Hello all, in our continuing effort to re-energize the Lazarus community, and reach out to new prospective users, I will be creating a series of Lazarus case study videos. This first one is posted online here:

http://www.getlazarus.org/videos/reports/

The aim of this initiative is to draw interest back to Free Pascal and Lazarus, especially in light of all the hard work you guys have done in preparing for Free Pascal version 3 and Lazarus version 1.4.

If anyone wants to add to the case study content, feel free to use the edit this page feature to make your additions. The can quickly, and easily find and review your edits, so don't hesitate to contribute.

Also, if you want to forward the above case study to a work colleague or a technical acquaintance, please do. That's the reason its there.

Thanks everyone for your hard work, and keep an eye out for our next case study.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150214/a51a290a/attachment.html>

Il 14/02/2015 11:52, Anthony Walter ha scritto:

The initiative is very good, but the page contents appear to be Windows-only.
"Play" under Linux (CentOs 6) - Firefox has no effect. As a very basic feature of Lazarus is of being multi-platform, this appears a bit contradictory.

Just my two cents,

Giuliano

[...] "Play" under Linux (CentOs 6) - Firefox has no effect.

It plays under Firefox Ubuntu.

Mattias

Good link thanks, looks like a neat program! I also bemoan the fact that the super super Pascal Language and Lazarus is not used more...I am always pushing it when anyone asks about languages...

BTW: Giuliano: I played it on Kubuntu in Firefox...maybe Javascript is blocked on that site on your machine?

I read your page as well and noted a few errors...The corrected script is below, changes in <<< >>>:

Report operators are pulled from data, as well <<< "at" should be "as"

>>> report criteria data types, they are all pulled from data.

Finally, with regards to innovative features, this <<< "applications" should be "application">>> allows reports to be placed into batch containers.

Summary

In the hands of even a single capable developer Lazarus <<< needs the word "has" here >>> the potential to create business applications with a high degree of usability for end users, and its multi-platform capabilities offer more options for business to reduce their IT infrastructure costs.

It plays under Firefox osx too.

Hmmmm....the corrections got garbeled...sorry...Here they are in CAPS

Report operators are pulled from data, as well AT to AS report criteria data types, they are all pulled from data.

Finally, with regards to innovative features, this applications/APPLICATION allows reports to be placed into batch containers.

Summary

In the hands of even a single capable developer Lazarus HAS the potential to create business applications with a high degree of usability for end users,...

As a reminder, if you could please use the wiki to make corrections rather than posting additions or corrections here, my life would be much easier.

And thank you for the feedback.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150214/b4d6c4fe/attachment.html>

Mattias Gaertner wrote

> > "Play" under Linux (CentOs 6) - Firefox has no effect. It plays under Firefox Ubuntu.

And Firefox 35 under 64-bit FreeBSD.

Regards,
- Graeme -

It also plays for me, Ubuntu 14.10 64bit, Chrome.

- Dennis

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150215/6b236e12/attachment.html>

Il 16/02/2015 04:47, Den ha scritto:

It also plays for me, Ubuntu 14.10 64bit, Chrome.

Thanks to all for the feedback.
Given other's experience, I tested with Linux-FC14 and it works for me too. It must be a CentOs 6 specific issue. Most likely a decoder is missing, because it isn't strictly Open Source. RH is very accurate in providing only purely OS software. Sometimes it's a nuisance. I'll investigate.

Giuliano

Me 3,
works on Mozilla Build of Firefox for Debian Wheezy with backports ;) (and it seems to be native HTML5 rather than flash too, shown directly off < video > tag)

el es

Giuliano Colla wrote

It must be a CentOs 6 specific issue.

CentOS is not a good desktop distro IMO. It is designed to be a solid server.

Juha
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150216/b7bddd3c/attachment-0001.html>

It's not because of "open source"-ness, but due to patents. The H.264 codec is heavily patented in the United States and other countries and requires an expensive license fee to use:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing

Free browsers such as Firefox only provide H.264 playback capability, if the underlying OS has the codec installed. So, it only works in Windows and Android, because Microsoft and Google have paid the license fees for distributing the codec with the OS.

