Getting Started with the Lazarus IDE

Roderick Person

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781782163411
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming in Python
• Index: Computer Science

This book is written in a simple, easy-to-understand format with lots of screenshots and step-by-step explanations.This book is geared toward developers that have a familiarity with Delphi or Free Pascal and would like to start using the open source Lazarus Integrated Development Environment. You should have knowledge of creating a console and GUI applications as well as creating basic components. Example source code and projects are provided to help learn the differences between Delphi and Lazarus projects.

Getting Started with the Lazarus IDE

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Table of Contents

Getting Started with the Lazarus IDE

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Installing and Configuring the Lazarus Development Environment

Why Lazarus?

Installing Lazarus in Linux

Downloading and installing the Lazarus Linux RPM package

Requirements

Downloading and installing the Lazarus Linux DEB package

Lazarus for Ubuntu

Installing under Windows

Installing under other OSes such as FreeBSD or Mac OS X

Installing Lazarus on Mac OS X

Installing under FreeBSD

Installing from source

Configuring the Lazarus development environment

Summary

2. Getting to Know the Lazarus IDE – a Quick Tour

The Object Inspector window

The Component Tree window

The Source Editor window

Main menu, quick icons, and the LCL Palette window

Project Options

The Run menu

The Tools menu

The LCL Palette

The Standard tab

The Additional tab

The Common Control tab

The Dialogs tab

The Data Controls tab

The SQLdb tab

Summary

3. Creating a Hello World Program

Hello World console application version

Modifying the code

Compiling and running

Hello World graphical user interface version

Adding components and modifying code

Compiling and running

Debugging

Expanding the Hello World application

Debugging commands

Other debugger features

Deploying

Summary

4. Converting Delphi

Differences between Lazarus and Delphi Components

Fonts

Dragging and docking

TEdit and TCustomEdit

TCustomTreeView and TTreeView

Messages and events

Unit differences

Conversion methods

Filenames and extension

Semantic and syntax differences

32-bit and 64-bit considerations

Resource files

Using the Convert Delphi Project Wizard

Converting a Delphi project manually

Summary

5. Creating a Lazarus Component

Creating a new component package

Adding properties

Adding events

Events with more parameters

Property editors

Component editors

Summary

6. The Lazarus Documentation Editor

Building the LazDE tool

Examining existing source documentation

Documenting your code

Using FPDoc

Summary

7. Rebuilding Lazarus with a GTK2 Interface

Rebuilding Lazarus interface on Windows

Summary

Index

Getting Started with the Lazarus IDE

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: February 2013

Production Reference: 1180213

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78216-340-4

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Asher Wishkerman (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

Roderick Person

Reviewer

Juha Manninen

Acquisition Editor

Rukhsana Khambatta

Commissioning Editor

Ameya Sawant

Technical Editors

Kaustubh S. Mayekar

Shruti Sugunan

Dominic Pereira

Copy Editor

Brandt D'Mello

Project Coordinator

Joel Goveya

Proofreader

Lauren Tobon

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Production Coordinator

Pooja Chiplunkar

Cover Work

Pooja Chiplunkar

About the Author

Roderick Person has a varied background in the corporate IT field. For the last 14 years, he has been a programmer for one of the top-ranked health system in the United States. He is experienced with developing applications in Delphi, Free Pascal, Python, SQL, and other languages. He is also an advocate of leveraging open source application in a corporate environment.

I'd like to thank Barbara Kolski for her support and encouragement with this book, and my wife, Vicky Starr, and daughter, Milan Starr.

About the Reviewer

Juha Manninen is a software developer with more than 25 years of experience. Now, as a middle-aged man, he is studying in a university of applied sciences.

He has been a part of the Lazarus development team since 2009. However, as the team is made up of developers who volunteer their time to the project without compensation, Juha earns a living as a Delphi programmer.

Object Pascal is his favorite programming...

Table of contents

• Getting Started with the Lazarus IDE