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View Full Version : Just tried to convert a project to Lazarus



Sly
12-01-2005, 10:50 AM
After suffering a few moments where D2005 just halts for several seconds, and one occasion where it locked up for a minute and then came back running slow and making my application run dog-slow, I decided to give the latest Lazarus a go.

Oh boy. I thought it would be fairly easy.

The "Convert Delphi Project to Lazarus Project" menu item allows you to select a DPR (not a BDSPROJ which is a shame), but then it does nothing. So much for converting the project. Next up I asked it to convert my main unit of the D2005 project to a Lazarus unit. This converted the DFM as well. Cool. Most of the hard work should be done.

Ok, next up is to add the library paths. Where's that done? In Project/Compiler Options. Ok, I'll add them in here, but this means that I have to add the library paths for every project that I create. That's not good. Add that to the obscure and unintuitive dialogs that are a bit hit-and-miss to work out how to use them.

Compiling brings up a thousand and one hints, notes and errors. Trying to fix them is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. One of the errors was that an undeclared type TTextMetricsA. Did a find in files in the Lazarus directory tree and found it declared in several places (that's a maintenance nightmare! Declare it once), with absolutely no obvious file that I had to add to my 'uses' clause. Windows and ActiveX were already in the uses clause. What else do I add?

After finally getting it to compile (after recreating a Lazarus form from scratch), when trying to run it in the debugger I got a message along the lines of "Oh no! An error has happened in the debugger. Save your work and hit Stop. I'm gonna bail!". Oh-kay.

I'll just go back to D2005, shall I? Eeek! Lazarus deleted by DFM when I asked it to convert it to Lazarus form.

After re-creating my main form, I'm back in D2005 and running along nicely (for D2005, that is). Lazarus is a nice project, but it still has a long way to go in the user-friendliness stakes.

jasonf
12-01-2005, 01:47 PM
I can't even make a simple forms application in Lazarus let alone convert an existing Delphi project. I get some GTK errors or something.

Still, It's good as a basic IDE, it would be better if it handled a few things differently but I imagine these things will come in time.

Lazarus is getting better with time, Delphi is getting worse. :?

{MSX}
12-01-2005, 02:39 PM
I agree on that.. I've found lots of problems too, as i've already explained in another thread some time ago.
Nevertheless, i'm using Lazarus almost exclusively in the last month. But i'm not using VCL at all, and i don't have all features i'd like to have..

Bye

Lightning
12-01-2005, 05:07 PM
Why don't you guys report the bugs, write to the list, try to fix some.
Lazarus is far from perfect but it's usable at least for me, hmm on Linux it worked just fine, now it works well on windows too, try getting the CVS sources, and the latest versions.

jasonf
12-01-2005, 05:15 PM
I generally don't report bugs.. especially on something I'm quite new at.

1, I don't want to report something as a bug when the chances are it's something described in the documentation I've not fully understood..

2, No-one likes having their software criticised and there's nothing more demoralising than pages of bugs, the developers may alrady know about the problems anyway and will get around to it when they can.

3, A badly reported bug is more damaging than the bug itself, it takes developer time to investigate only to find it's a not really a bug so in my current level of non-knowledge, I don't think I'm qualified to report bugs yet.

Give it a few weeks, I'll have researched the 'things I think are bugs' properly and I'll report them.. but the chances are, they'll be fixed by then anyway 'cos my issues are all relatively trivial.

cairnswm
13-01-2005, 06:14 AM
I think Lazarus is fine if you are doing a project from scratch. I would not like to try convert a project to lazarus from Delphi.

I havn't played with the LCL very much because the only private project I am working on needs quite a few freeware components I have downloaded and I dont feel up to converting them all to lazarus.

For my games (no LCL or VCL) I will probably give lazarus a try. (I use the previous release as I found it more stable).

If you have a problem - send a message to the Lazarus email list and get their input. They are very friendly and gave no negative comments to the few issues I have raised. If they agree its a bug it will be registered as one anyway. Also they may be able to improve your understanding of the issues and therefore get your answers quicker than trying to do it yourself.

jasonf
13-01-2005, 10:39 AM
Well, so far, I've converted 3 projects from Kylix to Lazarus, with varying degrees of compilation success.. but that's mostly down to me.

My main project works fine, I converted that by using the 'Create new project from file' option.

This morning, I tried to use the Convert Delphi project feature on a simple Delphi game (No forms, no components) it said Impossible in the output window.. perhaps this code is unfinished.. No worries though, I used the tried and tested Create new project from file option and it worked (mostly...)

I have some form based tools I'd like to convert but I don't think Lazarus is capable of it at the moment, not a problem though. I'll just use the windows binaries I have already.

Almindor
15-01-2005, 12:28 PM
Most of your problems are truly yours. Actualy I didn't find a single bug in those things you sayed. The probem with unintuitive menu's is mostly a windoozer overdoze.
The others (missing declaration) are connected with the way that lazarus isn't delphi. It's quite different and oh god help me I'm glad for that.
Lazarus is NOT a delphi clone. It just tries to be as compatible as possible. You must also realize this means it's a one way lookup. Borland pays no attention to FPC/Lazarus and therefor may brake this compatibility even intentionaly.