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Mailing lists / fpc-devel / 2026-01

Beginner question: Building the fp text-mode IDE standalone

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Aruna Hewapathirane

Hello,

I’m fairly new to working with the Free Pascal IDE sources and I’d like to build *fp* by itself for learning and testing purposes.

I’m using *Linux (Debian)*, and while looking through the installed FPC source tree I found this file:

/usr/share/fpcsrc/3.2.2/packages/ide/fp.pas

Is this the correct main source file for the *fp text-mode IDE*, or am I looking in the wrong place?

As a beginner, I’m mainly trying to understand:

-

where the fp text-mode IDE “starts”,
-

how it is normally built, and
-

whether there is a simple or *recommended way to build fp* on its own for experimentation and learning.

If there is any beginner-friendly documentation, Makefile targets, or suggested build steps for working with fp independently, I’d really appreciate any pointers.

Thank you for your time, and for making Free Pascal available to learn from.

Best regards,
Aruna Hewapathirane

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Michael Van Canneyt
to Aruna Hewapathirane
Aruna Hewapathirane wrote 12 lines
Hello, I’m fairly new to working with the Free Pascal IDE sources and I’d like to build *fp* by itself for learning and testing purposes. I’m using *Linux (Debian)*, and while looking through the installed FPC source tree I found this file: /usr/share/fpcsrc/3.2.2/packages/ide/fp.pas Is this the correct main source file for the *fp text-mode IDE*, or am I looking in the wrong place?

That is the correct main source file.

Show quoted text 6 lines
As a beginner, I’m mainly trying to understand: - where the fp text-mode IDE “starts”, -
It uses Free Vision, and runs a message loop, which is 'hidden' in IDEApp.Run;
Show quoted text 5 lines
how it is normally built, and - whether there is a simple or *recommended way to build fp* on its own for experimentation and learning.

It's not really standalone, because the IDE contains the compiler. Your best bet is still simply to use 'make all' in the toplevel or packages directory of the sources.

Michael.

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Aruna Hewapathirane
to Michael Van Canneyt

Hello Michael,

Show quoted text 20 lines
On Sat, 24 Jan 2026, Aruna Hewapathirane via fpc-devel wrote: > Hello, > > I’m fairly new to working with the Free Pascal IDE sources and I’d like to > build *fp* by itself for learning and testing purposes. > > I’m using *Linux (Debian)*, and while looking through the installed FPC > source tree I found this file: > > /usr/share/fpcsrc/3.2.2/packages/ide/fp.pas > > Is this the correct main source file for the *fp text-mode IDE*, or am I > looking in the wrong place? That is the correct main source file.

Thank you.

Show quoted text 12 lines
> As a beginner, I’m mainly trying to understand: > > - > > where the fp text-mode IDE “starts”, > - It uses Free Vision, and runs a message loop, which is 'hidden' in IDEApp.Run;

I found a Freevison Tutorial
<https://github.com/sechshelme/Lazarus-FreeVision-Tutorial>but it is all in German. What would be the most painless way to translate this to English please?

Show quoted text 12 lines
> how it is normally built, and > - > > whether there is a simple or *recommended way to build fp* on its own > for experimentation and learning. It's not really standalone, because the IDE contains the compiler. Your best bet is still simply to use 'make all' in the toplevel or packages directory of the sources. Michael.

Thank you again Michael. I will try building from toplevel using 'make all'.

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