If you want to support free operating systems, it's better to also provide WebM or Ogg/Theora versions of the video:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theora

Unfortunately, there are some very popular devices (e.g. the iPhone and the iPad) that *only* support H.264 and that don't allow you to install other codecs, so if you want the best compatibility, you need two versions for every video - one H.264 and one WebM or Ogg/Theora :(

Nikolay
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150217/9f2b2114/attachment.html>

Il 14/02/2015 15:51, Anthony Walter ha scritto:

As a reminder, if you could please use the wiki to make corrections rather than posting additions or corrections here, my life would be much easier.

I didn't find any link to a wiki in getlazarus.org, so I'm forced to post just here.
Which Wiki did you refer to?

The video in your HTML5 page doesn't appear to be multiplatform accessible.

To play it under CentOs 6, which is quite popular in enterprise/corporation environment a user is forced to install proprietary codecs, which don't come with the distribution and may give rise to licensing/patent issues, and a Firefox version directly downloaded from mozilla website, and not subject to RedHat security scrutiny.

I'd suggest a look to
http://techslides.com/sample-webm-ogg-and-mp4-video-files-for-html5 , where you can find an example of appropriate handling of multiple video formats (by using multiple <source ..> tags).

Then there's a lot of tools for converting video formats, to provide viable alternatives.
Under Linux, for example, a simple old fashioned

ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -f ogg myfile.ogv

does the trick of converting from patented mp4 format to free ogg format.

Under Windows the Handbrake converter is free and open source: http://www.handbrake.fr/

Just my 2 cents,

Giuliano

There is a link to 'edit page'... just under
the Lazarus title, upper left corner. Looks like it is on (almost) every page. (only looked at the help request and home and about-us so far)

At least, it is in my MBOFF under Debian.

[...]

To Anthony: please, from a perspective of a casual user, can you explain, what is /your/ motivation for splitting and developing this away from the main lazarus-ide.org site?

I'm /NOT/ saying it's anywhere near bad, (as I haven't used it yet). Just unsure... and just having had a and lazarus-ide.org, side by side, /I/ seem to like the original better... but, it's just 'my view', YYMV.

If you have explained these somewhere, please point / link / PAK (Push A [google] Keyword).

(I just re-read the message about New Get Lazarus Initiative, on this m/l, of 4/2/15... it doesn't say anything about /motives/ there either)

Kind Regards,

Lukasz

Is there a link to the source code for that application? I can't seem to find it - maybe my Google-fu is weak?

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150224/10f8e940/attachment.html>

Lukasz, the motivation is to highlight the quality of software which Lazarus can produce, and create really simple to use installers for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I noted when I went to setup Lazarus on Mac recently just how difficult I was. The end goal is to draw more people to Lazarus.

Regarding why create a site apart from the main Lazarus site. I think every sane person can understand more sites promoting "brand x" help make that brand both in terms of visibility and average user acceptability.

Personally, I am working on (with some friends) a few very large free open source projects (which will be LGPLed) which are soon be released. I am currently working with a broadcast media person who us lending their voice to a few videos we're producing. These videos will be like the one I already post, including annotations and now voice. We will be walking potential Lazarus users through some demos which I feel are particularly nice. As such, I feel like controlling the website where this material is going to be released will help insure the quality of the both the material and its presentation.

And finally, in my work I tend to make heavy usage of anything which makes life easier, and this includes many of the great language features Sven Barth on which has been working for years. Heavy usage of things like generics with constraints, class and record helpers, implicit/explicit conversion (for example controverting TColor implicitly to TColorB or THSL). I realize that not every either has as versions of Free Pascal and Lazarus with support for these features, and as I what I do is well received, I also want to make it easy for people to get versions of which support these features, with the least amount of trouble (bugs). So I would like to push Lazarus forward and help people get the newer versions.

I'll leave you with a small clip of the new advanced drawing interfaces we'll be releasing, which are a much smaller part of one of the afore mentioned projects.

http://www.getlazarus.org/videos/crossgraphics/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150225/e601e182/attachment-0001.html>

I wish I could take back all the spelling errors, missed words, and grammatical mistakes in my previous message, but this is what happens when you work a regular job, and spend every night coding from midnight til 9AM for weeks on end.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150225/10b0039a/attachment.html>

Hi Anthony,

With this being the goal, I'd think you should probably try to get some recognition from the Team so at least they may consider putting your link or banner/link in visible place... if they do that, I'll be much less skeptical.

