Hi everyone,

Just registered in this list, and wanted to introduce myself, and ask a few questions.

I'm trying to use Lazarus on OS X Snow Leopard, been having a few problems with it, though the wiki pages had some instructions I never got it to work properly, either FPC would install but Lazarus wouldn't compile anything, or everything would work alright until I created a project with a different widget set from the previous project. Since all the problems happen using the DMG files, I'm now trying to compile FPC and Lazarus from trunk, let's hope the problems are, at least, different :)

I would also like to try and contribute a bit to the project, mainly in the Cocoa widget set, is there any wiki page that describes the development process, needed tools, usual pitfalls? I couldn't find anything related to how to develop Lazarus, though I seem to remind of an page that talked about it, but I can't find it. Any tips are appreciated.

I would also like to let any Portuguese user know that a Portuguese community was started around Lazarus, you can find the forum at http://www.lazarusportugal.org/forum. I think one other user already mention this community in the Lazarus' forums, so forgive me for repeating the announcement here.

I'm a bit confused on how to setup Lazarus to use Cocoa, the Cocoa wiki page refers to PasCocoa as a needed dependency, but neither the installation page nor the tips page for OS X mention that. Is PasCocoa needed to use the Cocoa widget set?

And I guess it's all for now :)

Regards,

Knitter

Hello S?rgio,

2010/8/16 S?rgio Lopes :

or everything would work alright until I created a project with a different widget set from the previous project.

Not all widgetset come pre-compiled. If you are using a widgetset different from the standard one for the platform, then you need to build it yourself using the Configure Build Lazarus dialog. You also need to install whatever libraries they depend on, as well as setting any necessary linker options.

I would also like to try and contribute a bit to the project, mainly in the Cocoa widget set, is there any wiki page that describes the development process, needed tools, usual pitfalls? I couldn't find anything related to how to develop Lazarus, though I seem to remind of an page that talked about it, but I can't find it. Any tips are appreciated.

When I started the Cocoa widgetset it was planned to use PasCocoa, which are bindings which connect Cocoa to Object Pascal without the need of any special compiler support for that.

After that Jonas mananged to implement compiler support for Objective Pascal, an integration between Objective-C and Pascal. Of course this works much better then PasCocoa because it has internal compiler support for that, but this feature is only in FPC 2.5.1+

So the existing Cocoa widgetset code needs to be updated to use Objective Pascal and then expanded using it. I was planning on working on that, but this has a low priority for me, and my ToDo list is very big, so I don't think I would start anything in the next year or so, so it would be great if someone else implements this =) Of course I can always help if you have trouble.

I'm a bit confused on how to setup Lazarus to use Cocoa, the Cocoa wiki page refers to PasCocoa as a needed dependency, but neither the installation page nor the tips page for OS X ?mention that. Is PasCocoa needed to use the Cocoa widget set?

The Cocoa widgetset code is *very* initial, I think that there is no point in trying to set that up. Do the following steps instead:

1 - Manage to get a working FPC Trunk (2.5.1+) compiler. Maybe I'll ask Vincent for Mac snapshots for that ... At least I always have huge trouble building FPC

2 - Get the latest lazarus svn code

3 - Get a working Lazarus Carbon IDE by typing "make bigide"

4 - Learn how to use Objective Pascal

5 - Update the Cocoa widgetset existing code to use Objective Pascal and start testing it and improving it from there.

There is a Wiki page which explains how to implement controls in a new widgetset: http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/LCL_Internals

I don't know how to use Objective Pascal, there is a Mac Pascal mailling list where people talk about this:
http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/mac-pascal

Hi,

I'll look into that, though it'll take some time for me to get used to how Lazarus development workflow goes.

1 - Manage to get a working FPC Trunk (2.5.1+) compiler. Maybe I'll ask Vincent for Mac snapshots for that ... At least I always have huge trouble building FPC

Working on that, compiling hasn't been a problem, getting the new compiler to install properly, overlapping or removing the previous one has. I always end up with two different versions, and one used by the system is never the correct one :(

4 - Learn how to use Objective Pascal

Any recommended place for this?

Regards,

Knitter

2010/8/17 S?rgio Miguel Neves Lopes :

> 4 - Learn how to use Objective Pascal Any recommended place for this?

You should probably ask this again in the Mac-Pascal mailling list.