Getting Started with the Lazarus IDE

Get to grips with the basics of programming, debugging, creating, and documenting projects with the Lazarus IDE

Overview

• Creating new projects
• Create components for use in Lazarus.
• Documenting Lazarus project.

In Detail

A good integrated development environment can be the key to creating and delivering software on time and budget. Having a programming language and a development environment that runs on multiple platforms greatly eases and lessens the time taken on creating cross-platform applications. An IDE that is compatible with a legacy code base allows developers to leverage existing libraries in future applications.

"Getting Started with Lazarus" is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a number of clear step-by-step exercises, which will help you take advantage of the power of the Lazarus IDE and Free Pascal to develop software that can be created for cross-platform use.

"Getting started with the Lazarus" discusses developing software with the open source cross platform integrated development environment and the Free Pascal language.

We'll learn how to install Lazarus on various platforms such as Linux and Windows, as well as how to create new projects and convert existing Delphi projects to Lazarus projects by learning the differences between Delphi's Pascal syntax and Free Pascal's Object Pascal using a real world example project.

We'll learn how to create custom components for use in Lazarus. We'll also learn the basics of documenting a Lazarus project using the Lazarus Documentation Editor.

Finally we will learn that the IDE can be rebuilt using a different widget type, specifically GTK 2.

Teach yourself the basics of programming with Lazarus and the open source IDE for the Free Pascal language.

What you will learn from this book

• Install Lazarus on different platforms such as Linux or Windows.
• Learn the basics of the Lazarus IDE such as the menus, the Object Inspector, and the Source Code Editor.
• Create new projects with Lazarus such as console applications and GUI applications.
• Debug Lazarus projects.
• Convert an existing Delphi project to a Lazarus project.
• Create new components for use with Lazarus GUI applications.
• Document a Lazarus project using the LazDE tool.
• Rebuild Lazarus on the Windows platform using the GTK 2 widget set.

Approach

This book is written in a simple, easy-to-understand format with lots of screenshots and step-by-step explanations.

Who this book is written for

This book is geared toward developers that have a familiarity with Delphi or Free Pascal and would like to start using the open source Lazarus Integrated Development Environment. You should have knowledge of creating a console and GUI applications as well as creating basic components. Example source code and projects are provided to help learn the differences between Delphi and Lazarus projects.

Roderick Person

Roderick Person has a varied background in the corporate IT field. For the last 14 years he has been a programmer for one of the top ranked health systems in the United States. He is experienced with developing applications in Delphi, Free Pascal, Python, SQL, and other languages. He is also an advocate of leveraging open source applications in corporate environments.