[Lazarus] The future of the Lazarus IDE

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sun, 24 Nov 2019, Florian Klämpfl via lazarus wrote:

> Am 24.11.19 um 11:54 schrieb Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus:
>> The point is that Lazarus does not and cannot cover all aspects of a 
>> typical
>> larger project. 
>
> No, but if I really need it, I can develop it easily myself because I 
> know Object Pascal. Even simple things like adding support for 
> Ctrl-Alt-Shift-I to add an internalerror number for the compiler (which 
> took me maybe 15 min with lazarus) would be an endeavor of several days 
> with VS Code for me. I wouldn't even know where to start.

Same here :-)

>
>> Editors like VS Code and Atom can, given the huge wealth of
>> plugins that exist out there.
>
> After the Firefox/Thunderbird plugin disaster, I try to ignore and never 
> depend on any functionality provided by plugins. It could be gone with 
> the next update/upgrade.

I am aware of this problem, and that is why I think npm is such a disaster.

But fair is fair: 
Lazarus is going the same way with their online package manager.

>> 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.
>
> It doesn't help if VS Code even cannot do simple things right like 
> zooming of the source code window or keyboard navigation in the menu.

Actually, the zoom was demonstrated on thursday on Be.Delphi 
(too show that VS Code works well on high DPI, in difference with Delphi).

So it should be possible somehow. I know Atom can.

>> 
>> 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: 
>
> Yes, this fits in the overall picture: app developers are proud about 
> features ("hey, my app can now copy&paste") real programs got in the 80ths.

I understand your scepticism, and share it to a large degree :-)

So, it seems we can already now be labeled "dinosaurs" ;-)

Michael.