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Author Topic: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor  (Read 4951 times)

trev

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A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« on: April 15, 2021, 01:20:02 am »
There have been a number of discussions in the past and currently about Pascal, FPC and the Lazarus IDE often promoting Idea X as a way to increase market share. However,  as someone perceptively observed recently, you really need to understand the motivation/reason why the current cohort of users chose FPC +/ Lazarus.

To this end I thought a poll would be a useful way to determine this. I don't want to just throw up a poll that is not fit for purpose or needs frequent revision in light of comments or turns into a discussion of why this option or that option is not available.

So, given the question "Why did YOU choose to use FPC +/ Lazarus IDE" what pre-canned answer options should be provided?

I have a few:

* Former Turbo Pascal user
* Current Turbo Pascal user
* Former Delphi
* Current Delphi user

and of course the famous

* Other [Please specify in a comment below].

Other considerations

* Should users be able to select multiple answers? I was thinking of suggesting the TWO most meaningful (eg a user may have been both a former Turbo Pascal user and a current Delphi user).

* Should users be able to change their answers?

* I was thinking of letting the poll run forever rather than limiting it to a certain number of days.

* Show the result to anyone or only those who have answered it?

speter

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2021, 01:51:28 am »
So, given the question "Why did YOU choose to use FPC +/ Lazarus IDE" what pre-canned answer options should be provided?
It might already be covered in the "Former Delphi [user]" option; but I switched due to the (high) cost of current Delphi versions (ignoring the Community Version). Maybe you need a "I am a cheap old fart" option. ;)

* Should users be able to select multiple answers? I was thinking of suggesting the TWO most meaningful (eg a user may have been both a former Turbo Pascal user and a current Delphi user).

* Should users be able to change their answers?

* I was thinking of letting the poll run forever rather than limiting it to a certain number of days.

* Show the result to anyone or only those who have answered it?
IMHO: Yes, No, Agree, Anyone (otherwise people might put in "rubbish" answers, 'cause they only want to see the results). :)

cheers
S.
I climbed mighty mountains, and saw that they were actually tiny foothills. :)

Martin_fr

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2021, 01:51:56 am »
* Former Turbo Pascal user
* Current Turbo Pascal user
* Former Delphi
* Current Delphi user
* Exposure at school/university
* Using Pascal at work
* Recommended by a friend.
* Found on google
* tobe index (when/if joined 20 years ago)
* To old, don't remember
* TV Advertisement
* Found this poll, and thought I give it a try.

Sorry, not all points are serious.

People may also have researched/compared language, and found specific features useful.
* type safety
* readability
* no inline vars / But war about it in line.

Or they might find the social part of interest
* friendly forum.


Quote
* Show the result to anyone or only those who have answered it?
If people can't see the results, they might submit a random dummy answer....

dbannon

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2021, 02:18:18 am »
.....
So, given the question "Why did YOU choose to use FPC +/ Lazarus IDE" what pre-canned answer options should be provided?

* Former Turbo Pascal user
* Current Turbo Pascal user
* Former Delphi
* Current Delphi user

Er, how about "Its the most suitable tool for the job" - that does not deserve to be lumped into "other" does it ?

* Should users be able to select multiple answers? I was thinking of suggesting the TWO most meaningful
Yes, at least two, possibly ranked answers.

* Should users be able to change their answers?
While it might be occasionally useful, would complicate things ?  Perhaps more importantly, would you allow one user to have multiple votes ?


Davo
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My Project - https://github.com/tomboy-notes/tomboy-ng and my github - https://github.com/davidbannon

440bx

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2021, 02:50:30 am »
So, given the question "Why did YOU choose to use FPC +/ Lazarus IDE" what pre-canned answer options should be provided?
My reasons for choosing FPC and Lazarus don't fall into the pre-canned options you offered.

The two reasons that were key in my choosing FPC and Lazarus are, first, FPC's support of inline assembly in 64bit. I strongly dislike C but I can tolerate it. However, when MS decided that their C/C++ compiler wasn't going to support inline assembly in 64bit, that broke the camel's back. 

The second one is directly associated with Lazarus and it is, a capable, usable debugging environment.  Lazarus is very likely the best front end to GBD.  Source level debugging with Lazarus is really good.  Assembly level debugging, that still needs some work but, fortunately, for that, there is cv2pdb which allows debugging FPC executables using Visual Studio's debugger. 

After those two key reasons, the fact that I like Pascal and I know the language definitely had some to do with it.  The fact that, in 32 bit, it is often possible to have a single source (without a bunch of {$ifdef somecompiler} in there) compile wth both, Delphi 2 and FPC is a very welcome bonus.


(FPC v3.0.4 and Lazarus 1.8.2) or (FPC v3.2.2 and Lazarus v3.2) on Windows 7 SP1 64bit.

