> Here are some thoughts of mine. > > Marketing > ------------- > Let's look at Python - it's not exactly marketed. Well, google founders just > happened to > "fall for" the language a bit in college/university while they were getting > their feet > wet. They could have fallen for PHP or ruby, and that would be "their thing". > They just > happen to fall for python. So now that google uses it, it gets it's name > around a bit. > But you watch the next few months.. google has now forced (sorry, recommended > I mean) > people to use python for their Sitemaps Beta, if people want to generate > sitemaps that > comply to google's standards. This will market python. > > Still, Python is not as popular as PHP at the moment. So how does PHP market > itself? > It's > -easy to download, > -it is easy to read the manual online. > -has "contributed notes" at the bottom of the PHP docs.. this is a huge plus. > -people advertise themselves as a "PHP programmer" at the bottom of their > email. No one > does this with Pascal. > Contributed notes > -------------------- > There is nothing like "contributed notes" to be seen with Pascal documents. > People have to > tediously download and compile the documents with fpdoc, then send a patch, > and then wait > 2-3 days for anything to happen. This needs to be changed.
> Compiling docs are great for the core of the documents, but additional > comments need to be available from the users visiting the site in real > time. This is already possible? See http://www.freepascal.org/docs.html the "with comments" part. > More Marketing > ------------------- > If you want to market Pascal don't expect the FPC devel team to do it.. > expect people like > business owners, developers, and website owners to do it. If people see seven > hundred > sites using CGI mailer scripts or forums written in Pascal that look cool, > they will say > "cool, was written in Pascal". I think that is partially correct. What is done with FPC is at least as important as how FPC looks, maybe even more important. > better) I still see so many of you using PHP based web sites to market > Pascal as a good development system. This ain't gonna help Pascal - that's > clash. Instead of the PHP extension we need to see something like PSP or > PPP or PGI. I don't think there lies Pascal's strength. All those webengine systems are already similar, and don't really show a particular strength of FPC/Pascal, they just formulate the same problem with slightly different syntax. > People generally don't do this.. they keep it a secret. That needs to be > changed.. people > need to start writing articles about the "Pascal programs they used today". > On windows, if > you don't know that your tool was created with Pascal, you can get a tool > called Stud_Pe > and the upx unpacker. I think writing libraries and contributing to the _large_ projects is important. > IDE For non-GUI devel > -------------------------- > If you ripped out all the visual components in Lazarus it would still be a > good IDE. > Lazarus needs to be marketed then, not just for creating visual GUI > applications.. but for > custom programs too. Eclipse seems to be known by some as a good tool, but > not necessarily > emphasis on visual development. Eclipse is hyped. It's publicity and exposure is pushed by companies as IBM, something that we can never match, even if we rewrote an entire Linux distribution in Pascal. > With Delphi, there is far too much emphasis on visual > development, and people knock it as a visual basic rip off. Actually, Delphi was first, and VB is the ripoff. I never heard anybody designating either Lazarus or Delphi as VB ripoff. > I'd go as far as having a button in Lazarus to turn off the component > palette. I never use the component palette when making CGI apps, so I > don't need it visible. If Delphi had features that allowed you to create > applications that weren't so TForm based (but still with RAD capabilities, > like inserting snippets of text, etc) then a lot more people wouldn't > knock it as a VB clone. Waste of good developer time. Maybe in time menubars can be more configurable. > (Maybe you know I'm working on Plugger for this > reason - to help RAD capabilities for non visual apps - and maybe you know > I'm trying hard to make RAD development for Pascal Server Pages integrated > right into Lazarus IDE through plug-ins.) I'm afraid that this partially will fall into the same trap as Eclipse. The I of IDE stands for integrated. Having major systems as the designer as plugin system is giving up possible integration. I think the current Lazarus architecture should never be pluggable or turned off. Maybe the plugin system can add additional form types. > Size issues > ------------ > Linux 1MB elfs may go unnoticed, but on Windows people are highly sensitive > in this area. > It is my advisory that if Lazarus wants to market itself, it has to solve the > 1mb problem > (it doesn't matter what you think ethical priorities are, I know for a fact > this is one of > the biggest turn offs, and even if it's not so important to you, it is > killing bringing > more people in to use lazarus. Looks and size matter here). People will > consider lazarus a > toy until 1mb exe's are solved. People may use lazarus for serious CGI > development, or > serious low level Pascal development, or socket programming, but not for MS > Windows GUI > development until the 1mb issue is solved. I think this only goes for the niche shareware authors and hobbyists that distribute to home users via dial-up lines. It is not a general problem. For corporate use it doesn't matter at all. Note that most commercial libraries are already compressed. Nothing keeps you from UPXing lazarus binaries. In general binary size should never be a brake on functionality, unless it gets extreme. And 1mb is not extreme. IMHO 5 MB is not extreme. > Application repository > ----------------------- > We need a Pascal repository for all the applications written in Pascal. We > have a > Contributed Unit repository, but not a program repository. The repository > needs to be self > serve, just like PHP contributed notes are, and just like the contributed > units section at > FPC website is. For example, where is it known that Seksi Commander exists? > It's not even > on the Lazarus website. Create a site, be the maintainer. And more importantly, be a long time maintainer. > Army of Pascal Users > ------------------------ > An "army of programmers" who agree on some general tactics, is needed. Maybe > we should > start an Army Of Pascal Users mailing list to discuss marketing and tactics. Less discussion, more action. _________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
