[fpc-pascal] Using the LCL without Lazarus

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 20:42:36 -0500
"BobJ" <rjustice004 at woh.rr.com> wrote:

>[...]
> -------- Begin web-site excerpt --------
> 
> Using the LCL without Lazarus
> 
> 1How to use the LCL without the Lazarus IDE?
> 1.1Requirements
> 1.2Introduction
> 1.3The installation process
> 1.4The settings
> 1.5The code
> 1.6Lazarus 1.2.6
> 2Alternatives
> How to use the LCL without the Lazarus IDE?
>  
> Requirements
> Things you'll need: 
> .  Free Pascal 2.4.4 
> .  Lazarus 0.9.30 

That's very old.
Current is FPC 3.0.0 and Lazarus 1.6.2.

> Tested on Microsoft Windows XP SP3. 
> 
> Introduction
> 
> You are not forced to use the Lazarus IDE if you want to develop with the LCL. You can use it directly from the Free Pascal Compiler.  

True.

 
>[...]
> 1. I have FPC ver 3.0.0 and Lazarus ver 1.6
> Should the instructions given in the excerpt be applicable with these versions, as well?

Pretty much. Although this setup adds source paths so every program
will compile the LCL, creating many copies and may result in a mess.
Where did you find this?

I recommend to simply install using the Lazarus installer. 
If you don't want to install the IDE you can do alternatively:
Download and install FPC. 
Then download the Lazarus sources (e.g. to C:\lazarus) and build them:
Make sure FPC 'bin' is in PATH environment variable, cd C:\lazarus, and
execute 'make clean all'. This will build the LCL for win32, lazbuild
and the IDE.

Whatever you chose, next do:

Add to your fpc.cfg:
-FuC:\lazarus\component\lazutils\lib\i386-win32
-FuC:\lazarus\lcl\units\i386-win32
-FuC:\lazarus\lcl\units\i386-win32\win32

Do not add source or include paths - it can create a mess and strange
errors.

Now you can use the LCL in your programs.

 
> 2. Is it safe to assume that when they say
> "You are not forced to use the Lazarus IDE if you want to develop with the LCL. You can use it directly from the Free Pascal Compiler."
> that they mean that the source code can be submitted to FPC at the command line?

Yes. Lazarus calls FPC itself.
If you use some Lazarus packages, you can build them using lazbuild.
Then add the directories containing the ppu files to your fpc.cfg, and
*only* those directories.

 
> 3. As I stated somewhere above, the FP IDE is not accessable at a practical level so, is there some other way that I can satisfy the requirements to do the following?
> 
> Start the FP IDE (included with FPC).
>[...]

I leave this open for others.

Mattias