Dear Mattias ,

(A)

------------------- You said --------------------------------------- I'm not sure, what you mean with "Main unit" is the Unit1.pas of the project1. Do you mean the name "unit1.pas"?
--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yes" to your above question .

Assume that from Lazarus IDE , "Project" menu , we selected "New Project" and "Application"
from "Create a new project" dialog .

Lazarus is opening

(1) an editing window named "Unit1.pas" :

---b---0----------------------------

unit Unit1;                           <------------ My "main unit" means
the 'Unit1" here .
{$mode objfpc}{$H+}
interface
uses
  Classes, SysUtils, LResources, Forms, Controls, Graphics, Dialogs;
type
  TForm1 = class(TForm)
  private
    { private declarations }
  public
    { public declarations }
  end;
var
  Form1: TForm1;
implementation
initialization
  {$I unit1.lrs}
end.

---e---0-----------------------------

(2) a form display design window with "Form1" to place components ,

(3) an "Object Inspector" window with "Form1:TForm1" ,

(4) a program as "project1.lpr" :

---b---1-----------------------------

program Project1;
{$mode objfpc}{$H+}

uses

  {$IFDEF UNIX}{$IFDEF UseCThreads}
  cthreads,
  {$ENDIF}{$ENDIF}
  Interfaces, // this includes the LCL widgetset
  Forms
  { you can add units after this }, Unit1;            <------------ My

"main unit" means the 'Unit1" here .

begin
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.CreateForm(TForm1, Form1);
  Application.Run;
end.

---e---1-----------------------------

If you allow giving other names for "project1" and "unit1" at the beginning ,
it may be more easy to generate programs/projects with different and meaningful names .

Especially when these are created in the same directory , this naming allows easily generation of these different projects in the same directory .

At present , if it is not followed carefully one project may overwrite a previous project
in the same directory .

(B)

From Lazarus IDE , from "File" , when "New Form" , "New Unit" is selected , the Lazarus
generating windows with "Form2" or "Unit2' with a number showing/naming the newly opened
parts . For the unit names , asking or allowing changing of these names will allow more meaningfully
given names with respect to the project concept .

(C)

At the beginning , programs or their parts , sometimes are considered temporary works but
over time they are becoming important tools to be used . Some design decisions , including names
of the parts and variables , are becoming very difficult to maintain or obstacles in front of the
development and they are requiring re-names which sometimes are causing nightmares .

Therefore allowing the user at any point to be able to rename automatically generated parts by
the Lazarus will allow a more easy development process .

It is obvious that , a programmer may also use the default names . Personally I do NOT prefer
to use such common names because over time they may become important parts of some other programs .
Why should I loose time for re-naming and a complete whole testing ?

(D)

My another suggestion is about style of program part generation because at the beginning
( more than 20 years ago ) I was using the above style , but now I am using the following style
because , for large programs , the above style is causing difficulties for maintenance and patching
parts into sources or removing some parts of them . The IDE editor is NOT saying that
"You can not write programs longer than ... lines" .

unit Unit1;
{$mode objfpc}
{$H+}
interface

uses
Classes,
SysUtils,
LResources,
Forms, <---- This style allows insertions between unit names , and
Controls, erasing of unnecessary names easily . Graphics,

  Dialogs;

type TForm1 = class(TForm) <------------ This style allows searching by grep , etc. and/or listing of types .

  private
    { private declarations }
  public
    { public declarations }
  end;

var Form1: TForm1; <------------ This style allows searching by grep , etc. and/or listing of variables .

implementation
initialization
  {$I unit1.lrs}
end.

A similar style may be used for constants :

NOT :

  Const
       a = '?' ;

BUT

  Const a = '?' ;

"Type" , "Var" , Or "Const" for EACH of the names because of searching , listing these entities by grep like
tools :

NOT :

  Var
    a , b , c , d : Integer ;

BUT

  Var a : Integer ;
  Var b : Integer ;
  Var c : Integer ;
  Var d : Integer ;

( Readability and maintainability of programs is MUCH and MUCH more important than
any other considerations such as "Compile Time" etc ( as microseconds or less ) ,
"Number of PUNCHED cards handled " ( in OLD GOOD days ) , etc . )

For the program :

program Project1;
{$mode objfpc}
{$H+}

uses

  {$IFDEF UNIX}
  {$IFDEF UseCThreads}            <----- for easy readability .
  cthreads,
  {$ENDIF}
  {$ENDIF}
  Interfaces, // this includes the LCL widgetset
  Forms
  { you can add units after this },

Unit1; <----------------- for insertion of names before this name .

begin
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.CreateForm(TForm1, Form1);
  Application.Run;
end.

If you generate your templates in the above style , in the long range the programmers will find them more useful with respect to present style .

-------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you very much ,

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk