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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Has anyone used Lazarus?

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Peter63
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Joined: 28/07/2017
Location: Sweden
Posts: 103
Posted: 06:05am 23 Aug 2025
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Hello
Like so many times, I stumbled upon something called "Lazarus".

What is Lazarus?
Lazarus is a Delphi compatible cross-platform IDE for Rapid Application Development. It has variety of components ready for use and a graphical form designer to easily create complex graphical user interfaces.

What can it do?
You can create your own open source or commercial applications. With Lazarus you can create file browsers, image viewers, database applications, graphics editing software, games, 3D software, medical analysis software or any other type of software.

... anyone who has tested or used it?





https://www.lazarus-ide.org/index.php

/ Peter63
 
JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
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Posted: 07:17am 23 Aug 2025
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Maybe rob?

John
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
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Posted: 07:33am 23 Aug 2025
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/me sees "Pascal" and shudders...


;)


I have fond memories of a program called "The Last One" that was used to write customized databases. Perhaps Lazarus has risen from its grave?  :)
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Peter63
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Posted: 07:40am 23 Aug 2025
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I have mostly programmed in Visual Basic in recent years. But when I saw "Lazarus", I was surprised. I have tried a little TurboPascal for DOS, and Microsoft QuickPascal DOS, but that was many years ago.

That "Lazarus", should work in Windows but also in Linux, seemed interesting to me. But does it also work for Raspberry Pi 4 / 5 ??

/Peter63
 
PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
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Posted: 08:13am 23 Aug 2025
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Lazarus:

  Quote  Platform Description
Windows Supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows.
Linux Compatible with various Linux distributions, including 32-bit and 64-bit.
macOS Supports macOS applications, primarily for 64-bit systems.
FreeBSD Can be used to develop applications for FreeBSD systems.
Android Supports development for Android devices, allowing for mobile application creation.
iOS Provides support for iOS application development, though it may require additional setup.
Raspberry Pi Can be used to develop applications for Raspberry Pi devices.
 
PhenixRising
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Posted: 08:59am 23 Aug 2025
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@Mixtel90

I see a compiler and shudder although sometimes it‘s the only way.  
 
Peter63
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Posted: 09:07am 23 Aug 2025
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I've looked into it a bit more and, Yep, there's a lot on YouTube that shows how to use it, together with the Raspberry Pi.
Now Python is perhaps the language I usually use when programming on the Raspberry Pi, but it's interesting to have another IDE that you might be able to use (even if it's Pascal language).



/Peter63
 
robert.rozee
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Posted: 10:33am 23 Aug 2025
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GFXterm is written using Lazarus, and it is what i use for most desktop development tasks; there IS a bit of a learning curve getting used to the concept of creating event-driven programs, but most folks should get used to it after a while.

down side is the binaries created are quite large (3Mb+), and getting your workflow sorted out initially can be a bit of a challenge. but with care you can end up being able to create cross-platform applications that can be compiled without change on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Raspbian (RPi), and others.

syntax wise, modern Pascal is just as capable as C or any other language currently in general use. source code is compact and readable.


cheers,
rob   :-)
 
PhenixRising
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Posted: 11:00am 23 Aug 2025
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  robert.rozee said  GFXterm is written using Lazarus, and it is what i use for most desktop development tasks; there IS a bit of a learning curve getting used to the concept of creating event-driven programs, but most folks should get used to it after a while.

down side is the binaries created are quite large (3Mb+), and getting your workflow sorted out initially can be a bit of a challenge. but with care you can end up being able to create cross-platform applications that can be compiled without change on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Raspbian (RPi), and others.

syntax wise, modern Pascal is just as capable as C or any other language currently in general use. source code is compact and readable.


cheers,
rob   :-)


I don't mind the syntax but I detest event-driven and OOP.

But straight procedural is still an option, right?
 
Marcel27

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Joined: 13/08/2024
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Posted: 11:44am 23 Aug 2025
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In the past (1984) I programmed in Turbo Pascal. Later I switched to C, but never in c++, I hate c++. I love Pascal because the syntax is clear, clean and the result is super fast and it is made by Niklaus Wirth. For work I programmed in Visual Basic for Applications, mostly Word and Excel.