Whether creating entirely separate site with separate content does do that, I'm not entirely convinced... Some real world examples, case studies please ?

More use of Lazarus's logo / markings / links (with acceptance of the Team that is) would make it feel less detached from original.

Right now, it all feels (to me) more detached from the original than my 'blurb' filter is ready to accept.

Excuse me for being not /entirely/ convinced... you're producing more and more bold claims, which are again seemingly too high frequency for my low-pass blurb filter... Videos are a nice touch, I'll give you that.

I still don't like what http://www.getlazarus.org/setup/?download#linux does :/ getting a feeling like accessing these dodgy download sites in the 90's...

(I just edited the setup page seemingly to that effect, would you accept that change?
- remember someone else complained about it too...)

Also I like the concept of installation from packages more, than a random script downloaded directly from some servers...

( I'm a ordinary user living on Debian stable + backports, about the only extravaganza in my system is MBOFF for Firefox and Thunderbird, as I don't like the fuss about *weasel and *dove they do ;) so I know how to add a line to sources.list and use it. As a bonus I'd get any fresh releases installed/refreshed from your repo automatically if you considered that, and uninstallation/reinstallation would be less intrusive probably. Can't help you with packaging process though, sorry. )

That starts to look like the more proper motivation to me here, thanks... Still would appreciate if you reached out to original Team and worked with them, take some of their suggestions should they have any.

No wiki approach can make this happen, though

Looking forward to that.

Thanks.

Lukasz

TBH i'm not sure if this page does more good or bad for the project. For one, i'm worried about the modifications the version there has and doesn't seem to be mentioned somewhere that this is *really* not the official version but a custom setup.

But more importantly, it distributes unreleased, untested, unstable code with known bugs and unfinished features without even mentioning at all (let alone in a big bold way as it should) that they are as such *and* without providing a link to the official download page. Worst case might be that people will download that "Lazarus 3.0" and think Lazarus 3.0 sucks because it has all those bugs (without knowing - or just ignoring because people tend to ignore stuff - that the version there is unfinished). IMO the download link at the site should provide *only* stable builds (they are old for a reason: testing and stabilizing a complex project like Lazarus and FPC takes time) and test versions should be accessible via a separate page linked from the download page for those who want to experiment. Even with that, there should be multiple warnings about how these are unstable products with bugs.

There is already someone in the G+ group who has issues with the version he downloaded from there.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150225/a16b375b/attachment-0001.html>

+1

There is already someone in the G+ group who has issues with the version he downloaded from there.

Marcos Douglas

Go back to a mailing list archive, other people have made suggestions which ';ve implemented.

http://free-pascal-general.1045716.n5.nabble.com/New-Get-Lazarus-Initiative-td5720922.html

Including making it clear who I am and why, linking back to the official sites on every mention of Free pascal or Lazarus, that these versions are tests and are being updated accordingly, and a page dedicated to doing it yourself:

http://free-pascal-lazarus.989080.n3.nabble.com/Lazarus-Guide-Making-Free-Pascal-and-Lazarus-from-sources-td4040321.html

Build scripts and instructions are mirrored on github:

https://github.com/sysrpl/Codebot.Setup/blob/master/linux/install.fpc-3.0.linux.sh

Here is a link to other material I've released in the past as well as other walk throughs:

http://www.baregame.org/#bare_game
http://www.getlazarus.org/videos/baregame
http://www.getlazarus.org/videos/baresprites

Codebot.Cross, which includes a new cross platform graphics rendering interface, is a port of this my Delphi content which was first released more than 10 years ago:

http://www.codebot.org/delphi/

I've thanked Sven Barth as well as the rest of the team multiple times. I've also offered to spend time enhancing the Lazarus code tools:

http://free-pascal-lazarus.989080.n3.nabble.com/Lazarus-Offer-Fixing-CodeTools-td4040620.html

Everything I've done has always been released for free, without ads, and I've never asked for anything in return. I've only given. I say this because I'm not sure if you're thinking this is some elaborate trick. I assure you it's not.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150225/38540738/attachment.html>

I think the only "problem" is using not stable versions... that's all! Your codes are amazing. Please, do not stop -- coding, getlazarus.org, etc -- just think if is better use stable versions.