PierceNg

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2021, 02:59:12 am »
* Former Turbo Pascal user
* Current Turbo Pascal user
* Former Delphi
* Current Delphi user

* User of dynamic typing scripting languages looking for an AOT compile-to-native language
* Former non-Windows user of C or derivative curly braces languages
* Former non-Windows user of Tk looking for cross-platform GUI RAD

trev

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2021, 03:38:01 am »
Er, how about "Its the most suitable tool for the job" - that does not deserve to be lumped into "other" does it ?

That goes without saying :)

Seriously, it doesn't capture how the user knew it was the best tool for the job. Maybe I'm asking the wrong question?.

Additional pre-canned answer: Former Kylix user (I was one)

440bx

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2021, 03:55:03 am »
Additional pre-canned answer: Former Kylix user (I was one)
Now, I have a question... why do the answers have to be pre-canned ?... doesn't that by definition, prevent getting the real reason(s) ?
(FPC v3.0.4 and Lazarus 1.8.2) or (FPC v3.2.2 and Lazarus v3.2) on Windows 7 SP1 64bit.

garlar27

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2021, 04:06:39 am »
There have been .[...]

I think this could be useful for the FPC and Lazarus teams.

Why not add the poll to every user personal information. It could be private or public user choice. The ones willing to participate can choose whatever they want and change it or updating in the future.
And the results could be shown in a link in the main page.

The poll could have any thing you think is important.

As I'm saying it's a big project on its own to do it from scratch but I think that out there might be some tools already made and freely available which could be used.

mika

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2021, 04:08:43 am »
make multi choice poll

* Former Turbo Pascal user
* Current Turbo Pascal user
* Former Delphi
* Current Delphi user

* User of dynamic typing scripting languages looking for an AOT compile-to-native language
for me native 64 bit compiler was great deal of selling free pascal
* 64 bit inline assembler
* multi platform support (as former windows user, now full time linux user)
* it is free (i'm cheap af)
* open source / community support

lucamar

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2021, 04:15:42 am »
IMHO there are so many reasons in so many categories that pre-canned answers won't capture the real reasons. Only an open-ended question can do that, so most of us would probably go for your "other" and make of this thread a "normal" one. :D
Turbo Pascal 3 CP/M - Amstrad PCW 8256 (512 KB !!!) :P
Lazarus/FPC 2.0.8/3.0.4 & 2.0.12/3.2.0 - 32/64 bits on:
(K|L|X)Ubuntu 12..18, Windows XP, 7, 10 and various DOSes.

mika

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2021, 04:38:57 am »
IMHO there are so many reasons in so many categories that pre-canned answers won't capture the real reasons. Only an open-ended question can do that, so most of us would probably go for your "other" and make of this thread a "normal" one. :D
It is only 3 category groups

1. my background (target auditory)
* former user of ...
* i can't stand [this] curly bracket  language

2. pascal language features
* i do enjoy typing "begin end;" in succession
* strong types

3. free pascal / Lazarus offer
* it is free
* IDE
* specific target/platform support

all thous 3 groups together makes a sell

maybe there should be similar poll for: "what is deal breaker"?

speter

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2021, 05:29:05 am »
Why not add the poll to every user personal information. [...]
And the results could be shown in a link in the main page.
I think this is a good idea. :)

cheers
S.
I climbed mighty mountains, and saw that they were actually tiny foothills. :)

dbannon

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #13 on: April 15, 2021, 06:13:15 am »
Seriously, it doesn't capture how the user knew it was the best tool for the job. Maybe I'm asking the wrong question?.
Maybe, I think you are asking about people's background rather than actually why they choose FPC/Lazarus. In some cases their background did determine their choice but I am quite sure that many people made their choice after considering their needs and FPC/Lazarus's capabilities.

* Easy to build cross platform GUI
* Strong typing avoids many mistakes.
* A well balanced mix of low and high level programming.

> Said 440bx :
 > Now, I have a question... why do the answers have to be pre-canned ?... doesn't that by definition, prevent getting the real reason(s) ?

First rule of taking surveys, never let responders give an answer that you don't want.

Davo
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My Project - https://github.com/tomboy-notes/tomboy-ng and my github - https://github.com/davidbannon

440bx

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Re: A poll about FPC +/ Lazarus IDE - the precursor
« Reply #14 on: April 15, 2021, 07:21:12 am »
First rule of taking surveys, never let responders give an answer that you don't want.
sounds like what trial lawyers say "don't ask the question if you don't know the answer". <chuckle>
(FPC v3.0.4 and Lazarus 1.8.2) or (FPC v3.2.2 and Lazarus v3.2) on Windows 7 SP1 64bit.

 

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