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Author Topic: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.  (Read 16691 times)

hnb

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FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« on: August 29, 2014, 01:20:22 am »
Hello everyone. After many months of work I would like to present the first version of FreeSparta - a programming environment based on Lazarus/Typhon. It is a version dedicated to the Windows OS, with improved quality and layout. FreeSparta is available free of charge and offers “out of box” compilation for Windows (32/64) and Linux (32/64 and ARM for Raspberry Pi) platforms.

https://FreeSparta.com

There are paid commercial plug-ins available that add new functions to the programming environment (Design Tab, Form Smart Editor, Extended Design Time Utils). The paid additions include the Generics.* library known from Delphi (very compatible with it).

I have always felt a lack of certain elements in Lazarus and Typhon and this is an environment brought to a condition I always dreamt about :). I invite anyone interested to support the project - Sparta has still a long way ahead of it. I hope that this project will increase the popularity of FreePascal and will allow the whole community to spread its wings in the near future.

I would like to support Open Source on one hand and at the same time ensure professional commercial support. However, this is impossible without money. I hope that I will not be considered a black sheep. Rather than that, I hope that this is a project on the foundation of which one can build the future and ensure stable financing for FreePascal and Lazarus.

Regards,
Maciej Izak
Checkout NewPascal initiative and donate beer - ready to use tuned FPC compiler + Lazarus for mORMot project

best regards,
Maciej Izak

nomorelogic

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2014, 11:01:31 am »
I saw the video presentation, the IDE seems to be at a good level.

I have 3 questions:
1) how is based on Typhon?
2) in the rowmap I read that you want to create a new dialect pascal: fpc will not be the only supported compiler?
3) I have not read anything about debug: since the IDE is only for windows, how do you debug on a different platform?

The project is ambitious so admirable, congratulations.

hinst

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2014, 01:14:00 pm »
Not sure if it's something new and awesome or just the same old Lazarus, only slightly modified and improved
[Well, it's obviously based on Lazarus, I understand that much]

Things I liked:
Component palette can be hidden. finally. Useful for me because I spend 100% time editing code;
Buttons on Project Inspector panel don't have captions always visible. finally;
Unlike CodeTyphon, this can be installed to any directory (while CodeTyphon installs only on C:\ ) Useful for me because I need my IDEs installed on D:\ drive
Docking is enabled by default and it works;

But docking with pages or tabs still does not work at all.

Cross-compiling to Linux works out of the box; but I am not sure if this is a useful feature yet; I will try to cross-compile my large project and see if it will work

I think having something like package manager which lets user download packages from some kind of package repository instead of having them all included in installer would be a super-awesome feature.
Too late to escape fate

hnb

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2014, 02:52:09 pm »
@nomorelogic: Thank you for your very kind words.

1) how is based on Typhon?

It's rebranded "extra quality" Typhon IDE for Windows. FreeSparta is based on CodeTyphon open source parts. Only LGLP/GPL/MPL sources and GPL tools like Typhon IDE, CodeOcean, components, GDB, FPC, etc. without any freeware CodeTyphon scripts and closed source programs. I use very stable Typhon v4.8 as base (Lazarus rev. 44546, FPC 2.7.1 rev. 27327).

What is new?
  • Few new FreePascal RTL functions (Delphi compatibility and very important for Generics.* and RTTI): InitializeArray, CopyArray, FinalizeArray, DynArrayClear, DynArraySetLength, DynArrayIndex, DynArrayDim, DynArraySize, IsDynArrayRectangular, DynArrayBounds
  • more elastic IDEIntf
  • more aesthetic environment (very important for me :) ).
  • can be installed to any directory (without spaces and brackets)
  • small improvements
  • dtx_GlassDocking (Selectable headers like Delphi docked IDE)
Bug fix for:
  • Object Inspector
  • Copy/Paste in docked IDE
  • AnchorDocking/GlassDocking for multiple screens (new package dtx_GlassDocking)
Optionally to buy:
  • FPC Generics.* very compatible with Delphi Generics.* namespace (additionaly contains new associative array called THashMap. THashMap is much faster than TDictionary)
  • Form/Data Module/Frames Design tab
  • Form Smart Editor
  • Extended Design Time Utils
2) in the rowmap I read that you want to create a new dialect pascal: fpc will not be the only supported compiler?

Yes. A great deal of work is still needed in new Pascal dialect for FPC compiler... Additionally I plan to plug the new non "pascalish" language/compiler into Sparta IDE (with LCL for this new language).

3) I have not read anything about debug: since the IDE is only for windows, how do you debug on a different platform?

Sorry, at this release you can only compile Linux programs without debugging it. Debug for Win32/64 works fine.

