Github has some repos but mostly dumps of old Delphi projects, not really a great resource.
https://github.com/search?q=Rust 85,885 repository results
https://github.com/search?q=delphi 9,938
https://github.com/search?q=pascal 9,259
* Open source Delphi/Pascal are shared elsewhere?
* Delphi Programmers do not like to showcase or open-source their projects?
* Delphi/Pascal is used to create mainly proprietary software?
Either way, I think that for Free Pascal to prosper in the long term, something should change. Perhaps more open source projects published on Github/Gitlab.
You are confusing "hard to find" with "less". There is way less projects on github (the original question specifically mentioned github). However 9,000 is still a big number and one can find virtually anything needed from a practical standpoint. On top of that both delphi and lazarus come with huge system libraries.
C++ for example dwarfs delphi on github. However when I am doing C++ I am looking for very few projects in very specific areas (network, file management, db connectivity etc). Suddenly your choice becomes not that big when you separate all the noise.
Also whole bunch of delphi projects are located elsewhere due to various reasons. Hence my advice to ask Google.
Finally delphi projects tend to be rather large and high quality, check this one for example: https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasvulkan or other repos from the same guy.
https://sourceforge.net/directory/?q=rust 27 programs
https://sourceforge.net/directory/?q=pascal 2268I have to admit being a prick in this particular matter. Not being able to find subject when search on Google, Githab etc reveals a ton of info I think says something.
One extra thing. I do use Linux and find it very useful. Do I need to abandon it because Linus is not a shining example of polite person?
I've done some Pascal coding, and this lack of libraries or projects is for me a practical impediment. Freepascal (and Delphi) come with very complete stdlibs (if they are called that), but I'd not be satisfied with merely Python's stdlib either. On top of that, string handling is imho very uncomfortable in Pascal, feels like nothing changed much in 20 years. I found a recent Freepascal university course, but source files with 10kLoC do not make it helpful to get started.
So, while the Freepascal forums seem helpful, it's a meager resource if that's basically all the community is.
Having said that, the next version of FPC will support dynamic packages. They had to change some things in how RTTI is stored, apparently, to accommodate the OS differences (this may break some programs that use the RTTI structures directly, though the fix is trivial and 99.999% of programs wont be affected - even some of my own code that does touch RTTI directly works fine in both the latest stable version and the development version).
However chances are Lazarus will still keep using the recompile approach for some time since it'll need to work with FPC 3.0.x... and also it will take some time to update all packages to work dynamically.
Anyway, what i'm trying to say, this was done due to technical issues and compiler limitations due to what FPC and Lazarus have to support and remained an issue for a long time because in practice it didn't make much of a difference. However it will soon be solved.
Delphi has for some years the possibility to work on more then just Windows, and still is a breeze, regardless if I targeting Android or Windows, to just "here is the package, put the component on palette" with just 2 clicks.
I really hope Lazarus will come home, like you say, with this, since Delphi is not targeting ARM in Linux, while Lazarus does. We'll see what future holds, as I have no problem using one or the other as long as the compiled project works on its intended target. Also regarding RPI, I can just install Android on RPI4 and Delphi will have no problem targeting that
In any case i was referring to Delphi in general from the start. Delphi had support for dynamic packages since version 1, but for decades they only supported Windows. FPC on the other hand had support for multiple OSes before even version 1.0 was released.
TBH i do not remember the exact details, but IIRC it had to do with memory management, symbol resolution and RTTI support across DLLs (e.g. being able to do something like "Foo is BarClass" in DLL A, Foo is an object instantiated in DLL B with a class that is only available on that DLL B but descends from a class defined in the main program whereas BarClass is a variable holding a virtual class defined in DLL C that also descends from the same class - essentially tying to merge in RTTIs from different AOT compiled modules where none has a complete view).
And of course the fact that it was a low priority issue since there wasn't any major practical drawback (personally the only issue i had was that i couldn't share the RTL and LCL between executables that i'd otherwise package together, meaning that the produced executables would take more disk space than necessary since each executable is having their own copy of the RTL and LCL instead of using them from a shared object/DLL).
I do have fun playing with them though, trying to learn each what quirks lurks around. I mean one example is above I said - Delphi can target ARM if it's Android, but can't target ARM if it's Debian. So I can run on RPI something Delphi cooked if I have Android there, but if I have Raspbian I can't. Same hardware, different OS, such a hard nut to crack :). While if it's Intel and you have Linux, guess what - Delphi owns it.
So for now I am switching between IDE's/Frameworks all depending on availability of technology and most importantly what client(s) want.
Here's the wiki page on component authoring:
In general IME on Linux the best approach is to install FPC (either from repositories or, better, using the official release) and then download the Lazarus source code and compile it somewhere in your home directory with 'make bigide'. This will avoid any problems with Lazarus packaging that often tends to be broken (again, IME).
You can see the whole process in this video i took a couple of years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_01Xhd2EJM
(this is making a simple puzzle game)
I'm basically doing the same procedure for many years now and i never had an issue with getting Lazarus or any of its packages to work.
The community is really a nice bonus, too.