Hi all...

Reading Linux community media (mostly lists and forums), I've seen that Pascal language is still considered as non-serious and toyish programming language. No wonder if Linux people hardly know about Pascal. Though they're already knew about it, the ignore it. Besides, Pascal they knew is the old primitive Pascal we know 20 years ago. They even can't distinguish Pascal (as the language) and Delphi (as [object] Pascal IDE)! Poor Pascal. :(

Typical Linux people are always talking about C/C++, Python, and Java as the chosen powerfull and unbeatable programming language for any kind of needs! No, I don't mean to start a language flame war here. But, I think we -Pascal lovers and developers- should enter Linux community and promote Pascal, especially our beloved FPC.

Since UBUNTU now is the most Linux distro talked about these days, I think we should promote our FPC in their community as well. UBUNTU web forum (www.ubuntuforums.org) may become a good start. :)

Let's do it! :)

Regards,

-Bee-

has Bee.ography at:
http://beeography.modblog.com

You are contributing to this nonsense talk yourself by stating that Pascal 20 years ago was primitive.

(sigh)

Adriaan van Os

On my local Linux user group I mention Pascal and speak up about it once in a while (not in a zealot way, just once in a while). Some of them thought that Pascal was the same now as it was back when they took it in university, i.e. no Units, no ansistrings, no ability to use include files, etc. etc. But if you speak up about things and mention that your website is programmed in it or that Total Commander program was built in Pascal, or that Macromedia used Pascal for one of their software applications, etc. etc.
There are times when it is constructive to speak up rather than keep quiet. Bisma you know this I was just posting this message to encourage others.. The fact is if you join a local linux group or a linux list that isn't even local, you will still have some sort of influence. A lot of people start programming based on word of mouth (or try new languages based on word of mouth).

Lars

[Quote]

Typical Linux people are always talking about C/C++, Python, and Java as the chosen powerfull and
unbeatable programming language for any kind of needs! No, I don't mean to start a language flame war here. But, I think we -Pascal lovers and developers- should enter Linux community and promote Pascal, especially our beloved FPC.

Since UBUNTU now is the most Linux distro talked about these days, I think we should promote our FPC in their community as well. UBUNTU web forum
(www.ubuntuforums.org) may become a good start. :)

[/Quote]

Although I agree that FPC could benefit from a
stronger community, I would suggest that Linux could be the major benefactor. I won’t elaborate as this would just lead to flame wars.

That said, how to promote FPC is the question? Well the best way, I think, is to write something great and high profile in FPC. For that, I would suggest
turning to game programming as a potential attention getter. Linux, in general, lacks in games compared to MS or even Apple. So there is a lot of opportunity here. Additionally, much of the software needs of today (especially in terms of desktop applications) have already been addressed. So game programming is left being one of few areas where new and creative ideas can shine.

So, if you really want to promote FPC, try teaming up with a few good programmers and artists to write the next cool game in FPC. If you are not the creative type, try one of the following ideas…

* Provide an Allegro FPC wrapper

* Provide a "native" FPC GUI/IO library… (see
FreeBASIC for a reference)

* Provide a "native" GUI for FPC (maybe by
porting/extending CGUI?)

* Port FPC to GP2X (http://www.gbax.com/ -- it’s much easier to be the big fish in a small pond)

So, if you really want to promote FPC, try teaming up with a few good programmers and artists to write the next cool game in FPC.

I have to agree. Good games in Linux are really lacking or very hard to install / use.

It has both. It´s called Lazarus.

http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/

Ron Weidner wrote

* Provide a "native" GUI for FPC (maybe by porting/extending CGUI?)

There is MSEide + MSEgui:

http://mypage.bluewin.ch/msegui/

Martin

This looks like what I was talking about. I haven't spent more than 10 minutes with it yet but so far it looks good.

FPC might already run on the GP2X. It's an ARM based console running Linux so... it's possible.

