[Lazarus] Lazarus first contact

[Henry Vermaak]

On 29 May 2012 20:45, Mike Parr <mikeparr at live.com> wrote:
> I see:
> Looking for the latest version? Download
> lazarus-0.9.30.4-fpc-2.6.0-win32.exe (78.8 MB)

This is sourceforge trying to be clever and choose the best one based
on your browser id, I think.  For me it shows the .deb.tar, which
suits my OS (debian).

> I assume this is a Windows 32-bit version.  Not sure if it runs on Win
> 64(quite common now) or if there is a latest Linux version.
> There are no install instructions - maybe they will appear when I run it?

I'd imagine that the installer will guide you.

> There are a host of other versions below:
>    GZIP...RPM...DEB...Windows 32 Bits( is this the same as the win32exe
> above?)

Presumably, yes.

>    No idea what GZIP or RPM means.  Is the GZIP for Windows, just zipped in
> a different format?

If you follow the link, you'll see that the "gzip/zip" are source
archives (lazarus-0.9.30.4-src.zip).  It's bzip, incidentally, so
there's a typo there.  RPM/DEB is for linux, as it says in the list.
These are for different package managers.

>    I guess that Sourceforge is restricted as regards explanatory text - but
> could the versions be given clearer names?  If I want to learn programming
> from the start, Laz could be great, but there is an initial barrier.

No harm in asking here (after a quick visit to your favourite search engine :).

Henry