[fpc-pascal] Workaround for #0011837 (FPC <= 2.2.2 with GTK >= 2.13)

[Vincent Snijders]

Giovanni Premuda schreef:
> Vincent Snijders wrote:
>>
>> Anybody (also Giovanni Premuda) anyone spread this all over the 
>> Lazarus site 
> OK, I had the wrong impression that the lazarus docs where editable only 
> by insiders, as the main site seems to be.
> 
Good, Lazarus is essentially a community project.

> So:
>> by posting forum messages 
> Done

Thanks.

>> and submitting news items
> How?

I was about to point you to www.lazarus.freepascal.org, we are in a 
process to move that to another server. Creating news items is yet 
supported in that server, you can post a message in the announcement 
forum. That will show up on the future home page.

>> , anybody (also Giovanni Premuda) can edit the Lazarus readmes and 
>> release notes on the wiki
> Done, 
> http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Installing_Lazarus#Ubuntu_.2F_Debian
>> anybody (also Giovanni Premuda) can request updates of the debian debs 
>> in the debian bug tracker.
> I don't think this is necessary

No problem.

>>
>> There are no notes on sourceforge to be edited or updated, so nobody 
>> can do that.
> Could be useful
>>
>> Anybody (also Giovanni Premuda) can spread this everywhere else.
> Done. (Ubuntu Forums)

Thanks.

>>
>> Do you get it?
> No, I would like to see this as a news item and on the FAQs on the main 
> site.

You can edit the FAQ here: http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Faq

I will ask to update the link on www.lazarus.freepascal.org to this 
page. The other page has not been updated in a long time. It causes 
confusion that there are two Lazarus FAQ pages.

For the news items see above. We are working on it.

> But it looks like you are understimating the importance of this bug:
> 
I don't think I underestimate the importance of this bug, maybe I 
underestimate the influence of spreading such a note.

> 1. Potential user (i.e. potential contributor) install lazarus.
> 2. Potential user launches lazarus and sees an ugly interface
> 3. Potential user searches around and finds out that he can rebuild 
> lazarus with GTK2 interface
> 4. Potential user rebuilds lazarus and... the rebuild doesn't work
With the note known to everybody all stays the same, until here.

> 5. Potential user thinks: I knew it was to good to be true
And is surprised by the rapid progress of Lazarus in 2009 when he tries 
it next year.

> 6. Potential user is neither user nor potential anymore
Let's just acknowledge the fact that Lazarus is not yet ready for him.

I propose a 5A and 6A.
5A. Potential user searches around and finds the note about ignoring 
linker errors and gets a gtk2 based Lazarus and creates gtk2 apps.

6A. He hits an annoying bug in the gtk2 based Lazarus, which is not 
present when using gtk1. He says, I knew it was too good to be true and 
potential user is no user anymore.

I rather prefer to spend my time on finding solutions.
 > 1. Potential user (i.e. potential contributor) install lazarus.
 > 2. Potential user launches lazarus and sees an ugly interface
That is why I am trying to help with the fpc 2.2.4 release, so that we 
can release Lazarus 0.9.28 with gtk2. Others have to improve the gtk2 
support in Lazarus, I cannot do that.
 > 3. Potential user searches around and finds out that he can rebuild
 > lazarus with GTK2 interface
That is why I am preparing a 0.9.26.2 release (based on gtk1, because of 
stability reasons). If somebody prefers beauty over stability, then they 
can rebuild Lazarus with the gtk2 widget set, because the Makefiles and 
the IDE know how to add the linker flag for fpc 2.2.2.

 > 4. Potential user rebuilds lazarus and ...
It remains to be seen how many will become Lazarus contributors. It is 
true that gtk(2) has no special maintainer, much unlike the other major 
widget sets (carbon, qt, win32 and wince).

Vincent