I might have spoken too soon about porting Allegro as well. Although, I feel it's a great and usefull tool, FPC already has PTCP which can be found here.

http://ptcpas.sourceforge.net/

That said, there is really nothing stoping someone from writting a cool, cross-platform, game in FPC. If you would like to use OpenGL FPC can do that too.
Here are tutorials...

http://www.friends-of-fpc.org/tutorials/graphics/dlx_ogl/ http://fpc.wz.cz/html/index.php

and of course FPC comes with OpenGL examples.

Of course every game needs sound. And there is no better way to provide it than the open OGG sound
format. It's better than MP3 with no royalties or commercial licenses.

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/ACS

So, if someone wants to increase the popularity of FPC, the tools are all there.

PTCP -- Keyboard, mouse, and joystick i/o. 2d GFX and hi res timers.

OpenGL -- 'nuff said. :)

ACS -- Sound in many formats including OGG

Network -- Well, I haven't looked too hard yet but I'm sure there is a cross-platform TCP/IP tool set out there somewhere for FPC. If not, I know there is for C that could be ported or wrapped.

All that's needed is a game development team and a cool idea. If you want to join a new game development team, there is no better time than now. I can provide some web hosting for a small team, email addresses, forums, etc. I could help promote FPC based game
products. Oh yeah, I can also contribute code and maybe a little art.

What can you do?

What can you do?

program the website in pascal

Ron Weidner napisał(a):

I'll try, but it'll take some time ;-).

Of course every game needs sound. And there is no better way to provide it than the open OGG sound format. It's better than MP3 with no royalties or commercial licenses.

Yeah, that's good.

PTCP -- Keyboard, mouse, and joystick i/o. 2d GFX and hi res timers. OpenGL -- 'nuff said. :) ACS -- Sound in many formats including OGG

You forgot(?) to mention two important game-helping libraries: OpenAL and SDL. Personally I much prefer SDL over Allegro -- seems more tidy to me (although that's my personal opinion -- don't want to start a flamewar here ^_^).

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jedi-sdl/

Network -- Well, I haven't looked too hard yet but I'm sure there is a cross-platform TCP/IP tool set out there somewhere for FPC. If not, I know there is for C that could be ported or wrapped.

SDL-Net is one example.

I can do exactly the same ;-). I also have a cool idea of a game I'm going to create (no, not a roguelike again), but I'm too much of a visionare to work with a team -- I have a realy strong sense of what the game should look like.

And remember ...
http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/
... and the PGD Annual Game Development Competition!

(I can't take part due to my exam session :-( )

Actually i'm a developer in the SDL4FreePascal project, which as the name sugest, is a port of SDL headers to FreePascal. So far they work good and we will realease a new version soon.

http://sdl4fp.sourceforge.net/

Aditionally to SDL, we are also porting other useful libraries like SDL_Image and SDL_ttf. We could port SDL_Net too if there's interest.

I'm myself creating a game in FreePascal, but there's nothing to show yet. And there's already some good games written in FreePascal, just have to look a little hard.

It would be cool if we could create a comunity of game creation in [Free]Pascal.

Hoping to see your FPC games soon.

If you really want the job that would be great. I was going to work on that myself but, I would have done it in PHP. But, since you are willing to write the site using FPC, I would be willing to set up hosting (Unix) and a domain name. (or just a domain name if you
already have hosting).

Are you thinking about a community website? (forums, showcase, calendar, etc) Would you need a particular Database? sqlite, mySql, postgres?

If the site got bigger, probably mysql. To start off, we can use a nice text database format called SDS from psp project which relies on no external database, and is great for starter sites who think they need a real database but not sure they want to commit to one. It as full capabilities to export to SQL later if the site gets bigger :) I guess they call this "scaling" and "backwards/forwards compatibility".

As for you going to do the development in PHP? Instead, I would force you to help me in Pascal :)
And then I would go about changing your email signature to this:

Sorry, I actually forgot about the freepascal port of the SDL lib. That said, I think that SDL is one of the best tools out there for developing games and
deserved mentioning. In any case, I can say for
myself, that I would be interested in and SDL_Image, SDL_ttf and SDL_Net port. But I would also like to see some more examples/demos too. So, I'll start
sending some demos to the project today. I have a few. :)

Anyone with a FreePascal game please e-mail me a link, description, hardware requirements, and target OS
information and I will link to it from
http://www.astrodust.com. I'll be resurrecting that site and I would love to trade links.

