Lazarus Release Candidate 1 of 1.4

[Windsurfer]

@Juha,

I had forgotten about the readme.txt file being shown. I  am embarrassed to say that I recently submitted a new example with no readme. I'll update that.

However, in the case of the example projects in the examples root folder, only one readme.txt would have to suffice for all. A solution might be to use a naming convention such as myprojectreadme.txt and have the IDE search for and display them. I'll follow your suggestions, and get the update done.

I agree about the Lazarus package descriptions. I only discovered anchordocking for the IDE a few days ago after reading another post.

[JuhaManninen]

However, in the case of the example projects in the examples root folder, only one readme.txt would have to suffice for all. A solution might be to use a naming convention such as myprojectreadme.txt and have the IDE search for and display them.

Better to move the example project into a subdirectory if it clearly deserves its own readme file.

[avra]

May we have messages window default colors more pastel, pretty please? 

Yes, the default colors may not be perfect. If somebody wants to change them with a patch, it will be accepted and merged to 1.4.

Proposal submitted: http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=27582

This is a typical "geek GUI" phenomenon. The author concentrated on the technical feature (which was challenging in this case), the GUI colors are low priority then.

I agree, but thanks to this this phenomena I have lost few potential VB converts in first few minutes of showing them freshly downloaded IDE with default settings. They didn't want to waste any time further on "such prehistoric IDE" and wait for me to install docking and fix default layout and colors. First impression counts to many people, and that unfortunately affects Lazarus badly.

[JanRoza]

Colors are always a matter of taste.
If a user/candidate user dismisses Lazarus just after having seen some colors he doesn't like then I think you can hardly take him serious.
If you see something new, first take a closer look at its possibilities and then judge.
They would probably have found the color settings option, but I would first want to know if the product was any good technically and compare it with the product I use. Changing colors comes way down my wishlist. 
Just my humble five cents in this discussion. 

[Zoran]

Let's see... these Visual Basic users would have adopted Pascal and Lazarus if only some colours had been different... come on. Ah, if the effort to take advantage of multi-core had not been taken at all, we would have gotten new Lazarus users! Oh, cruel fate!
 

Yes, this is surely a ridiculous reason for giving up on Lazarus. I do admit that I do prefer Avra's weaker colour palette (only I would keep strong red colour for errors), but to be honest, these colours are not important - you see them only when compiling and only in small messages window... well, how can they make that much trouble to your eyes?

[Martin_fr]

It is very well and good to argue for or against something (be that a color or something else, be it big or small, it all matters).

But bring your own arguments, or just say "to your liking".

The so called "argument", that someone (hypothetical or even real) will use or not use Lazarus for that issue has been brought up far too often.

And what kind of an argument is it? For each person who is choosing/abandoning Lazarus, there may well be another person who for he same feature makes the opposite choice.

For each person abandoning Lazarus based on that color, there may very well be a person, who only choose to use it because the colors where just like this.

And the same discussion had been had for so many other topics.

I for once are at the point, where I would ignore (not read) a request (that may even be brilliant), just because I encounter the phrase "someone is going to use/abandon the project". Well I haven't done this time, obviously.

[marcov]

Personally, I'm flabbergasted not everybody uses the Lazarus in Classic mode. The current colors are way too progressive

[howardpc]

.. I would ignore (not read) a request (that may even be brilliant), just because I encounter the phrase "someone is going to use/abandon the project". Well I haven't done this time, obviously.

Even if the reasoning is unconvincing (or even faulty) there is a valid underlying point: some developers are more swayed by style/fashion/trend/immediate-appeal than by the intrinsic merit of the principal new functionality introduced (here the full utilization of multiple cores). It may be lamentable, but avra, at least, knows it to be true.
I suppose you could argue that Lazarus is better off without such people involved, who seem to be offended by superficial, inessential details.
He has at least provided a patch to support his preference, which is aimed not only at his own satisfaction but at attracting (or at least not putting off) newcomer developers.
A better patch would have been a more complex one that enabled colour options for the messages window to be chosen (perhaps from a list of styles or themes) and saved for future use, rather than being hard-coded. Would such a patch be more likely to be accepted?

[Martin_fr]

I didn't say there was no point.
In fact, I did say that those details do matter!

I just pointed out that I find a certain way of arguing so detestable, that this style of arguing (for me) has the risk of destroying an otherwise valid and good point.

