Just finished making the template project for you.

Here it is...


Now before you can jump right in and start programming away, you'll need to do a few things first.

1) Make sure that you have Lazarus 0.9.22 installed.

2) Get and unpack the latest JEDI-SDL in a path that you will be able to remember. REMEMBER it's path!

[size=9px]NOTE: I recommend putting it under the same folder that you put all your other project files for easy access.[/size]

3) Download and unzip this folder into a folder that you will use to store your projects. The easiest way to organize each of your game projects is to have a separate folder inside your projects folder.

[size=9px]NOTE: You'll notice that there is 3 files inside of this zipped up folder.

Project1.lpi -- This is your Lazarus Project Information file. Instead of code, this file stores all of the settings and configuration specific to your project. You can use it to open your project by double-clicking or selecting it in the Lazarus Open dialog window.

Project1.lpr -- This is the main source file of your project. It is the Delphi equivilent of a .dpr file. You will be editing this the most. You can also use it to open your project through the Lazarus dialog window or double-clicking on it.

sdl.dll -- This is the dynamic SDL library. There needs to be a copy of it in either the folder of the compiled .exe you run or within the system path. Some recommend putting it into your system path, but it then becomes easy to forget that you need to send a copy of it along with your games to allow others to play it or else they need to hunt down a copy themselves. Not too many people like that, so I keep a copy inside each SDL game I make so that it's easy to just package it together. It's not very big at all so this is a non-issue for me. I'd recommend that same for you.[/size]

4) Now that you have everything else setup, you can configure your template project. Open it up using one of the 2 above noted ways. Be sure to click on the 'Open Project' option if it asks you!

5) On Lazarus' main menu go to 'Project' -> 'Compiler Options...'. A new window will pop up with a bunch of text fields and '...' buttons beside them. The top text field is where you will type in the path to the sdl.pas unit file. This is in the 'SDL/pas' path within the main folder of your JEDI-SDL installation.

5a. An easy way to find the correct path is to use the '...' button to pop open the 'path finding' tool and simply navigate to the folders you need yourself. This will also be useful as you come to need other new units that are not within the core SDL library.

6) The next one below it is where you will fill in the same path, but for the .inc file required by JEDI-SDL to function properly. You can safely copy and paste your new path from the top field into this one if you made sure the above is correct.

7) Once this is done go to 'File' -> 'Save'. Now you can use this to make a copy and start a new project from scratch from it.

To start a new project, do not alter this one. In fact create a copy by going to 'File' -> 'Save As...' and go into you own self-made project folder, create a new folder for the new project, go into it and save it to whatever you want to call the project. Project1.lpr is only the default name, you can call it whatever you want. And REMEMBER to make a copy of your sdl.dll file to the new project so that it will run!

[size=9px]NOTE: Whatever you name the project file to, is what the compiled .exe file name will be after it is compilation.[/size]


Thats it! You're done and you can start making that super-cool pong game.