Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Michael Van Canneyt wrote: Good news. When can I expect the sources for that ? fpdoc changes around mid Feb. I'll create a compiled INF of FPC Lang Ref and new Docview binaries too, and make those available on SourceForge downloads. I meant to complete the new fpdoc IPF writer in my holidays (Dec/Jan), but you know how it goes. :-) Regards, - Graeme - -- fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/ -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
On 1 February 2010 12:07, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote: and new Docview binaries too, and make those available on SourceForge downloads. Thinking about it, maybe I should stop using SourceForge and move to someone like BerliOS which is based outside America - or start hosting my own projects on my own server. -- Regards, - Graeme - ___ fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/ -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Lee Jenkins wrote: Personally, I've come to like Adobe's LiveDocs format which seems to be a hybrid of Wiki and TOC oriented format and its indexed by google making searches easy and fast. Anyone else care for this kind of format? No. :-) I would much prefer a off-line documentation format. I find it *extremely* annoying when I sit at home with my laptop and can't get help on a dialog or product because such help is only available online (and I don't always have internet access). This is why I spent a considerable amount of time researching documentation formats and ended up choosing the IBM INF format (used for OS/2 help files and other OS/2 documentation/books) as my starting point. INF is extremely fast and efficient (a magnitude of 15+ times faster than CHM), the output INF files are small and compact, the tagging language (IPF) is easy to learn - the 45 tags are mnemonic making it easy to associate them with their functions. IPF tagging language was specifically designed for documentation, so it is well suited for generating good looking output. DocView (The INF viewer I wrote) supports a Table of Content, a Index view and generates one at runtime if the INF document doesn't include one, full text search, search algorithm that rates search results so you get more relevant results, keyword highlighting of search text, annotations, bookmarks, topic browse history, font substitution, Library mode (opening multiple INF documents and combining there TOCs at runtime) and the list goes on. I am almost finished with translating the FPC Language Reference to INF so others can use it with DocView from inside Lazarus IDE or stand-alone. This should be a good example of what INF can do and how it looks, plus the new fpdoc IPF output writer that can build class documentation in INF format. Regards, - Graeme - -- fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/ -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Hans-Peter Diettrich schreef: IMO a good add-on to the Lazarus is invisible? thread. 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... I must be a very experienced OS project user: I just look for a download link, then I can choose windows 32 bits, and a version (not the old releases), and I get an exe. What to do with it? Run it, and Lazarus installs. It simply didn't come to my mind, that people wanted to install it, without downloading. Vincent -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
On 30 January 2010 02:35, Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho felipemonteiro.carva...@gmail.com wrote: Why don't you improve the wiki then? The idea is that people can independently find what they think needs improvement and improve it. Felipe, I think this is a catch-22 situation. If you don't know how to install FPC and Lazarus or know how to user Lazarus, there is NO way that person will be able to improve the wiki. :-( -- Regards, - Graeme - ___ fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/ -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Graeme Geldenhuys schreef: On 30 January 2010 03:26, Andrew Brunner andrew.t.brun...@gmail.com wrote: IMO if you MUST know where to look for information regarding FPC/Lazarus. I think a birds-eye view of stuff should be easily accessible and intuitive. Correct, but the FIRST problem is the Lazarus website. It's NOT a website at all, but simply web access to the Forums. I've used Lazarus for 5 years and still get confused with the amount of forums. Plus, NO useful information. Somebody that doesn't know FPC and Lazarus will not know that you can go to the Free Pascal website to find out information about Lazarus, and that you can use the Free Pascal wiki to find Lazarus information. After all, FPC and Lazarus are two separate projects. I can really see where the original poster is coming from. The Lazarus website is the problem. Make the starting page a list of basic information and links to Download instructions, Documentation, Mailing list information, Forum Information, Wiki information. etc... Don't just drop the user directly into the Forums! http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/ is not the forums, that is http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php?action=forum The main page contains links to Downloads and Mailing list information on prominent places. AFAIK the Lazarus team doesn't have web designer, and that shows. Vincent -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Juha Manninen schrieb: 1. Mention about FPC and a link for downloading and installing it. Now there is a link to Free Pascal but its relation to Lazarus is not obvious to a beginner. Lazarus comes with FPC? -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
