[fpc-pascal] What to do to get new users

[Marco van de Voort]

Op 16-10-2024 om 15:50 schreef Ștefan-Iulian Alecu via fpc-pascal:
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> 4. a proper VSCode extension (we can include Vim and Emacs there too, 
> but the main focus is VSCode) with all the bells and whistles more 
> established extensions have. I know we would all want to stick to 
> Lazarus and we all know that VSCode is bloated, but we have to accept 
> the reality that people do use it and it is really popular. Survive, 
> adapt, overcome. :-) OmniPascal was a nice attempt, but it's dead and 
> also closed source;
>
To paraphrase GJC, I came, I provided the resources and I overcame.

> 5. some form of describing projects that's (ideally) separate from 
> Lazarus; it brings 1-4 together, as well as helping the following 
> items in one form or another;

Does VSCode have a project system then nowadays?  I thought that being 
projectless was the main feature of VSCODE.

>  10. more widespread usage of PasDoc, or a solution like it, and 
> improve how the documentation is displayed within Lazarus itself. We 
> *really* have to insist on documentation and tutorials, since a lot of 
> parts of the RTL and FCL might as well not be documented, with no 
> examples;

There is fpdoc, and the FPC docs are quite ok. The problem is contributors.

> It would be absurd to expect the Free Pascal team to do all of these, 
> everyone's already stretched thin and overworked. More people that 
> could develop FP would be nice. Notice that all of the things listed 
> above *don't* involve changing the language in any way (maybe changing 
> Lazarus, but not by a whole lot).

Agree. In practice the best solution is to try to rise through the ranks 
and become a bugreporter and triager, delivering good quality patches to 
core, and maybe have a bunch of own projects on the side. Core 
developers are usually recruited from those ranks.


> We can't be an insular community, otherwise we'll die surrounded by 
> the sharks of misinformation or of old age.

Or because we spread ourselves too thin. Having dreams of an ivory tower 
that somehow restores equilibrium ( new developers > old developers) is 
easy. Making the economics work is much harder.

Attempting to whipold and tired Lazarus developers into submission to 
work on vscode plugins IMHO it doesn't make sense. In short, I think the 
new IDEs developers must come from the new developers ranks, those who 
actually believe in it.