Regards,
Maciej Izak
Checkout NewPascal initiative and donate beer - ready to use tuned FPC compiler + Lazarus for mORMot project

best regards,
Maciej Izak

hnb

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2014, 02:55:49 pm »
Things I liked:
Thanks!
I think having something like package manager which lets user download packages from some kind of package repository instead of having them all included in installer would be a super-awesome feature.
Maybe in next release. I thought about it too :)
Checkout NewPascal initiative and donate beer - ready to use tuned FPC compiler + Lazarus for mORMot project

best regards,
Maciej Izak

Leledumbo

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2014, 03:11:31 pm »
Can I just buy the design tab? However, I need it to work on Linux.

miquelmatas

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2014, 03:36:10 pm »
Hi Maciej,

I love your project. Nice FreePascal/Lazarus Development System.

 ;D

Cheers,
Miquel.

--
Cheers.
Miquel.

janvb

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2014, 07:29:12 pm »
I am a bit puzled since you make a commercial product including GPL source and don't distribute the source code?

Don't take me wrong, I welcome your initiative, but I question if what you do is legal as it seems to me that you violate GPL/LGPL text by not distributing source ?
« Last Edit: August 30, 2014, 07:47:04 pm by janvb »

hnb

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2014, 08:25:40 pm »
Can I just buy the design tab? However, I need it to work on Linux.

Yes you can, but for Windows only :) (Sparta Basic = design tab + generics.*). I will upload features matrix pdf soon.

I love your project. Nice FreePascal/Lazarus Development System.

Thanks! ^^

I am a bit puzled since you make a commercial product including GPL source and don't distribute the source code?

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Faq#Can_I_make_commercial_plug-ins_for_Lazarus.3F

GPL allows each user to build his own (modified) IDE, containing closed source parts. It only may not be distributed in the linked together form. FreeSparta is free with full source code. Sparta commercial plugins (Sparta Basic, Sparta Starter, Sparta Professional) are closed source - they are installed separately.

Regards,
Maciej Izak
Checkout NewPascal initiative and donate beer - ready to use tuned FPC compiler + Lazarus for mORMot project

best regards,
Maciej Izak

jwdietrich

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2014, 08:47:56 pm »
This is an interesting project. Is a version for Mac OS X available (or in preparation)?
function GetRandomNumber: integer; // xkcd.com
begin
  GetRandomNumber := 4; // chosen by fair dice roll. Guaranteed to be random.
end;

http://www.formatio-reticularis.de

Lazarus 2.2.6 | FPC 3.2.2 | PPC, Intel, ARM | macOS, Windows, Linux

hnb

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2014, 07:09:46 pm »
This is an interesting project. Is a version for Mac OS X available (or in preparation)?

Sorry, not in the near future.
Checkout NewPascal initiative and donate beer - ready to use tuned FPC compiler + Lazarus for mORMot project

best regards,
Maciej Izak

LA.Center

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #11 on: September 01, 2014, 12:51:57 pm »
great to see more commercial initiatives with Lazarus/FPC, this will make it more popular, hope you succeed with your business plan.

Cheers

LA.Center

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #12 on: September 01, 2014, 01:38:43 pm »
PS:
Suggestion from a business prospective, I would not use the Word Free or Sparta in my product name.

I mean I get the synonym :) but the world reacts better to familiar names like Builder, Code, Fast, Cross, Super, etc... or if you intent to make a trademark you should go with names that are not associated with any location/folk/race like for example Compas, Fastpas, EasyBuild etc.

one of Lazarus's misfortune is that it uses the Free Pascal Compiler, which is a trademark but believe me if the word Free would not be in it, Lazarus would be used twice as much.

Just my two cents :)

Take care.

jack_

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2014, 11:47:34 am »
"Download for free!" should be possible without registration. Believe me - many people don't want to give you e-mail for just download unknown software.
You lost some users because of that, or you get many users with http://10minutemail.net

Better make a download page with place that user CAN leave e-mail - that's versus MUST.
Example: http://www.aptana.com/products/studio3/download

hnb

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Re: FreeSparta - "commercial" plugins and new Lazarus distro.
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2014, 08:07:24 pm »
@plusplus

Thanks for your directions! The name FreeSparta will rather remain as it is.  :)

@jack_

Thanks for your advice. For some time the registration will continue to be in its current form. Possibly, the free version will be made available to download without the necessary registration, however the download of the trial version, which is currently being created, must be preceded by the obligatory registration on the website.

Regards,
Maciej Izak
Checkout NewPascal initiative and donate beer - ready to use tuned FPC compiler + Lazarus for mORMot project

best regards,
Maciej Izak

 

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