Hello,

after (too) much time exploring/evaluating different languages, I?ve finally decided to use use FPC/Lazarus to write open-source multi-platform desktop GUI app?

It would be kind of semi-hobby project and the reason why I took so long to decide about Pascal is that I was using it long ago (>20yrs) while studying software engineering on the University (we had to write some compiler using TP, so I thought that some better language did evolve. :-)

Of course, there are some interesting *languages*, but I simply do not buy what web+JS is the only way to go to write app these days, and that?s where FPC/Lazarus are shining very brightly!!

However, in the meantime, programming did not become my bread?n?butter, so although programming is not strange/new thing to me, I need some refreshment and looking for adequate literature/docs to equip myself to use FPC/Lazarus for my GUI project?

I there is a ?bundle?
http://www.blaisepascal.eu/index.php?actie=./subscribers/lazarusbookinfoEnglish offering to buy Lazarus Complete Guide and get Learn to Program Using Lazarus as downloadable PDF, so I wonder if it is good-enough for learning FPC and start with Lazarus?

I?m aware there are lot of online docs available, but I am simply accustomed to use/hold concrete books (if possible) and reduce my time of starring at computer screens to save my eyes a bit.

Another option which I?ve found is: ?Getting Started with Lazarus and Free Pascal: A beginners and intermediate guide to Free Pascal using Lazarus IDE? (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1507632525/ref=rdr_ext_tmb) but it seems it?s more into web development than writign desktop GUI apps?

Besides that, one Delphi/Lazarus user suggested to get some of the ?Marco Cantu's mastering.. series of older versions?, but not having *any* experience with neither Delphi nor FPC/Lazarus, I?m looking for some helpful hints which path to go?

Sincerely,
Gour

p.s. I sent the same message from Gmane-subscribed group, but never received its authorization message and it seems that the message went to /dev/null, so, please, if anyone can check whether the information at http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.ide.lazarus.general is correct since the ?requires subscription to mailing list to post? status usually means it should be possible to post for subscribed users, while my experience is more like ?posting isn't allowed??

Gour wrote

but it seems it?s more into web development than writign desktop GUI apps?

You spoke of using Turbo Pascal some 20+ years ago. So you probably need a language update as well.

Here are a couple of ebooks:

http://geldenhuys.co.uk/~graemeg/inf_books/

Start with "tutorial.inf" which gets you up to speed with the Object Pascal language.

If you understand German, you can take a look at the "objref.inf" and "oop_refg.inf" too.

INF files are viewable with DocView help file viewer. You can download a binary (> 500KB download) from here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpgui/files/fpGUI/1.4/

Regards,
- Graeme -

First , forget "Delphi" , and start directly from Free Pascal and Lazarus . "Delphi" programs are NOT multi-platform but only for Windows . If you want to write multi-platform Pascal programs , instead of wasting time on "Delphi" programs , use your time for directly on Free Pascal and Lazarus programs .

You may compile the same program on all supported platforms listed in Free Pascal and Lazarus package lists for installation .

If you use a NFS server , then from the same server , you can compile the same programs in different platform clients , ( even from Windows , if you use a Samba server in your NFS server exporting the same source directories ) ( you may even use cross compilation ) .

This means that , if you use Free Pascal and Lazarus your choices are as you want .

The Free Pascal and Lazarus documentations are excellent , but I suggest to obtain the above two books also .

I have Lazarus book , but not other book .

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150803/7daf7bd4/attachment.html>

Am 03.08.2015 11:21 schrieb "Mehmet Erol Sanliturk" <

: First , forget "Delphi" , and start directly from Free Pascal and Lazarus

.

"Delphi" programs are NOT multi-platform but only for Windows . If you want to write multi-platform Pascal programs , instead of wasting

time on "Delphi" programs , use your time for directly on Free Pascal and Lazarus programs .

That doesn't mean however that tips and information provided in books about Delphi aren't valid at all for FPC/Lazarus. And since the thread starter had stated that he isn't fit with programming that are viable hints.

Regards,
Sven
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150803/9746445a/attachment.html>

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote

First , forget "Delphi" ,

OK.

and start directly from Free Pascal and Lazarus .

What about other GUI options likes fpGUI & MSEide+MSEgui?

