[fpc-pascal] Re: Window Ports

[Richard Ward]

Jonas writes:

> That's really a very bad idea, unless you are only interested in  
> supporting Windows users switching to a Mac (although even for them  
> the application will feel weird after a while).

----

I will second this opinion as last week, I was trying to find a 2D  
drawing program with a hint of CAD capabilities to replace my overaged  
Canvas v 3.5.4 which only works in classic mode.   I went trough 8  
graphics programs and they either did not do everything needed and/or  
the interface was clunky.   A couple of of those are ports of windows  
apps and those tended to be the worst ones from my perspective.   I  
understand the desire to do a straight port and the learning curve to  
get up to speed in the "Mac Way" is not trivial by any means but IF  
you can spend the time, it is worth it.  Who knows, maybe in a couple  
years, PC's will be running Mac Apps and/or the Mac OS on traditional  
windows hardware as a norm? ;)

I am not too impressed with having to learn Objective C and Cocoa  
which is the official Apple path but have found using Ingemar  
Ragnemalm's Lightweight IDE on top of FPC and the the included shells  
and utility units to be less painful.    The IS a lot of things one  
must learn even in Carbon but at least with Carbon, you don't have to  
basically completely understand the entire API before writing a hello  
world program.   Lazarus might be another way to go but I have never  
been able to figure out exactly what I need and how to install it and  
then what to do with it yet.