Best regards,
Marcos Douglas

Yes, don't stop contributing, I like the idea of the installer script, it makes cross
compiling so much easier, a thing that is very tricky to setup manually, specially
for new users. I only took a brief look, but it (the script) has many comments
and the code is quite clean, which is very nice too.

But I understand the concern about the version used, and the naming, and I guess it would be good to have it explicitly in the website that it is a "fan site"
(not sure what the correct term is), and not a project endorsed by the official
Lazarus project. (and of course, the big fat warning when using unstable branches).

Just my 2 cents :)

Best regards,
Brian Chalega da Silva.

Do not do what others already do !
And whatever you do, do with pleasure!

I love the idea of ??unstable code, is another alternative to the community !

Who comes here has to at least understand the difference between the various options.
So, as not to create unnecessary problems, just make it clear from where does the code.

Thank you for the work .

2015-02-25 15:53 GMT-03:00 Brian Chalega da Silva
:

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150225/58c617ef/attachment.html>

I like the getlazarus version better so far than the official one (assuming it isn't an elaborate trick...). Free software is all about choice - I'm glad to have another option.

I'm kinda surprised other people seem not to like it. More exposure for fpc/lazarus is good isn't it?

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150225/decfd6b0/attachment-0001.html>

That is not the problem. More exposure is ok. The problem with at least the download section is that it is absolutely not clear that you are downloading a alpha/beta version of Lazarus/fpc

Imo it should point to the official download with the getlazarus version as alternative. That way visitors not knowing about Lazarus have a choice. When you now visit getlazarus and click download, it offers the option to download setup.exe When you don't know about Lazarus you expect this to be an official version. In my case where I professionally use Lazarus, I only want released versions of both Lazarus an FPC.

Marc

I disagree, since it's their website, it is logical that they would deliver their version
of the software, I only think that it would be good if in the website they made it clear
that this isn't the official site and not an official Lazarus initiative, to don't confuse
people who don't know Lazarus.

To summarize, IMO it basically needs to be more clear in the point that it's not
endorsed by the Lazarus project, and that the version there is an unstable one (like
Osvaldo, I personally prefer to use the unstable version too, but I'm only a hobbyist).

And if it won't be too difficult maybe do a stable script / bundle too? But I guess I'm
asking too much and doing too little hehe

Best regards,
Brian Chalega da Silva.

I've attempted to add some changes to getlazarus download page, hope the owner/moderator picks & implements them...

To summarize, IMO it basically needs to be more clear in the point that it's not endorsed by the Lazarus project, and that the version there is an unstable one (like Osvaldo, I personally prefer to use the unstable version too, but I'm only a hobbyist).

Balance is the word - I don't mind test versions as long as they don't spoil my production setup ;)

Lukasz

2015-02-26 11:02 GMT+01:00 Lukasz Sokol :

I've attempted to add some changes to getlazarus download page, hope the owner/moderator picks & implements them...

I deleted the script section in
http://www.getlazarus.org/setup/?download#windows, so that the download doesn't start unexpectedly. What changes did you make?

Vincent
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150226/66f6babc/attachment.html>

I commented the timeout() section in the script, so that it still scrolls down to the appropriate section of download, but does not start download automatically...

Also I added some (in bold) wording about test versions,

"The versions set up through here are custom picked from FPC and Lazarus test repositories Test versions are likely to contain unstable code that has NOT been thoroughly tested yet. Stable Lazarus releases are available at the Official Lazarus Project Site" (and made the Official Lazarus Project Site an external link)

but, he has a statement up there, that changes are supposed to be reviewed and implemented by moderator(s) before they hit the page - otherwise they stay local to your own browser only... until you shut it down.

Suppose he's too busy doing the videos to review them maybe ;J

Or maybe I miss something to click to 'notify moderator about the changes' ?

Lukasz