On 30 January 2010 12:54, Vincent Snijders vsnijd...@vodafonevast.nl wrote: The main page contains links to Downloads and Mailing list information on prominent places. AFAIK the Lazarus team doesn't have web designer, and that shows. A product website firstly gives a bit of summary information. This includes things like: * What is Lazarus? * What is LCL? * What is the latest version? * Where can I documentation (IDE LCL)? * Where can I get installation/setup instructions? * Where can I download it from? Currently the Lazarus website looks like a forum website. Everybody but the core Lazarus developers say that. Why? * At the top left we have a login section * At the top right (same level as the word Lazarus) we have title simple machine forums * On the right we have recent forum posts. * On the right bottom we have forum statistics. * The search box searches...wait for it The FORUMS. * In the middle we have recent news. NOWHERE does it say WHAT Lazarus is? Nowhere does it say the latest version, or when it was released. Nowhere does it say what platforms it supports or what widgetsets it supports. It is simply not a product website! I'm not a web designer either, but at least I can spot the difference. The Lazarus Wiki is more a product website, so make the wiki the default page for www.lazarus.freepascal.org and on the wiki right column add a link to the Forum website. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, I am simple pointing out the obvious faults of the current first port of call website new users get when they want to know about the Lazarus project. Why make it so difficult for new users? -- Regards, - Graeme - ___ fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/ -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
On 30 January 2010 13:55, Florian Klaempfl flor...@freepascal.org wrote: Lazarus comes with FPC? Don't confuse Windows only features, with other platforms. What about Mac, FreeBSD, Linux users? FPC doesn't come with those. -- Regards, - Graeme - ___ fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/ -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Graeme Geldenhuys wrote: On 30 January 2010 12:54, Vincent Snijders vsnijd...@vodafonevast.nl wrote: The main page contains links to Downloads and Mailing list information on prominent places. AFAIK the Lazarus team doesn't have web designer, and that shows. A product website firstly gives a bit of summary information. This includes things like: * What is Lazarus? About lazarus ? * What is LCL? Not important for the first time * What is the latest version? Not important if you don't know what lazarus is (you will find out when downloading) * Where can I documentation (IDE LCL)? Wiki ? * Where can I get installation/setup instructions? * Where can I download it from? Download ? I wonder how you missed those. Developing software isn't about just clicking somewhere. It's also about knowing where to find your info. Marc inline: site1.png-- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 04:11:59PM +0100, J?rgen Hestermann wrote: Developing software isn't about just clicking somewhere. It's also about knowing where to find your info. Well, although I see why it is how it is I have to fully agree with Graeme regarding the very confusing web pages and the lack of structured information. I know that it's easy said while not having enought time (and knowledge) to improve the situation myself but that does not make the facts go away. I also had a hard time starting with Lazarus/Free Pascal and it's still not easy to find information. Do realize though that it is the constant change in the project that causes this mostly. You'd need to revise the whole detailed website and all docs every 3 months - half year that way. (since either a FPC or Lazarus release would change that) For that we would need a _lot_ of volunteers. That feeling may also be due to the fact that Turbo Pascal, Virtual Pascal and Delphi (where most Lazarus interested come from) had much better structured documentation. The FPC docs are quite ok. They are way more extensive than e.g. VP. But they were commercial products and the comparison seems unfair. Still I would stongly disagree on saying that it's fine how it is now. I think it is quite fine for the current resources, where documentation is a by product, and website not even that. Major changes need major amounts of new blood dedicated working on this. -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
I'm not trying to be rude or anything, I am simple pointing out the obvious faults of the current first port of call website new users get when they want to know about the Lazarus project. Why make it so difficult for new users? @all: Enough talking and let's do the real work. FPC/Lazarus is an open source community based activity, so why not collaborate ourselves and work together to build the better website for FPC/Lazarus. Follow my emails on the other threads, please. Thanks. -- -Bee- ...making buzzes at http://twitter.com/beezing ...writing stories at http://beeography.wordpress.com -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Andrew Brunner wrote: IMO if you MUST know where to look for information regarding FPC/Lazarus. I think a birds-eye view of stuff should be easily accessible and intuitive. Unfortunately, the complicated nature of this universal development tool requires much content management technology to resolve (comparably) because it is on a level that would require organizing everything and still presents people with information in a way they are accustomed. Take MSDN for example, they have a great system, index, organized, and presentable to the masses. Could someone model that? I envision content in the main body, tabs for platform specific notes. But no matter what the solution it will require advanced layout to either switch between OS platforms - IMO. Personally, I've come to like Adobe's LiveDocs format which seems to be a hybrid of Wiki and TOC oriented format and its indexed by google making searches easy and fast. Anyone else care for this kind of format? -- Warm Regards, Lee -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
On 1/30/10, Marc Weustink m...@dommelstein.net wrote: * What is Lazarus? About lazarus ? * Where can I documentation (IDE LCL)? Wiki ? * Where can I get installation/setup instructions? * Where can I download it from? Download ? All those links are in the (tiny) menu on the left side of the page, I agree with TS that on the opening page, it would make sense to have a description of what Lazarus is, how to get it, install it and a getting started topic. All this can be short text, linking to wiki or documentation andforum indexpage. All this would IMO best be placed in the central div, where one would look for the most important content of the site. It would make the index page much more appealing to the eye IMHO. (This would probably also make lazarus website rank better in google?) The content that is now on the main page (jan. 30th 2010), would not attract me (it relates to problems with fpc 2.4.0) if I were a newbie, especially coming from Delphi (and thus being spoiled). If I were any good at php I'ld