[Lazarus] Please define "delphi compatibility"

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:

>> Long answer without any status, official nor unofficial:
>> Lazarus is open source. Who contributes, determines.
> 
> An official answer will determine how we can contribute and move the
> project forward.
> 
> eg: Could we modify and improve the LCL components (in ways Delphi's VCL
> doesn't compare), as long as we keep the "Delphi converter" in sync for
> a seamless one-way "Delphi to Lazarus conversion"?
> 
> 
> What frustrates the hell out of me about the Lazarus project is the
> sheer lack of giving straight answers. The Lazarus project is run by a
> team of developers. A team is supposed to work together towards one
> goal. But THIS team seems to mostly dodge any specific answers, and
> every developer for himself. Just like the help file format issue, and a
> few others. I know of no other open source project that is so disorganised.

But there are few if any open source projects that are so wide-ranging. 
Lazarus (and ancillaries) is not just a straightforward compiler 
processing a well-defined language where correctness can be tested, it 
covers everything from parsing source as it's read into the IDE through 
the IDE and widget sets' aesthetics to the mechanism of incorporating 
packaged extensions.

As with most if not all open source projects, if we don't like it we can 
fork off. However my own position is that I trust the core developers, 
who are effectively defined by their understanding of how the code works.

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]