[Lazarus] The future of the Lazarus IDE

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sat, 23 Nov 2019, Daithi Haxton via lazarus wrote:

> For my 2 cents, keep Lazarus as an independent, native code IDE. We do instrumentation packages for manufacturing robots, and “the Web” is simply not an option. Laz makes us at least 10x more productive than any other option (and we’ve tried other options - we still maintain code in C++ and C# using VS and it’s a nightmare compared to the Lazarus environment).
>
> What really scares us is that all the mainstream OSes are becoming so Web
> and mobile centric - the way M$ is rumbling I seriously wonder if and how
> they’ll support any native development in the not too distant future. 
> Lazarus, with it’s native abilities for Linux, gives us a clear path out
> should M$ abandon manufacturing and the desktop in general - and we are
> most appreciative!

For clarity:

The question in the poll is not meant to imply that we must abandon native development. 
On the contrary: services, processes that talk to hardware and background processes are
IMO still best done as native apps.

The proposal is just concerning HOW you program: the editor you use.

It's perfectly possible to use VS Code or any other editor that uses
web-technology for its GUI to create native apps. 
It doesn't matter to VS Code or atom whether it calls FPC, pas2js or the TMS Web compiler.

The point is that Lazarus does not and cannot cover all aspects of a typical
larger project. Editors like VS Code and Atom can, given the huge wealth of
plugins that exist out there.
If we had to set up a project today to copy functionality of all Atom or VS Code plugins, 
I probably wouldn't live long enough to see that project completed.

Lastly - but I don't know how much of an argument that is - young people are
used to sleek UIs as offered in VS Code or Atom.  The Lazarus IDE is confusing to them: 
it's origins are clearly in the RAD era, which (so I'm told) is all but abandoned today.

At least, that's some of the feedback I get.


Michael.