Should a new forum be created for Pascal, ie programming language issues?

[vfclists]

Should a new forum be created for Free/Object Pascal, ie programming language issues?

Something similar to the fpc-pascal mailing list http://lists.freepascal.org/lists/fpc-pascal/.

I am more of a mailing list man because you get to keep all the information in your mailbox on your own computer (for good, no Gmail dependencies there) and the guys there seem to really know their stuff but the forum seems to reach a wider audience.

My approach to Lazarus and Delphi has mostly involved creating user interfaces to databases, and I has not involved the kind of deeper programming that requires greater knowledge of algorithms and advanced language features, but I see the need to learn more about those areas.

I also think it will help those new to the language as well. I have created a poll as well.. Go ahead and vote.

[Zoran]

I totally agree. People ask pascal questions all the time and get answers to these questions. It is obviously a common attitude that, although officially this is Lazarus forum, it is also the right place for all FPC related talks. This is why I believe that Pascal topics should have their own part — a subforum at least, but perhaps even a forum section with more than one subforum.

[BigChimp]

Posting my Pascal question and answering others' in the General/programming section has never been a problem for me.

The advantage of splitting it out would be easier searching etc but newbiew will probably be confused about where to post: in the Lazarus or Pascal section. Therefore I suggest letting things remain as they are...

(And yes, the mailing list is quite useful for FPC questions).

[eny]

To someone new to the language it might not always be obvious if his/her question is a Pascal or actually a Lazarus question. So its good to have a place where you can ask both (here).

[JanRoza]

In my opinion keep it centralized in this forum, I prefer to find all my answers in one place instead of many. I think everyone here is willing to answer questions about Pascal as well as about Lazarus.
 

[User137]

Actually the Programming - General seems to fit for language questions.

If you have other vague question that relates some way to Lazarus, there is another forum section Using the Lazarus IDE - General

[sarason]

There are enough subdivisions for Lazarus at the moment. When I started to post it took a while to find this forum.
Then each question takes a while to phrase, and then even more time to find the subsection.
Life is complicated enough as it is, without adding more rules to make it more complicated.
For the people who are kind enough to contribute answers, they don't need to be following yet more forums, (yet more clicking and pointing etc.)

Sometimes the Divide between what constitutes a Lazarus vs a Pascal question is actually a blur, especially in the sort of hard stuff like the TP to Delphi/Lazarus stuff I am doing. Lazarus effectively being 6 separate compilers, and then pushing the boundaries by extending one into another.

So I am in agreeance with user137 on this one

regards sarason

[ludob]

The borderline between lazarus and fpc is very fuzzy for most of the users. SQLDB and utf8 functionality are particularly difficult to locate for most. I don't think it is in the interest of anybody to spread db info over 2 forums based on whether the underlying problem is a lazarus component problem or a sqldb problem. A lot of them are both. DB usage is already difficult enough for newbies. Don't create artificial barriers.

An important point forgotten in the poll is the question whether the people answering the questions are willing to monitor 2 forums  What is the use of a seperate forum when the people answering the questions are not following? Just look at the replies of the big posters in this thread. All of them have no problems replying to any question and don't see the use of a separate forum. We even reply to questions on Zeos, CodeTyphon and others although they have their own forum.

Freepascal has already its own forum: http://community.freepascal.org/bboards/ . It is dead because lack of participants. Any forum that falls below a critical level is bound to disappear. Please don't give that a try again. For my part I'll keep replying to any question posted here, even to the ones that are only remotely linked to lazarus or pascal 

Regarding pure pascal language questions (not rtl, not any packages) there are very few questions here on the forum that can be categorised upfront as such. Some problems turn out to be linked to poor language knowledge but rarely the original poster has identified it as such when posting.

[User137]

Freepascal has already its own forum: http://community.freepascal.org/bboards/ .

I never even knew. Is that really a forum? It looks like wiki page... Similarly i have never participated in mailing list posting, and never propably will. You must have some standards when communicating in Internet.

I'll just say it again, "Programming - General" is almost exactly the same thing as "Freepascal forum". You could aswell just rename if it's that important, nobody would see a difference. I like the current one more though.

In short, Lazarus forums are currently *the* only viable place to come discuss about freepascal. There are no better alternatives.

[KpjComp]

I already think there are two many sections.  If the forums were super busy then I could understand.  Currently if your question is not in General or LCL, I will most likely miss them, even if I could have helped.  Sometimes I will look in Database/Graphics but rarely.  The good old KISS principle applies here I think.   The fact somebody had to post a link to this in General is a case in point.

[Zoran]

In short, Lazarus forums are currently *the* only viable place to come discuss about freepascal. There are no better alternatives.

This topic is about creating a new subforum here. Of course not about new FPC forum outside this one.

I do not understand your reasons against the pascal subforum, because my reason why I support the idea of Pascal subforum is just this — I find mailing list much harder to use than this forum, so I would like to bring more Pascal talks here. This forum is still officially Lazarus only, I would like it to be both FPC and Lazarus forum in the same place. That is all.

Or... Perhaps I'm the one who missunderstood what this poll is about?

[JD]

I find myself agreeing with User137. I think Pascal issues can be/and are adequately addressed in the Programming - General section.

I would not support a new forum but I can live with a sub-forum (if others think it is absolutely necessary).

[BigChimp]

This topic is about creating a new subforum here.

I find mailing list much harder to use than this forum, so I would like to bring more Pascal
talks here. This forum is still officially Lazarus only, I would like it to be both FPC and Lazarus forum in the same place. That is all.

If the forum is officially Lazarus only, creating an FPC subforum will not by itself make that subforum fit within the "Lazarus only" policy of the entire forum.
I do agree that the forum be Lazarus+FPC...

I agree with JD and the others: I'm happy to answer FPC topics (if I can) in the general section, likewise I have no problem with fpgui etc questions being asked there.
If there are so many posts that a subforum is instituted, so be it, but I don't think the amount of posts justifies that.

On the other hand, I would very much welcome that http://community.freepascal.org/bboards/ be archived and redirect to a Pascal/FPC subforum here.
That would allow all Lazarus/FPC questions/knowledge to be bundled.

[jwdietrich]

This topic is about creating a new subforum here. Of course not about new FPC forum outside this one.

Under this condition I agree. A subforum on Pascal programming would be an enrichment of the Lazarus Portal.

[BigChimp]

On the other hand, I would very much welcome that http://community.freepascal.org/bboards/ be archived and redirect to a Pascal/FPC subforum here.
That would allow all Lazarus/FPC questions/knowledge to be bundled.

Asked for this on the FPC forum:
http://community.freepascal.org:10000/bboards/message?message_id=788898&forum_id=24102