In other words, if someone writes "imho this is bad", that has to me a much higher value, than if someone writes "people will/do leave the project"

[JuhaManninen]

A better patch would have been a more complex one that enabled colour options for the messages window to be chosen (perhaps from a list of styles or themes) and saved for future use, rather than being hard-coded. Would such a patch be more likely to be accepted?

What do you mean by that? It is fully configurable already.

@avra, I think those guys were just making fun of you and your favorite IDE.
Did "prehistoric IDEs" have bright colors? IIRC no, for example Turbo Pascal 1.0 in a CP/M machine had only green text on black background.
This whole issue is a storm in a bucked, not really important. If I was asked, I would add more bright colors around the IDE. It is too grey and boring now.

[Martin_fr]

It is too grey and boring now.

But you can brighten it up as much as you like: http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/New_IDE_features_since#Multiple_user_defined_word_highlight.2Fmarkup

[avra]

Colors are always a matter of taste.

I fully agree with this one. However there is a whole science behind why certain colors match and others don't. My motivation was forward two directions. First, to replace default chosen distracting colors with pastel ones, and the other one was to choose these pastel colors from the same harmonic color wheel so they match with each other. That is the same trick how nice looking web sites have 'pleasant colors' and you enjoy browsing them.

If a user/candidate user dismisses Lazarus just after having seen some colors he doesn't like then I think you can hardly take him serious.

Maybe I have presented it wrong, colors were not the main problem. The main reason for their "prehistoric look" comments and loosing their interest into digging deeper were default floating windows without any docking. When I said that I can fix that by installing some package and recompiling IDE reply was "Are you kidding?". Then they waved their heads and continued talking. I didn't know them well and I didn't have time for any further Lazarus details. We were in the middle of the talking and I wanted few minutes of their attention to show them the powerful tool that could easily automate one of their tasks. The chance was lost, and that story happened few times with different people. When I get enough time I can show the Lazarus power and productivity waiting to be unleashed, but I get much more just 5-10 minutes in such occasions instead of 1-2 hours. My time is also limited so many times I choose to just spend 10 minutes for Lazarus promotion instead of long talks. The first time I saw Delphi was when a friend of mine gave me trial installation CD. I was immediately hooked. The true is that at first I didn't want to look at some IDE with Pascal, but he said "You won't regret it, believe me!". To be honest, he was the only reason why I looked into it. My efforts have many times less chance for success because I am usually not their friend, and Pascal is far less popular then it used to be.

A better patch would have been a more complex one that enabled colour options for the messages window to be chosen (perhaps from a list of styles or themes) and saved for future use, rather than being hard-coded. Would such a patch be more likely to be accepted

Colors can be changed from IDE. I have just proposed a patch for changing default colors into more pleasant ones.

I do admit that I do prefer Avra's weaker colour palette (only I would keep strong red colour for errors)

When you have an error editor jumps to problematic code line and people usually already have strong red background color for such lines. Besides that argument, clRed would not be in harmony with other chosen colors.

[Martin_fr]

The main reason for their "prehistoric look" comments and loosing their interest into digging deeper were default floating windows without any docking. When I said that I can fix that by installing some package and recompiling IDE reply was "Are you kidding?".

Well I understand and accept the importance of dockable windows for some people (actually I accept it, not sure if I really understand it).

And therefore I agree it is an important feature. But equally important is that this must be optional (and I do not care for if the defaut is on or off).

There are people like me (maybe there is just me, but I believe I am not alone with it) who do not want docking.
That includes, I do not want docking handles (they take space I can use otherwise), and I do not want any interference of a docking manager, if I move windows around on the screen.

So in my case (or the case of people like me, there would be waiting time uninstalling the docking.

I do not know about the size of either group. But I always wonder, if docking is so important for such a huge group, why is no one from that group volunteering to work on anchordocking, and make it stable?

[howardpc]

[This is not a response to the immediately preceding thread contributions, but to the thread title]

Where in the IDE can one set the default compilation mode scripted at the top of new units? Or is it solely determined by fpc.cfg? I've always accepted {$mode objfpc}{$H+} without really thinking about changing it.
However, with 1.4RC1 I've noticed that new projects are now generated with {$mode delphi} (and no {$H+}) and I sometimes get a dialog pointing out the discrepancy between that project setting and a different setting that shows in newly generated units.
Is this a 1.4RC1 bug, or have I inadvertently changed a setting somewhere?

[mattias]

Where in the IDE can one set the default compilation mode scripted at the top of new units?

Project / Project Options / Compiler Options / Parsing / Syntax Mode