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Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages

38 points sysrpl 1 hour ago 9 comments

sysrpl 1 hour ago | parent

I am pleased to announce the first release of full dynamic package support for the Free Pascal Compiler and the Lazarus IDE. This feature has been a long time coming for the FPC ecosystem and has taken more than 20 years to realize through the work of many FOSS individuals.

Dynamic packages allow programmers to create and install components, controls, and Lazarus extensions in seconds without rebuilding the entire Lazarus IDE. They can also be used in by Free Pascal programmers to develop and deploy plugins that expose native Pascal classes and types through dynamic package libraries. To support this functionality, I have made numerous improvements to the compiler, its runtime, and the Lazarus IDE. I have also created additional IDE extensions to improve the experience of working with Lazarus packages. Read more at the link above.

andsoitis 1 hour ago | parent

Congratulations!

Pascal/Lazarus/Delphi strike such a nice balance of responsiveness in the development lifecycle.

sysrpl 59 minutes ago | parent

Thank you. This has been a long time coming, perhaps 20 years in the making. I realize people are moving on to newer languages and frameworks, but there is just something special about older versions of Delphi and now Lazarus that makes it so much easier to write desktop software than most other frameworks. You can just drop components on a form designer, press run, and in a second's time you have a program. Of course there is more to it than that, but with dynamic package support, users can make or use components even faster as they no longer need to rebuild the IDE to install or uninstall native code.

pjmlp 37 minutes ago | parent

Congratulations on the achievement, and to everyone that made it happen.

Similar to Delphi packages I assume.

phba 24 minutes ago | parent

Awesome work. It's great to have a FOSS alternative while (Embarcadero) Delphi gets worse with every new release.

Pompidou 34 minutes ago | parent

Good Thanks.

mathiasdpx 25 minutes ago | parent

big news for the last three Pascal developers alive

kristianp 9 minutes ago | parent

This seems to be a fork of Lazarus. The official Lazarus is at https://www.lazarus-ide.org/