddit. Insanely helpful and knowledgeable members that will answer any question, a bunch of eccentric characters, plenty of n00bs asking mundane questions, and the compiler developers themselves. Probably my favorite language ecosystem. https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php
  - brnt 7y ago
    That's the only resource I could find too, but few linked repos of complete or modern projects, or am I missing something? Github has some repos but mostly dumps of old Delphi projects, not really a great resource.
unnouinceput 7y ago
I don't. Whoever thought recompiling Lazarus whenever you need to simply add another component to its pallet really lost the spirit of Pascal/Delphi on that one.
- themodelplumber 7y ago
  Interesting. I haven't needed to do so, but I thought I had heard that was a pretty quick recompile, on the order of < 10 seconds? I know there are some tips to speed it up. Here's the wiki page on component authoring: https://wiki.freepascal.org/How_To_Write_Lazarus_Component https://wiki.freepascal.org/How_To_Write_Lazarus_Component
  - unnouinceput 7y ago
    Except when you need to, it's not working, or creepy bugs won't let you do it. Do try it on Lazarus for Raspberry Pi for example (you can do it on a virtual machine if you lack the real device). You'll see what I mean.
    - badsectoracula 7y ago
      Are you using the official releases? If you are using Lazarus from Debian or some other repository, it will not work due to these packages not setting up permissions for the executable to be replaced. In general IME on Linux the best approach is to install FPC (either from repositories or, better, using the official release) and then download the Lazarus source code and compile it somewhere in your home directory with 'make bigide'. This will avoid any problems with Lazarus packaging that often tends to be broken (again, IME).
      - unnouinceput 7y ago
        I used in home instead in it's official release. Also I sudo-it when launch it, so it will have full rights. On some packages it didn't work, no matter what I did. I had to use official apt from repositories for those packages (lucky me they had that).

TheAceOfHearts 7y ago

I'd love to hear a bit about your experiences with Lazarus. A few years ago I tried playing around with it on macOS, but all I remember is that I wasn't able to get things up and running because I kept encountering problems. Maybe I was doing something wrong or I didn't invest enough time in setting up and learning how to properly use the tool. I think I tried using Homebrew to install everything during my previous attempt, but since I'm not seeing any mention of this option as part of their macOS installation instructions [0] then I'm guessing that might've been the source of my problems. Would you still recommend learning Lazarus and FreePascal in 2020? I've mostly done web development, but I'm also interested in traditional native application development. My hypothesis is that learning to use some of these older tools or systems can teach you a lot of lessons which carry over across languages and platforms. For example: learning a bit of Qt helped me refine my internal models for various UI widgets. I want to learn to write faster and higher quality applications than our current highly-frustrating standard. [0] https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Installing_Lazarus_on_macOS https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Installing_Lazarus_on_ma...