"Delphi" programs are NOT multi-platform but only for Windows .

That?s clear.

The Free Pascal and Lazarus documentations are excellent , but I suggest to obtain the above two books also .

OK. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Gour

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

You spoke of using Turbo Pascal some 20+ years ago. So you probably need a language update as well.

Indeed. :-)

Here are a couple of ebooks:

Thanks.

Start with "tutorial.inf" which gets you up to speed with the Object Pascal language.

It looks good.

INF files are viewable with DocView help file viewer. You can download a binary (> 500KB download) from here:

Btw, how does one author *.inf files today?

I also see that you?re the man behind fpGUI, but that?s for another thread how to chooes the ?right? GUI for FPC. ;)

Sincerely,
Gour

Gour I think you just need one book for beginning and I don't used any one but that one linked in the forum maybe is good enough. Also about GUI,they are good but for you just install Lazarus and go with it and when you fill comfortable than you can research and ask here but Lazarus on it default GUI are well enough for most of the usages. When you want to choose take fpGUI seriously,its good and author is kind and will help you,about others I dont know much.

Regards,
Ara

Gour wrote

Btw, how does one author *.inf files today?

You author your help using plain text IPF file. Then compile that with a utility called WIPFC (IPF Compiler) to generate a very compact binary INF file. The WIPFC compiler and DocView are available from the fpGUI project.

Some technical info:
INF is very compact and fast because the INF file itself contains a dictionary of words, built from the help text, and each help topic simply references the words from the dictionary. This also enables full-text search support as standard.

I use a text editor called EditPad Pro (my favourite text editor), which I improved the syntax highlighting and file navigation to make IPF file authoring even easier. But any text editor will do. No special tools or applications are required.

IPF, as explained by WikiPedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Presentation_Facility

I also see that you?re the man behind fpGUI, but that?s for another thread how to chooes the ?right? GUI for FPC. ;)

When you are ready, you are welcome to email me in private to ask more questions.

Regards,
- Graeme -

I am not a user of fpGUI or MSEide+MSEgui . Therefore I can not make any expert comment .
If you study their web sites , you will get much information from them , and then you may ask your questions to them .

I think you will get good advice from them .

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150803/d8b206c7/attachment-0001.html>

Aradeonas wrote

Gour I think you just need one book for beginning and I don't used any one but that one linked in the forum maybe is good enough.

OK.

Also about GUI,they are good but for you just install Lazarus and go with it and when you fill comfortable than you can research and ask here but Lazarus on it default GUI are well enough for most of the usages.

Good.

When you want to choose take fpGUI seriously,its good and author is kind and will help you,about others I dont know much.

Any ?selling points? in regard to fpGUI?

Sincerely,
Gour

Any ?selling points? in regard to fpGUI?

For now dont think about these,just start working,when you will on the road you will fin that out.

Regards, Ara

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

You author your help using plain text IPF file.

Is there any Editor support for the markup?

Now I see that it?s the old OS2?s format and I was die-hard OS2 user. :-)

Then compile that with a utility called WIPFC (IPF Compiler) to generate a very compact binary INF file. The WIPFC compiler and DocView are available from the fpGUI project.

Nice.

That?s cool.

I use a text editor called EditPad Pro (my favourite text editor), which I improved the syntax highlighting and file navigation to make IPF file authoring even easier. But any text editor will do. No special tools or applications are required.

Do you know about possible vim/Emacs support?

When you are ready, you are welcome to email me in private to ask more questions.

I?ve sent a post to FPC list asking about GUI options form FPC, but it did not went through (yet). :-(

Sincerely,
Gour

Dear Gour I think you make things complicated for your self. Just install and go and default GUI option is very good at least for starting.
When you learned what you want then you can ask about GUI here or talk to Graeme.

Regards,
Ara

Well, here I?m asking about the method/markup to document help files and/or manuals, iow. it?s in one sense separated from the GUI option one uses?

Sincerely,
Gour

So begin with one of mentioned books,its easy and when you begin all other problems will be solved with others helps in here or forum. Or wait for others help,they know about books better because I didnt used any one.

Regards,
Ara

Aradeonas wrote

So begin with one of mentioned books,its easy and when you begin all other problems will be solved with others helps in here or forum.

OK, will start with one of those Pascal tutorials?

