Will Lazarus support 'dynamic package' in the future ?

[tranminhchien]

The Topic name is also my question
I am a user of Lazarus, and i love Lazarus. Because it free and good.
But, up to now, Lazarus haven't supported dynamic package yet. I think it is a big problem
I will wait for the reply of all people

Best Regards

[Leledumbo]

If you dig in the forum and mailing list, you'll see it has been discussed in the past, with all possible (dis)advantages. First, it's not an easy task. Once it works for a platform, it should work for all. It must be started from RTL level (so there will only be 1 RTL shared by all packages and the IDE) and even we might need special format to export classes. There were attempts in the past but they all fail and seem dormant today.

Release versions might benefit from it, but development version (trunk) will not, since PPU format changes nearly daily. Moreover, executables might depend on them (unless we still provide static linking option which of course double the installation size) and welcome dependency hell.

It's not a big problem anyway given a decent system. Rebuilding the IDE takes seconds only, could be faster when the internal ELF linker is done for all ELF platforms.

[marcov]

But, up to now, Lazarus haven't supported dynamic package yet. I think it is a big problem

Why exactly?  What do you need exactly?

[tranminhchien]

Thanks for all replies
i'm a Vietnamese. So, my English grammar could be wrong 
I just want to write some simple package for Lazarus and share for all people (some metro style control)
My computer isn't strong to compile Laz IDE 
Without this problem, i think Lazarus is so good

[tranminhchien]

It is take me about 15 minutes to rebuild Lazarus, but i don't know the reason why
My computer :
Ram 1 Gb
Win 8 32 bit
Cpu Dual Core (2.6 GHz)
Main Gygabyte
HDD : 320 Gb

[CaptBill]

Thanks for all replies
i'm a Vietnamese. So, my English grammar could be wrong 
I just want to write some simple package for Lazarus and share for all people (some metro style control)
My computer isn't strong to compile Laz IDE 
Without this problem, i think Lazarus is so good

Sounds like you want to create components. Don't see why you would need "dynamic packages". Sure you don't mean "controls" or "components"? Or maybe .lpk files? All these you can create in Lazarus.

[BigChimp]

@CaptBill: yes it sounds like he wants to create components. His problem seems to be the speed with which Lazarus recompiles, not the process...

@tranminhchien
Yes, 15 minutes seems a bit long. Some tips/remarks:
1. Lazarus is faster on Linux than Windows, so you might consider that.
2. Make sure your virus scanner does not do on-access scans in your Lazarus directory (default c:\lazarus) as this slows down the build process. Periodic full system scans are fine though... as long as you're not rebuilding Lazarus at that time.
3. Make sure you don't perform a Clean Up + Build All build but a Optimized IDE (or Debug IDE if needed)whatever build (see Tools, Configure Lazarus and see Profile to build)

Regards,
BigChimp

[tranminhchien]

Thanks for all replies
i'm a Vietnamese. So, my English grammar could be wrong 
I just want to write some simple package for Lazarus and share for all people (some metro style control)
My computer isn't strong to compile Laz IDE 
Without this problem, i think Lazarus is so good

Sounds like you want to create components. Don't see why you would need "dynamic packages". Sure you don't mean "controls" or "components"? Or maybe .lpk files? All these you can create in Lazarus.

I know, it isn't hard to write component in lazarus without 'dynamic package', but i think it'll be better if lazarus support this feature

[BigChimp]

I know, it isn't hard to write component in lazarus without 'dynamic package', but i think it'll be better if lazarus support this feature

This may be lost in translation, but:
1. There have been a lot of requests for dynamic packages, but
2. The work needed to implement that is quite large and
3. No work on it is being done.
In other words, if you really want it, you can implement it yourself and offer patches to FPC and Lazarus, but as said, it's a very big task.

Otherwise, saying it's useful/better to support this feature will unfortunately not change the situation...

[tranminhchien]

I know, it isn't hard to write component in lazarus without 'dynamic package', but i think it'll be better if lazarus support this feature

This may be lost in translation, but:
1. There have been a lot of requests for dynamic packages, but
2. The work needed to implement that is quite large and
3. No work on it is being done.
In other words, if you really want it, you can implement it yourself and offer patches to FPC and Lazarus, but as said, it's a very big task.

Otherwise, saying it's useful/better to support this feature will unfortunately not change the situation...

Oh ! I know it's difficult and hard to implement this feature, too. Thanks for all replies

[BlueIcaro]

It is take me about 15 minutes to rebuild Lazarus, but i don't know the reason why
My computer :
Ram 1 Gb
Win 8 32 bit
Cpu Dual Core (2.6 GHz)
Main Gygabyte
HDD : 320 Gb

May be the problem is not Lazarus. I think the problem is with your PC, it's a little bit tie for W8. may be you need more ram to run W8, or considere move to Linux

/BlueIcaro

[motaz]

I think the easiest solution is to increase RAM, if dynamic packages has been introduced and it took from 1 to 2 years, sure tranminhchien will change his computer during this time, and he will not feel big difference between dynamic and static linking of components

While writing components in Lazarus you will not need to recompile it all the time you have done changes to your component/package. You will need it only when you have introduced a new published property/event, or you have modified one.

[Leledumbo]

Ram 1 Gb
Win 8 32 bit
Cpu Dual Core (2.6 GHz)

I can see one main problem here: too new Windows and too low spec. Newer windows are slower and tend to eat more resources. You should consider switching to Linux for development, they have a lot of distros capable of running in low spec computers with acceptable speed. Something with LXDE / XFCE desktop should get you started. Don't forget not to enable smartlinking on Linux because we still don't have internal linker and GNU linker is not so efficient in handling many object files.

[Martin_fr]

It is take me about 15 minutes to rebuild Lazarus, but i don't know the reason why
My computer :
Ram 1 Gb

It probably does a lot of swapping, because it needs more RAM.
This is most likely happening, when the message-window says "linking"

You should switch of smart linking, that uses a lot of memory. This could help speed up thinks.

Also un-install any package, that you do not need.

[tranminhchien]

Thank you . I will try Linux. I have never used Linux before