Which linux compiler?

[M109uk]

Hi all,
I have now got mandriva on my other system, and i want to make some of my games on linux as well as windows, now im using SDL.

Im not sure which compiler to use, i have some forms and standard controls and im using file streams (although im thinking about using 'File' instead), OpenAL, OpenGL (SDLs version), Does any one have any suggestions on which compiler i should use?
I thought about Kylix and Free Pascal with Lazarus, but im not sure what units i can use in Delphi and Free Pascal :?

[{MSX}]

Hi all,
I have now got mandriva on my other system, and i want to make some of my games on linux as well as windows, now im using SDL.

Im not sure which compiler to use, i have some forms and standard controls and im using file streams (although im thinking about using 'File' instead), OpenAL, OpenGL (SDLs version), Does any one have any suggestions on which compiler i should use?
I thought about Kylix and Free Pascal with Lazarus, but im not sure what units i can use in Delphi and Free Pascal :?

Hi! actually i suggest you to forget about kylix and go with freepascal.
Streams are ported and works correctly (as well as the whole Classes unit), instead forms and buttons are way more problematic. You could try to use Lazarus but don't expect too much.
Bye!

[M109uk]

Hi {MSX}

Hi! actually i suggest you to forget about kylix and go with freepascal.

I had i try with Kylix earlier, i had a few problems running any of the compiled examples, well urm they wouldnt run :?
So its now gone

Whats the differences between the VCL classes between Delphi and Lazarus? What kind of problems would i have with the two?

Thanks

[savage]

Maybe a better question would be, What are you using the VCL for?

The VCL and LCL ( FreePascal' version ) are not very compatible.

If you are using VCL for GUI, there is a set of GUI classes and a Delphi like form editor for JEDI-SDL that you could possibly use.

[M109uk]

Hi savage,

At tht moment i am using VCL for the development tools, i could probably use the Jedi-SDL controls for this, i didnt really think of that ops:

Il give it a go

Are there any plans to make the VCL and lazarus any more compatible?

Thanks

[savage]

Are there any plans to make the VCL and lazarus any more compatible?

Not that I am aware of, but then I am not part of the FPC dev team.

[WILL]

Well the way I see it...

You can use JEDI-SDL with either Delphi, Kylix, GNU Pascal, Lazarus or FPC.

Lazarus needs FPC. GNU Pascal Compiler needs the GNU C Compiler.

Now there are working examples for JEDI-SDL for FPC and Delphi(I think maybe Kylix too). But none that I know of for any of the others.

Personally I think that your best bet is to learn FPC first and foremost. Mainly because Lazarus is built on top of FPC and if you understand FPC you automatically understand Lazarus in the way of the code you write.

There may be benifits to start using Lazarus before FPC stand-alone, and vice versa, but you should at least take a wee bit of time to evaluate that for yourself before jumpping in there.

GNU Pascal is great I'm sure. as fully compatable as GCC, but you're not really compiling Pascal code you're compiling C code written up like Pascal code. And any optimizations you make will not nessisarily reflect good Pascal code practices.

Chrome may be an option if you wanted to make .NET or Mono(I think this is the Linux version of .NET?) games. It comes in 2 flavours. Command line compiler that works with Mono and as a plug-in compiler for Microsoft Visual Studios(obviously not Linux).

As for the rest, unless you want to target PIC Microprocessors or the Palm, they won't be of much use to you.

[Almindor]

It also depends on what you want to write with it.
OOP is for example available only in Delphi/Kylix/FPC.
Gnu pascal has some OOP IIRC but it's limited at best.
I don't know Chrome so I can't say anything about it.

I'd get Lazarus/FPC combo and work with that. You can use Lazarus as
Just Another Text Editor with nice features and code pure FPC with no LCL.
I use it that way for my game and the editor features of laz are GREAT
(For example, ctrl+shift+up/down = jump to declaration/implementation)

Then if you need VCL capability you can start using LCL or design form.
Ofcourse lazarus is still beta so some things don't work yet as they should
but it's not that bad as it sounds. Most common controls are almost 100% ok.

[savage]

As for the rest, unless you want to target PIC Microprocessors or the Palm, they won't be of much use to you.

Just for everyone's infor, FPC also has some PalmOS bindings, but by the look of it, they were 1.x compatible and have not been updated for yonks.

[M109uk]

Thanks for all the advice

At the moment im just targeting Windows and Linux, im not sure about any others at the moment.
Im not really intrested in .Net, i doubt il ever want to use it, i personally dont see the point of it

Iv finally got FPC and lazarus installed (after a few problems ) i had a quick look at it, but at the moment im writting my games using Delphi.
Im no longer going to use any VCL and just use either the JEDI-SDL Controls or update my own GUI.

There are a few things im unsure about:
Im using several functions and types from SysUtils and Classes, can FPC/lazarus use these units or do i need to copy the functions to a seperate unit?

How would i get lazarus to compile my Delphi project? Do i need to create a new lazarus project and import the units in to it?