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A comment on Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop application?.

Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by open-source-ux on Saturday April 08, 2017 @10:03AM (#14066937)
Lazarus is a cross-platform IDE for native desktop applications on Windows, Mac and Linux. It produces fast, low-memory, single executable files for easy installation and deployment. Your app can use native OS controls - you won't be gluing together different libraries from different languages like you do with some scripting languages (with all the bloated size and performance issues that entails).

Why isn't it more popular? Because it's written in FreePascal: a modern, object-oriented version of Pascal. A lot of readers will stop right here and never this give project another glance, the thought of using Pascal as simply too outdated or embarrassing.

If you do give it a try, you'll discover one of the best and most overlooked options for native desktop app development. Any downsides? A major one in my view: poor and patchy documentation (which will be a barrier and block for many).

https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by binaryapparatus on Saturday April 08, 2017 @12:20PM (#14067647)
+1 for Lazarus. Great cross platform development tool that creates _native_ UI. I use it occasionally and have only nice things to say.
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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by vram22 on Saturday April 08, 2017 @08:04PM (#14069763)
Good points.

I did this a few months ago:

Digital Clock created in FreePascal / Lazarus:

https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2017/04/digital-clock-created-in-...

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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by martinrame on Saturday April 08, 2017 @12:30PM (#14067693)
+1 using it since ages.
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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by nkkollaw on Saturday April 08, 2017 @11:59AM (#14067525)
Why FreePascal..?

This is suicide.

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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by jonathonf on Saturday April 08, 2017 @12:13PM (#14067597)
Something a little less hyperbolic might be better, e.g. what specifically is wrong with FreePascal?
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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by nkkollaw on Saturday April 08, 2017 @04:55PM (#14068978)
The fact that the project is not popular because of the language it's written with..?
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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by jonathonf on Saturday April 08, 2017 @07:26PM (#14069636)
Why is FreePascal unpopular (or what makes you say that)?

Is it lack of mindshare, lack of "hotness", some specific deficiency, or... ?

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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by nkkollaw on Sunday April 09, 2017 @02:26AM (#14070799)
I just read what the comment said:

> Why isn't it more popular? Because it's written in FreePascal: a modern, object-oriented version of Pascal. A lot of readers will stop right here and never this give project another glance, the thought of using Pascal as simply too outdated or embarrassing.

Personally, I've never heard of the framework and FreePascal would definitely be a reason not to adopt it for me, as I'm not familiar with how to fix problems should they arise, while I would be able to troubleshoot an app written on Java or better yet NodeJS.

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Re:Ask HN: What would you use to make cross-platform desktop... by concede_pluto on Sunday April 09, 2017 @06:22PM (#14074650)
Free Pascal seems to have all the memory safety drawbacks of C and C++, which I stopped using seriously years ago.
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