Lets put it this way... Delphi is really 2 different products in one.

1) The Delphi Compiler that compiles Object Pascal code.

and

2) The Delphi IDE that designs the forums and has a whole VCL library that you can use to leverage the visual components of a windowed environment such as Win32.

Lazarus is much the same way. Only instead of having it's own built-in compiler it uses Free Pascal instead. So everything Lazarus or LCL is the visual stuff. And Free Pascal is the core of all of that.

I'd liken FPC more to what GCC is than Turbo Pascal though... Thats kind of the same as trying to compare GCC to Turbo C.

But for the short answer; to do RAD you need the visual IDE so that means Lazarus.


Also note that there is no DirectX for the Mac so it would probably be best to stick with a more cross-platform API like OpenGL or SDL depending on what you're needs are.

You should also know that the more deep you delve into OS specific features, ie. screensavers, control panels, settings, etc... the more OS specific code you will need. So that means more IFDEFs throughout your code. It's not necessarily bad or improper, but most experienced developers stay away from OS-specific because it creates a lot more work for you.

Imagine having 3 sets of code each for a different OS. Now you have to test each one separately. So try to do as little of this as possible at all times. Even when it's necessary.