lazarus.. not the best IDE

[shadow_tj]

Ok i had the idea to get the project also be able to compile on lazarus freepascal compiler.

Im working with it now for real 10 minutes...
(have installed it before, but normally it was already deinstalled after the startup).

Some people know that i`m working with the Delphi Ide for more then 10 years.

Ok sometimes when you stuck with tools, you don`t want to change to other tools.
But this Lazarus IDE... damm

Ok its free !!! but you can see that also.

Dxbx Has nice black background.. placing components.. and what happens.
Yes you probably already thought so.. the labels of the components ONLY ARE DRAWN IN BLACK !!!
( for the Slow readers under us.. try to write down some text with a black ballpoint on a black piece of paper.. what happens ?? )


Ok not a real life threatning situation.. but come on !!
This is just the beginning.. with designing only the forms layout.



PS: bought a ipad some weeks ago.. nice toy to play with, but with the Splashtop Xdisplay.. you can use your ipad as a second monitor.
With the normal splashtop viewer you can make a remote connection to your windows pc. realy usefull .. specially the XDisplay .. if you got a ipad and need a litle extra screen.
Not that i want to make adds for the tool.. yes im doing it right now, i know.. but its yust for your information.. be free to do with the info what you like
Using it now to program lazarus on my main monitor, and watch delphi on the ipad :)

[-Ashe-]

Hm do you use the RAD tools that much for an emulator? I mean there's not much of an interface, except some menu and option dialog box...

[shadow_tj]

i need the ide, for creating the forms.
Lazarus has a different method of creating the forms then delphi.

The other files, with the logic can be written in delphi.
But i started with just the mainform for now (yesterday evening).

Also there is some logic involved into the main forms.. the split of logic and screen forms are not complete stand alone.

Im working on it.. but i already had crashed lazarus 9 times by just inserting labels menu structures and some dialogs.

But ok, created a lazarus account so i can send bug reports back to them.

Ok thats it for now.. back to work :)

[-Ashe-]

Ok but can't you just create the forms using code rather than the IDE? Since they're fairly simple...
(you could probably even just embed an IWebBrowser2/webkit/whatever to implement your dialog boxes heheh)

[shadow_tj]

The power of a Rad development tool, is that you don`t need to write your own code for visual forms.

So yes it is possible to build the forms in runtime, but the power of rad is de design time form design.
You don`t need to get extra code for positions and stuf.
Also runtime form design can be tricky specialy when you need to assign parent controls.

The compiler does not warn while compiling if you do not assign your parent controls :)

[-Ashe-]

Sure, but creating a menu is just as fast with code...
Same for dialog boxes, it's just few positions to set, so you really don't get that much time...
It's one of the most basic things to do, there's really no need for RAD stuff for such a small amount of UI (and using IWebBrowser2/etc like mentioned above you can design it as a web page which is much more flexible than standard controls)

[shadow_tj]

Believe me.. the change from delphi -> lazarus (freepascal) is not that easy and you realy need that IDE.
Not only for designing forms and just press play on tap.. eh compile :P and a lot for debugging.

I also got lots of problems with the JCL, that is a code librarie that Dxbx uses.
The JCL libraries are very good for delphi, but the lazarus freepascal compiler realy is half supported.

The JclWin32 compiler error was realy a easy fix / hack

function PropVariantClear(var Prop: TPropVariant): HResult;

very nice a function call with a TPropVariant param that comes from ActiveX.
ActiveX uses has been disabled for FPC.. mmmmm

Ok dont use this function in FPC then.. now i got something in the JclSysUtils.
InternalExecuteFlushPipe(var PipeInfo: TPipeInfo; var Overlapped: TOverlapped);
calls CancelIo ... eeeh cancelIO ... eeh ok

CancelIo is a function that delphi has implemented into Windows.pas
aaah windows.pas.. the unit that contains alll windows magic !!!

yes .. and lazarus has not implemented all of that magic.


To get a very long story short.. im now yust hacking the Jcl code to get it working for dxbx.

[Bill_gates]

it sounds like more trouble than its worth. Anyone with the skills to help you is most likely using or knows how to obtain Delphi.

[shadow_tj]

ok for now i stopped the lazarus part.. indeed it is more trouble to get it working.
instead i can better work on add new features and code.

Few minutes ago added a simple piece of code to detect new dxbx and xbe explorer version on the sourceforge page.
So you get a confirmation if you want to update your dxbx version to the latest version ( When a new version is online).

nice feature to have :)