Sincerely,
Gour

Hi Gour,

I've been programming for 53 years, learning everything from machine and assembler languages to various OOPs. When Delphi first came out I used it for four or five years and liked it. After retiring I was hired to write a program to run on multiple platforms. I settled on FPC and elected to use the Lazarus GUI before trying anything else in order to learn Lazarus's limitations. I purchased the "Lazarus, the Complete Guide" and "Learn to Program Using Pascal" package. I refer to the guide when exploring methods, but find myself reaching most often for Howard Page-Smith's "Learn to Program Using Lazarus". It has excellent examples and got me going in a hurry. Like any language where you can get to the guts of things, the learning curve can be long, maybe even continuous. The forum is also an excellent resource when you need a question answered. I do Google searches starting with "Pascal Lazarus" and usually end up finding the answer in the forum. I got "The Blaise Pascal Magazine" going back a bunch of issues as a bonus when I ordered the package and found many excellent articles in them.

Gary

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150803/650491cc/attachment.html>

Gour wrote

Is there any Editor support for the markup?

You could always download Editpad Pro (trial) and I can send you the syntax highlighting files and file navigation support for it.

MSEide itself also supports syntax highlighting of IPF files.

I don't know of any editor with auto-complete or similar functionality built-in for IPF.... but then it isn't really needed, because the IPF syntax is very simple and easy to learn. Much easier and less than say HTML or CSS.

Now I see that it?s the old OS2?s format and I was die-hard OS2 user. :-)

Correct. :) DocView is a newer and more user friendly INF help viewer that the original IBM view.exe program. WIPFC is a open source IPF Compiler created by the OpenWatcom developers. I'm still working on a Object Pascal based IPF Compiler, but it isn't complete yet.

Do you know about possible vim/Emacs support?

I downloaded VIM for OS/2 to see if they might include an IPF syntax file, but they unfortunately don't. At least not the copy I found. If you are familiar with VIM syntax files, it should be pretty easy to create your own highlighter. I managed to create one for EditPad Pro in about 30 minutes. The IPF syntax is much simpler than say HTML.

I?ve sent a post to FPC list asking about GUI options form FPC, but it did not went through (yet). :-(

I haven't seen that email. I'll check again.

Regards,
- Graeme -

Gour wrote

Any ?selling points? in regard to fpGUI?

See my reply off the mailing list.

Regards,
- Graeme -

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

I don't know of any editor with auto-complete or similar functionality built-in for IPF.... but then it isn't really needed, because the IPF syntax is very simple and easy to learn. Much easier and less than say HTML or CSS.

this could be added to Lazarus, though... right?

waldo kitty wrote

this could be added to Lazarus, though... right?

Yes, somebody with the available time could easily add IPF syntax highlighting support to SynEdit.

EditPad Pro goes one step further. With each syntax highlighting, you can specify a custom help command. So when I'm editing IPF files, pressing F1 will launch DocView with the IPF reference doc loaded for that tag. A similar things for HTML, CSS etc.

Regards,
- Graeme -

Here is an excellent course by Huw Collingbourne:

https://www.udemy.com/learn-to-program-with-pascal/

Udemy has good sales and coupons which greatly reduce the price. It is a wonderful start for a visual learner, and delves inti quite a bit.

Also, there are some really good Object Pascal books that are now very cheap on Amazon. One I just got is Pascal Plus Data Structures by Dale. Another is Delphi in a Nutshell.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20150803/6a79dc19/attachment-0001.html>

Gary Randall writes:

Hello Gary,

I've been programming for 53 years, learning everything from machine and assembler languages to various OOPs.

Congatulations!

Like any language where you can get to the guts of things, the learning curve can be long, maybe even continuous. The forum is also an excellent resource when you need a question answered.

Thank you.

I got "The Blaise Pascal Magazine" going back a bunch of issues as a bonus when I ordered the package and found many excellent articles in them.

Is the magazine mostly about Delphi (my conclusion based on free issue) or not?

Sincerely,
Gour

Yes, the magazine has more Delphi than Lazarus, but the older issues in the bonus have some good Lazarus stuff. Eventually, I want to convert some of my engineering software to smartphones so I enjoy those articles too. And I can use the Delphi stuff.

Gary