The free Pascal compiler, Lazarus version 1.4 has been released and can be obtained for free by clicking here!
The work involved by developers to get a free Windows / Linux / Mac compiler for anyone to use is simply amazing. The work is based on contributions provided to the programmers who provide free time to get this outstanding compiler ready. Everything you need to develop a Rad type of application which is driven using Pascal is quick and easy to set up. The application works pretty much like Delphi 7 did allowing users to drop components on the forms and set up simple code for events.
Lazarus is a Delphi compatible cross-platform IDE for Free Pascal. It includes LCL which is more or less compatible with Delphi’s VCL. Free Pascal is a GPL’ed compiler that runs on Linux, Win32, OS/2, 68K and more. Free Pascal is designed to be able to understand and compile Delphi syntax, which is OOP. Lazarus is the part of the missing puzzle that will allow you to develop Delphi like programs in all of the above platforms. Unlike Java which strives to be a write once run anywhere, Lazarus and Free Pascal strives for write once compile anywhere. Since the exact same compiler is available on all of the above platforms it means you don’t need to do any recoding to produce identical products for different platforms.
The IDE is exactly like Delphi 7 and gets you quickly into executing a simple “hello world” application in less then 2 minutes. You can use the debugger which is a little harder on the Mac but pretty much works the same on all platforms.
This is well worth the time if you are in the need of coding for Linux and Mac to get something done fast.