[fpc-pascal] Easy install of FPC and Lazarus

Martin fpc at mfriebe.de
Mon May 23 16:00:52 CEST 2011


On 23/05/2011 13:52, Rainer Stratmann wrote:
> Am Monday 23 May 2011 12:23:02 schrieb Marco van de Voort:
>> In our previous episode, Rainer Stratmann said:
>>> Would it be possible to put all the needed libraries in on
>>> ~/fpc_install_xxx directory with all other programs so that lazarus looks
>>> there first for the libraries?
>> Not without system reconfiguration so that the system searched for libs
>> there, and getting this fault-free is near impossible.
> Also because of the design of lazarus.
> Instead of emulating win32 api on every other system it would be better to
> emulate for example fpGUI on win32.
>
But that is the goal of Lazarus. Provide native look and feel. Native on 
windows is the win API, and on Linux it is GTK and QT.
If you do not want that, then you can switch to msegui and fpgui.

Well Lazarus does support more than only those native ones, but they are 
an essential part of Lazarus, and removing them, is like replacing 
Lazarus by another product.
So by the definition, of what Lazarus should be, the dependencies are 
there, and always will be.

Similar for FPC. For hello world, you may not need much of a dependency. 
But include for example databases (any DB at the users choice), access 
to web servers, ...., then your fpx installation will need to pull in 
those package.

So simple provide a zipped folder with all in it, will not help.
Providing a zipped folder with all in it, will leave it to the user, to 
ensure he somehow gets all the requirements himself => that would make 
it harder.

I wonder what the exact problem is?

Let's say you had a new system, no Lazarus and no fpc installed yet => 
does the current installer do a bad job? Then it needs to be improved.
The installer should download all Lazarus/fpc (or the parts you 
selected), and pull in all dependencies. Once finish, you should just 
run Lazarus, and all does work.
If it does not, then it needs fixing.

Updates should be similar. So long as you have not modified any config 
files that you were not meant too. Again, if it does not, then the 
discussion should be, were this fails, and if it could be improved.

If 3rd party add-on package fail, then the question is, if it is a 
problem in the 3rd party package or in the Lazarus updater? And a single 
folder does not guarantee that such update issues disappear. In fact it 
can create new ones (if 3rd party stuff is in the single dir of Lazarus, 
then it may accidentally be partly deleted....)


If you try to install more than one version, I know there are pitfalls. 
I don't know how good the installer is. The installer should have 
options to specify a target director. I GUESS, where this options are 
depends on your system. At least it should, as anything else would be 
re-inventing the wheel...
But running several versions in parallel, is not just a question of 
installation, it requires special setup/config too. And yes in this case 
the use of "in-folder-config-files" rathe than config in standard 
locations (which is where they should be) have been discussed.
It is good practice to follow those standards. So that is not a Lazarus 
problem, that is how most (all?) modern operating systems are designed.



Anything else, it would be best to describe a concrete scenario, and 
point out where the problems are.

Best Regards
Martin







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