Two years ago I found Blackbox Component builder. It's just a descendant of Pascal/Oberon/Modula. All the same taste.

3 day's ago I have installed Lazarus (FreePascal) on my LInux Mint (LMDE6) distro. I'm still learning the IDE and the new overwhelming syntax again. The problem I have with the IDE is that it have scattered windows everywhere and they won't sick together.

Marcel
 
Peter63
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Posted: 12:12pm 23 Aug 2025
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I found this video on YouTube...



/Peter63
 
robert.rozee
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Posted: 12:14pm 23 Aug 2025
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  PhenixRising said  I don't mind the syntax but I detest event-driven and OOP.

But straight procedural is still an option, right?


likewise, i dislike OOP. on the whole, you can choose to ignore the OOP stuff without suffering any major impediment or disadvantage.

creating a GUI application consists, essentially, of designing one or more forms using a graphical "form designer", then for each event-causing thing on your form(s) (a button press, a timer event, etc) double-click on said thing and you are brought to the "code editor" where a procedure stub is automatically created for the event where you can fill in your code.

command-line (non-GUI) applications are even simpler, with you just go straight to the "code editor" with a short stub of half a dozen lines is automatically created for you.

Lazarus is modelled after Delphi and Turbo Pascal, although over the years has evolved in a number of areas. Collectively they are classed as "RAD Environments", where RAD stands for Rapid Application Development.


cheers,
rob   :-)
 
toml_12953
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Posted: 06:09pm 23 Aug 2025
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  Peter63 said  Hello
Like so many times, I stumbled upon something called "Lazarus".

What is Lazarus?
Lazarus is a Delphi compatible cross-platform IDE for Rapid Application Development. It has variety of components ready for use and a graphical form designer to easily create complex graphical user interfaces.

/ Peter63


I use it indirectly. By that I mean I have it installed and a program called Paract BASIC uses it. Paract is an ANSI Standard Full BASIC. What it does is to compile a BASIC program into Pascal. Then Lazarus compiles that into a true EXE file. The EXE generated by Lazarus is faster than a comparable C program! The compilation steps are automatic so the user only has to click on RUN to compile and run the program.

It's fun to show a BASIC benchmark and print the execution time. Then C programmers, figuring they can beat that time by a great margin, try to write a faster program to do the same thing. When they see that the BASIC program is faster, they accuse me of lying  
about the times I get. I tell them about Paract, they try it for themselves and they are convinced. Example (run on 3.5 GHz Core i9):

100 LET t=time
110 LET loops=450000
120 FOR i=1 TO loops
130    LET r0=10
140    DO
150       LET x=r0
160       LET x=x+1
170       LET x=x-4.567E-4
180       LET x=x+70
190       LET x=x-69
200       LET x=x*7
210       LET x=x/11
220       LET r0=r0-1
230    LOOP WHILE r0>0
240    LET x=log(x)
250    LET x=sin(x)
260    LET x=sqr(x)
270    LET x=sqr(x)
280 NEXT i
290 PRINT x
300 LET t=time-t
310 PRINT "Loops:";loops
320 PRINT "Time:";t;"seconds"
330 PRINT "Index:";34/t*loops
340 END

0.880981899968678
Loops: 450000
Time: 0.0270000000018626 seconds
Index: 566666666.627574


Benchmark at: https://www.thimet.de/CalcCollection/CalcPerformance.html

Paract BASIC at: https://decimalbasic.web.fc2.com/BASICAcc2.htm
 
Marcel27

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Joined: 13/08/2024
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 96
Posted: 06:30pm 23 Aug 2025
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Thanks to Peter63....

I saw that my Linux distro had an old version of Lazarus 2.2.6+sfsg2-2 in it's programming source. I Uninstalled it and downloaded the latest version from the Lazarus website. It has besides the old one, a new IDE interface - single window just like Visual Basic. Now it more usable. In the past I dumped Lazarus because of the dull scattering and not docking windows.

Lazarus 4.2 (rev Unknown) FPC 3.2.2 x86_64-linux-gtk2



Edited 2025-08-24 04:33 by Marcel27
 
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