It would be cool if we could create a community of game creation in [Free]Pascal.

I agree... And there are many tasks not related to game play that someone could do even if they feel that game development isn't an avenue they would like to pursue. And if you are the creative type, obviously there is a lot of opportunity for you too. Math,
database, art, music, beta/alpha testing, UI,
compression, encryption, are just some of the areas you could be helpful in, even if you aren't interested in creating a game. Although, I hope that there are 4 people here interested in being the core of an indie FreePascal game development team.

If you are interested, please contact me and we can all start planning a new game.

Hello,

I am using Jedi SDL. It has headers for SDL_ttf, SDL_net, SDL_Image, and everything else. Works really well.

Yesterday I did this SDL tutorial:
http://lazyfooproductions.com/SDL_tutorials/index.php just adapting to pascal.

SDL is really easy. Much easier then DirectX. It also has a really small library (600kb) and is very portable.

Anyone with a FreePascal game please e-mail me a link, description, hardware requirements, and target OS

I am writing a Civilization-like game.

I started this project many years ago and it was quite advanced. But back then I wrote it on Delphi, using DelphiX interface for DirectX and MS Access as database.

It´s just too much work to adapt it, so I am re-writting on: Lazarus, Jedi SDL and SQLite.

It´s not FreeCiv. I want to do something much better looking and add many interresting concepts. I would like at the same time, to capture the civilization playing fealing, and try to do a realist simulation of ruling an empire.

I started today the rewrite. Here is the first screenshot of the map: http://www.braillevirtual.fe.usp.br/temporario/isometric.PNG

I will be using Lazarus forms to speed up dialog building and use SDL for the game itself.

I have access to many really great 16mm movies about WW 2, so I may even digitalize them and include them on a WW 2 scenario.

It has no name for now, but as a codename it can be called OpenCiv.

Hardware requirements: 16MB of RAM probably just that

Target OS: Every OS supported by Lazarus =)

information and I will link to it from http://www.astrodust.com. I'll be resurrecting that site and I would love to trade links.

About the website, is it about a specific genre of games or a general gaming website?

If it´s a general website, I would sujest that you add things like:

* Forum for discussion

* Wiki for pascal gamming tutorials

Although, I hope that there are 4 people here interested in being the core of an indie FreePascal game development team.

What is an "indie" game?

thanks,

Yesterday I did this SDL tutorial:

http://lazyfooproductions.com/SDL_tutorials/index.php

just adapting to pascal.

Do you mean that you wrote this tutorial or that you are adapting it to FreePascal or something else?

SDL is really easy. Much easier then DirectX. It also has a really small library (600kb) and is very

portable.

http://www.braillevirtual.fe.usp.br/temporario/isometric.PNG

I will be using Lazarus forms to speed up dialog building and use SDL for the game itself.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the game. I've been thinking of doing an isometric game soon. In fact, I was planning to suggest to anyone considering joining a game development team that the first game we create would be a tile based jump-and-run (small game -- 45 days max) followed by an isometric tile based game (larger game -- 6 month commitment).

It's a general website for games with all the
community tools you've mentioned, and more :) . The site that you see there now is very old. Behind the scene there is a new and much improved site. I'll be releasing that one soon. It will have games for sale and for free and links to indie game developers
websites, as well as game programming information
using open source tools. (initially Allegro and SDL) It's actually, quite impressive and I'm looking
forward to the day when I can release it. But, that's a bit off topic even for a topic marked off topic.

An "indie game developer" is a single person or small group of people writing games. They are usually on a limited budget with limited resources. But, since they usually don't have a reputation yet, they are free to explore new games and genres. So, an indie game is a game written by an indie game developer.

http://www.garagegames.com often host many such games.