[Lazarus] FPC & Lazarus installation including cross compiling from source

[Sven Barth]

Am 29.03.2012 14:37, schrieb Hans-Peter Diettrich:
> Kjow schrieb:
>> 2012/3/29 Graeme Geldenhuys <graemeg.lists at gmail.com>:
>>> Obviously it is also vital to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions
>>> to improve guest OS performance. This makes a huge difference too.
>>
>> 3D video drivers are very bad on virtual OS, so is not possible to
>> develop for 3D graphics on VirtualBox, VMWare, etc.
>
> Right, but why should somebody want to *develop* such applications for a
> different platform, instead for the platform of his physical machine?
> Herefore, and for other time-critical applications, a dual boot of the
> target OS is the better choice.

What if you need to develop for an OS that your platform does not 
support? E.g. (though not exactly fitting in context) developing an 
application for an older Windows version which does not boot on your 
super modern computer. Or developing for e.g. Mac OS X without having a 
Mac (Note: let's not talk about eventual problems regarding legalitiy 
here). Or writing a graphical application for an embedded device.
Also - in my opinion - dual booting breaks the workflow. I want to 
mainly work on one machine and maybe have others running in other 
windows (be it a VM or a RDP or VNC session).

VMs are also important not for time critical stuff, but for low level 
stuff. E.g. I would not have wanted to develop the Native NT port of FPC 
without having a Windows OS (in my case ReactOS) running in a VM. ^^

Regards,
Sven