[fpc-devel] Project Idea: Mini-FPC

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

Michael Van Canneyt wrote:
> On Sat, 10 Sep 2011, Jeff Duntemann wrote:
> 
>> If a "mini-FPC" were to be created to help popularize the Pascal 
>> language and get beginners interested and up to speed, it would be 
>> more useful to provide a simple IDE than a stripped-down compiler. The 
>> console FP IDE has never worked well for me (crashes a lot) and 
>> Lazarus is very large and intimidatingly complex. I'd rather see some 
>> effort put into an easy-to-install beginner's programming environment 
>> than in pulling features out of the compiler. I know this isn't the 
>> forum for that discussion, but I did want to make the suggestion.
> 
> Maybe more effort should be put in the 'education' version of lazarus.
> Someone already started this.

I was hoping to put some time into the IDE, but in practice am using 
Lazarus now even for console apps.

One thing that does occur to me is that the sort of cut-down compiler 
that the OP has suggested is probably very similar to a minimal 
compiler+libraries combination that would be a useful timesaver when 
trying to get a new port or version to the "Hello, World!" stage. Is 
there a makefile target that will do this?

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]