A Newbie Question – Text Editor Mode Versus Lazarus

[MrPink]

I started a forum thread in July, and had several helpful responses. At that time (as now), I was using the standard Free Pascal text-mode IDE. Coming from a Turbo Pascal past (1985-2014), I was personally rolling back into programming mode, focused on a single-task, facilitated by the need to write a single program.

Dusting off my cobwebs, I wrote that program and it served my needs. The old familiar editor got me by, whilst the forum made the case for my Lazarus IDE immersion. My July trailing thought was to future-invest in Lazarus at a later date. I took to heart a comment by a contributor (Curt Carpenter), who said: “for my money a few hours learning your way around the Lazarus IDE is a terrific investment, even if you're only interested in text-mode programming.” That sounded like the thing to do.....

I have a textbook on the subject (Menkaura Abiola-Ellison) which focuses on the Object Oriented Program (OOP) aspect of Lazarus. I can see where the OOP tool would be quite valuable for active programmers, especially when starting a program from scratch and employing that convenient building-block approach.

I am an occasional programmer, who will likely only use my current program – and build upon it for various extended needs. The OOP seems like overkill for me, even though Lazarus is very capable and well designed. So, rolling back to Curt’s thoughtful recommendation, here’s my question: What are the reasons Lazarus will be a “terrific investment” for me, even if I just do text-mode programming?
Thank you,
MrPink

[TRon]

...
I am an occasional programmer, who will likely only use my current program – and build upon it for various extended needs. The OOP seems like overkill for me, even though Lazarus is very capable and well designed. So, rolling back to Curt’s thoughtful recommendation, here’s my question: What are the reasons Lazarus will be a “terrific investment” for me, even if I just do text-mode programming?

Lazarus itself is merely an IDE (and in basics that is all it is).

It provides a development environment and while in itself is created with OOP (components) has nothing to do with how you program your own code.

You can create OOP programs in the text-mode IDE as well (in fact the text-mode IDE itself is written in/with OOP although using old style objects).

Any program can make use of OOP when you want to. I use that myself all the time when writing (non GUI) command-line tools.

As an IDE, Lazarus itself can be customized in such a way that you do not have to bother with all GUI related programming and can remove "items" such as f.i. the object inspector, component palette etc. so that it can become a very minimalist looking source-code editor.

The benefits are:
- being able to use a desktop environment to develop your code
- able to make use of a graphical debugger
- able to use different build modes
- able to use project groups
- have modern editor windows with lots of possible customization, help from code-tools such as code completion and lookup, macro's, user defined shortcuts etc etc.
- integrated help (ok, the text-mode IDE has that as well but the GUI version is a lot nicer to work with)
- be able to use other GUI programs alongside the editor (I personally find it tiresome to switch between text-mode and desktop apps)
- probably lot's of other things I forgot.

If and when you feel the need you can always try to dip your toes into developing a GUI application. At least you would than already be familiar with how to use the basic functionality of the Lazarus IDE.

[MrPink]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question; very thorough. For as long as I’ve used the text-mode IDE, I just need to take the plunge and get comfortable with the Lazarus. I have a productive personal-tendency to jump to my next task (wearing the blinders) and not invest. However, my current calendar affords the leeway to actually-partake of that invest.

I will dabble with it and see what comes. The positive for me is this forum. If I struggle with this or that -- I’ll just send up a flare.
Thank you,
MrPink

[TRon]

You're welcome MrPink.

I encourage to at least give it a try.

Personally I have issues with certain things (for instance code-tools tripping over new (trunk) features)) but in basics everything that you/we don't like can be turned off.

And indeed in case you do encounter issues or have questions then feel free to ask.

Good Luck !

[marcov]

I think it really depends on what you want to do. You don't have to program a different style if you just want to make the programs you always did.

You can make the same programs, just taking a bit care that you set the right mode for them (Lazarus can be a bit persistent forcing $mode objfpc on you)

But you get the added advantage of identifier completion and better source navigation.