[Lazarus] Delphi XE2 uses FPC, plus VCL just not portable

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 7 August 2011 13:18, Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho wrote:
>
> Maybe they killed it because they are not competent enought to port
> the VCL to other operating systems.

Please tell me that was a joke. Do you really think with their vast
amounts of resources, developers and financial backing that they
really couldn't do that. They simply came to the realization that it
doesn't work well enough. To be VCL "compatible" they have to resort
to only using the common features across platforms - leaving the VCL
totally useless except under Windows. They realized that is not the
way to go. Qt being proof that a cross platform toolkit is possible,
but you need to be flexible in your design. With some innovation and
unique design it is much more plausible.

Let history be a lesson too. What "clone" of a popular product is
currently a success today. NONE! Sybil - dead. CLX - dead. Mono - dead
or no future because of patent issues. Imagine Mozilla Firefox simply
wanted to be a clone of IE. Do you really think they would be where
they are today?


> excelent cross-platform base, Lazarus in Mac OS X works great for me.

Yeah, use something long enough and you don't notice the obvious
issues. I used Lazarus on a iMac a month ago, for the first time. I
have been using a Mac since December 2010. By default Laz 0.9.30
released version was disastrous. Most of the defaults of the IDE was
just terrible. Many dialog didn't look like Mac dialogs and
components. eg: LCL buttons are rectangular, or rectangular with
rounded edges and sometimes round (like actual Mac button). Most
buttons in the Lazarus IDE was between option 1 or 2. So how do you
call this "native" when all buttons in Mac apps are rounded?


> lol! You always claimed that looking native is irrelevant, so how can
> you criticize Lazarus now for not being native enough?

For my projects and toolkit that is indeed the case. But we are
talking about LCL here, which does have that "native look and feel"
goal. I think that goal is maybe reached on Windows and Linux. The Mac
support is still far off target.


> Why do you care about what we are doing? You don't use the LCL anyway.

I use Lazarus IDE which is a "showcase product" of LCL - isn't it?


> Plus, LCL users are not stuck to the native controls, if you don't
> like the native controls you can use a custom drawn version:
>
> http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Custom_Drawn_Controls

Funny you mention that. Isn't that exactly the opposite of what the
Lazarus project is trying to achieve? Or are you now agreeing that the
native LCL controls are just not good enough, or flexible enough, so
you have to resort to custom drawn controls?

So what is the Lazarus project going to do now? Wait to see what
Embarcadero releases, then start the whole catch-up game again -
always being two steps behind.

Now just to be clear, it is amazing you guys got as far as you did.
The LCL is very fragile and prone to break [just look in Mantis]. On
the other hand, I think Lazarus IDE (at least under Linux) is great.
Why? It's not a Delphi IDE clone. The IDE has unique features that
make it a better product. So developers want to use it. LCL is a
clone, always behind what Delphi does, cannot innovate or be original.

Don't shoot the messenger. I was simply quoting what Embarcadero
developers think - they should know, as they develop the product you
guys are trying to clone.

-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -