Quote Originally Posted by Bendito
I'd like to create some graphical apps, 2D and 3D, perhaps even some games for the Linux platform.
Good choice!

Quote Originally Posted by Bendito
I'd like to stick with Pascal, so I assume first of all, Kylix. But maybe FreePascal is pretty nice, too?
They're both avaiable, but SDL compile on Kylix better than on FreePascal.
If you want to to use freepascal, you have to modify a little bit the headers or maybe download the last cvs version of Jedi-sdl.
I think you'll better start with kylix.

Any 2D APIs for Linux?
SDL is the most commond, it is extremely easy to use.
I'm really impressed by Gnome. Is it possible to use the GTK+ library (the API for Gnome) with Kylix, and make Gnome graphical apps and games?
Well there are some libraries that i have succesfully used to get GTK on Kylix, that you can find here:
http://gtk2forpascal.sourceforge.net/
Unluckly, if you use GTK you can't use kylix to build your forms, since kylix is statically bound to QT (an older version, too).

When you create an app with Kylix will it run under Gnome? If so, surely the underlying API is accessible? Surely Borland have created Pascal headers for the GTK+ library?
It depends on which library you include in kylix. Here some rules:
If you use standard forms in kylix, you'll need to distribute a library (something like libborqt.so) and it will work fine.
If you use GTK, you have to distribute nothing, and it will work on system with GTK.
If you use SDL, you have nothing to distribute and it will work on system with SDL.
The underlying api is always accessible with the library you choose. Note that QT was originally designed to be C++, so the api conversion wraps that around (and there comes the needs for the stupid library, i guess)

But would Gnome be too slow for a 2D scrolling game (think of something like Panzer General)? I like games which make use of the underlying windowing system (rather than having to switch resolutions to a full screen), as long as speed is not compromised.
For 2D games, you can use SDL, which run both windowed (in whatever window manager) and fullscreen.

I hear nice things about SDL. Is it good for fast 2D games?
Yes, it is good. I'm currently using it. It's "fastness" depends on the support for your video card hardware capabilities, but usually it's good enought.

For 3D I reckon I'll stick with OpenGL. I hope that's not impossible with Kylix.
It's possible. You can use SDL for 3d (which integrates OpenGL in a very nice way), or plain OpenGL.

Remember that SDL is completely cross platform, so your game will compile for both windows and linux.

If you're interested in GTK, you can take a look to Lazarus, a freepascal based open Delphi clone. It have a visual designer based on GTK (and on other libraries too!).
I think it still needs lots of code to reach maturity, but it is very interesting.