offer my help in maintaining/writing, but I'm only familiar with static html/css. Bart -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Andreas Schneider wrote: Am Freitag 29 Januar 2010 23:36:02 schrieb Hans-Peter Diettrich: IMO a good add-on to the Lazarus is invisible? thread. I think a great problem for many of those people in this thread comes from the fact that (as they state) try it from time to time. That means, that they probably have environmentoptions.xml in their users dir from the previous install, which then still points to (now) wrong locations. I have a proposal for this: how about the environmentoptions.xml contains the last-used-version of lazarus that wrote that file. I lazarus loads and finds that the version is different from its own (expected) version, it could perform a small self-test: if paths in that file don't exist anymore, it could look in the default environmentoptions.xml (which the windows installer for example puts in the install directory afaik) and see if that would fix it. Additionaly it could ofcourse warn the user that paths were just modified and that it might be due to still having that file from an older install. I just installed 0.9.29 with FPC 2.4x a couple of days from the snapshots pages and it saw that I had had lazarus previously installed in a different directory with previous entries for fpc/source, etc that were incorrect and prompted me to either keep it or change it so that was nice. I still use Delphi as my primary development platform, but use Lazarus for a couple of non-gui projects and I've noticed a great improvement over the last two years especially. The IDE looks better now and works better too with many of the features I've come to rely on in latter Delphi versions such as Lazarus' own version of live templates, refactoring facilities, etc. -- Warm Regards, Lee -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Nice screenshot Marc. :-) 2010/1/30 Marc Weustink m...@dommelstein.net: * What is Lazarus? About lazarus ? I think this needs higher visibility than a small link. Some of that content should really be on the front page. * Where can I documentation (IDE LCL)? Wiki ? Well, that's not very obvious is it? * Where can I get installation/setup instructions? * Where can I download it from? Download ? Well, that answers half the question. So that link takes me to SourceForge downloads. But the new users still doesn't know what is the requirements to run Lazarus, installation instructions, recommended location for install (quite important for Unix based OSes) and that you need to install FPC separately (if you use non-Windows OS). Oh, and Linux users could maybe use their disto's repository system instead of the downloads on SourceForge. All information NOT mentioned - which is VERY important for new users. I wonder how you missed those. Don't get me wrong. I don't have an issue in setting up Lazarus or FPC. I like to think I have a fully functional brain and can research information (actually read what's on the screen) etc... But other users are NOT like that. I like to think that install Lazarus and FPC is the easiest to do on Windows than any other platform. Yet when I mentioned Lazarus as an alternative on the Delphi newsgroups (and yes they are developers there), they all said how difficult it was to setup and get working etc.. So there seems to be many stumbling blocks in getting started with FPC and Lazarus. Maybe a simple introduction or step-by-step guide to familiarize new users to the IDE etc might be handy. I've used FPC and Lazarus for 5 years and I don't know if such a document exists. No mention of it on the Lazarus website either. -- Regards, - Graeme - ___ fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/ -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Marco van de Voort schrieb: I also had a hard time starting with Lazarus/Free Pascal and it's still not easy to find information. Do realize though that it is the constant change in the project that causes this mostly. You'd need to revise the whole detailed website and all docs every 3 months - half year that way. (since either a FPC or Lazarus release would change that) Sorry, using the IDE does not change really frequently, in a way that deserves very different documentation. For that we would need a _lot_ of volunteers. Not more than for fixing the flaws and problems, encountered by the users. According to my experience it's easier to fix such items, instead of writing according release notes. That feeling may also be due to the fact that Turbo Pascal, Virtual Pascal and Delphi (where most Lazarus interested come from) had much better structured documentation. We could add a link to the German Lazarus book, BTW. DoDi -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Hi all: Just google linux pascal compiler. Period. Gustavo 2010/1/29 Hans-Peter Diettrich drdiettri...@aol.com: IMO a good add-on to the Lazarus is invisible? thread. 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 -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
On 1/29/2010 6:05 PM, Gustavo Enrique Jimenez wrote: Just google linux pascal compiler. Period. And that accomplishes what, exactly? Does not seem to relate to the current discussion at all. -- Doug C. - A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail? -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
Why don't you improve the wiki then? The idea is that people can independently find what they think needs improvement and improve it. thanks, -- Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] [Fwd: Re: Is Lazarus a Delphi plagiat?]
IMO a good add-on to the Lazarus is invisible? thread. While I agree with the points that Lazarus need better documentations, I think those people in that forum are spoil programmers. I also don't understand why they are so defensive against Lazarus. I remember the first time I found Lazarus, v.0.9.16 if I remember it correctly, I only need a couple of hours to make it working on my Linux system (OpenSuse). Yes, it required lots of googling and digging the wiki/forum/etc, but the solutions are available though scattered all over the places. Maybe Delphi had spoil them too much and kill their sense of learning and research. No wonder they don't like Linux as well. -- -Bee- ...making buzzes at http://twitter.com/beezing ...writing stories at http://beeography.wordpress.com -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
