IMO a good add-on to the "Lazarus is invisible?" thread.
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Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:
>[snip]
DoDi, your attitude does not help the Lazarus image. Lazarus, like many
(most?) OS projects *is* difficult to understand when looking through the
eyes of a person not yet familiar with Lazarus or the organization of the web
pages/documentation. Most OS devs have grown with the project and have never
seen the steep hill in front of the newbie.
Just go to the Lazarus web page (http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/) and look
for installation instructions - nothing visible...
But there is a FAQ (assuming everyone knows what a FAQ is) - nothing about
installation...
But there is a Wiki (assuming everyone knows what a Wiki is) - nothing
obviously about installation...
But there is the Lazarus Documentation section, now we're getting somewhere -
Yes! After the tutorials is a user guide and finally I have found the link
"2.1 Installation". Click...
And I get a new page which has the link "Installing Lazarus" at the top - Now
we're really getting close. Click...
And I get a new page where I optimistically select the first link, "Overview"
- Click...
And I get a text beginning "For people who simply want to install Lazarus and
start using it for programming, the easiest approach is to download and
install a recent, reasonably stable binary release (such as a Linux ".rpm"
package, a Windows ".exe" installer, or a Mac OS X ".dmg" package). You can
read the sections under Linux or Windows entitled "fpc binaries" or the first
paragraphs in the sections on installing Lazarus in Linux or Windows; most of
the remaining information can be safely ignored."
So, safely ignoring most of the document I walk along trying to find the
first paragraph on installation in Windows (maybe a link would have been
good?). OK, fastest way was to go Back and find the appropriately named
header and Click... on that.
And I get a new page which begins "The current releases of the Windows
Lazarus binary packages install very easily, and should work
'out-of-the-box'. ", then follows a pageful of discussion (!?) about
installing on a USB drive.
So, we have "...simply want to install L. and start using it..." and "...work
out-of-the-box...". No links to any "Getting started" section, no indication
that anything special is needed to get going.
This complete lack of any information about what happens after installation
makes you "just start it and try it". And when *that* doesn't work out of the
box, you throw it away.
Now, for the record, I have downloaded Lazarus quite a number of times and
started to test it, I have gotten a "Hello World!" program to compile and
work in Windows, and that's about it. When I tried to port a Delphi project I
drowned in incompatibilities (not Lazarus/FPC's fault, but that was what
stopped me). When I tried to cross compile for some linux, I drowned in the
"you need version this of that and..." swamp (still not Lazarus/FPC's fault
but that was what stopped me).
I do believe Lazarus/FPC can be used for serious programming, but the
learning curve is much too steep for me.
--
Anders Isaksson, Sweden
BlockCAD: http://www.blockcad.net
Gallery: http://www.blockcad.net/gallery/index.htm
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