我给贴在这儿了
Promote Lazarus.
Place this button
on your web
pages.
So just what is Lazarus?
Lazarus is the class libraries for Free Pascal that emulate Delphi. Free Pascal is a GPL'ed compiler that runs on Linux, Win32, OS/2, 68K and more. Free Pascal is designed to be able to understand and compile Delphi syntax, which is of course OOP. Lazarus is the part of the missing puzzle that will allow you to develop Delphi like programs in all of the above platforms. Unlike Java which strives to be a write once run anywhere, Lazarus and Free Pascal strives for write once compile anywhere. Since the exact same compiler is available on all of the above platforms it means youdo
n't need todo
any recoding to produce identical products for different platforms.
Yeah, but what about the GUI? What widget set are you using?
That is the neat part. You decide. Lazarus is being developed to be totally and completely API independent. Once you write your code you just link it against the API widget set of your choice. If you want to use GTK+, great! If you want it to be Gnome compliant, great! As long as the interface code for the widget set you want to use is available you can link to it. If it isn't available, well you can write it.
For example. Let's say you are creating a product on Windows using the standard Windows widgets. Now you want to create a Linux version. First you decide what widget set you want to use. Let's assume you want to use gtk+. So you copy the code over to your Linux development machine, compile, and link against the gtk+ interface unit. That's it. You've now just created a Linux version of the Windows product without any additional coding.
At this point in the development we are using gtk+ as our initial API widget set. As soon as that is to a stable point it will be possible for others to start to create the interface unit to tie the LCL (Lazarus Class Libraries) to these other widget sets.
So is this thing really RAD like Delphi?
Not yet but it will be. While LCL development is going on we are also working on the layout and design of the LFM file which is comparable to the Delphi DFM file. We are using XML as the file format. This is so that other layout engines will be able to read and modify the LFM form. For example it would be possible to use a modified version of Glade to edit an LFM file if you like using it better than the built in tools.
We are striving for this kind of capability but this won't be available for several months. That is unless you help. Hint. Hint.
Can I use my existing Delphi code?
Some of it yes. If the code is standard Delphi pascal and it uses the standard components found in Delphi then
the answer is yes. If it uses some specific database, OCX, or DCU then
the answer would be no. These items are specific to Windows and would only work on and within Windows. However, if you are only looking to create a Windows product using Free Pascal and Lazarus then
the answer would be yes. This hasn't been added to the LCL yet but it should be possible in the near future.
Can I create commercial products with this?
Yes. The code for the Free Pascal compiler is licensed under the GPL. This means that it is open source, free, whatever name you want to stick to it. You can modify the code if you wish but you MUST distribute those changes or make them available to others if they wish to use it.
The FCL (Free Pascal Class Libraries) and the LCL (which will eventually become part of the FCL) are licensed under the LGPL. In a nut shell this means that you can write your own proprietary software that just links to these libraries. You can sell your application without the need to supply or make available your code. However as with the compiler if you make modifications to the FCL or LCL you must make those changes available to the general public and the world.
I give up, where did the name come from?
One of the original projects that made an attempt to build a Delphi clone was Megido. However this effort died. Lazarus as you know was the biblical figure that was raised from the dead by Christ. Soooooo. The project is named Lazarus as it was started raised from the death of Megido.
