Lazarus Release 4.0

[Martin_fr]

I installed/ uninstalled Lazarus 4.0.0 in Linux (Mint Cinnamon) several times.
Now the “modern” design is gone. I uninstalled and then installed *dock*.lpk - still no modern look.

Menu: Tools > Options.

Towards the bottom of the "Environment" section is an entry "Anchor docking" (or similar). It needs to be enabled there.

That page is only available if the package is installed. If you have a new installation it should be installed by default.

[CM630]

Perfect, now I have a modern IDE!

[Hansvb]

Hi,

If you set a breakpoint and run until the breakpoint and you keep the mouse above the variable, you get a yellow screen showing the contents of the variable. This yellow screen is neatly placed under the mouse If you then open a breakpoint or a call stack screen and put it on the second monitor and let that screen be active and then hold the mouse over the variable, then the yellow screen with the content is much smaller and is in a different location. Or it is very large and only half in the picture.
I have a laptop screen with a high resolution and a monitor with a lower resolution. It seems that Lazarus does not like the resolution difference.
(Windows 11, laptop screen 2560x1140 and the monitor 1920x1080).

[Martin_fr]

If you set a breakpoint and run until the breakpoint and you keep the mouse above the variable, you get a yellow screen showing the contents of the variable. This yellow screen is neatly placed under the mouse If you then open a breakpoint or a call stack screen and put it on the second monitor and let that screen be active and then hold the mouse over the variable, then the yellow screen with the content is much smaller and is in a different location. Or it is very large and only half in the picture.

Yes, this is known. Its a limitation of the DPI support => The IDE only support a single DPI for all its windows.
The OS then scales windows that are on screens that differ.

But that leads to that calculations get wrong. The effect you describe happens if
- the IDE windows with focus
and
- the IDE other window you hover over
are on different screens.

Because then scaling is done with the wrong factor => and that means even the top/left of the hint is incorrectly scaled.

[Hansvb]

Ok. It's not a bad thing either. If you know it, you can take it into account.

[rcamprodon]

The Lazarus team is glad to announce Lazarus 4.0.

Thanks for your great work! Lazarus is still my first option to build desktop  applications. I have tested other possibilities in C, C++ and nothing compares to the easy installation and usage of Lazarus.

[TBMan]

Do you have to un-install the previous version or does the 4.0 installer take care of everything?

[Martin_fr]

Do you have to un-install the previous version or does the 4.0 installer take care of everything?

I would recommand to uninstall first. Your settings are still kept (at least the win uninstaller will keep them, unless you chose otherwise / checkbox).

Though in many cases, if you do not uninstall it works when you do a "clean rebuild" after install (a rebuild is needed anyway, if you have packages installed).

If you are on Linux/Mac you can keep the FPC and FPC-source parts, since they have not changed (unless you skipped several versions of Lazarus).

On Windows instead of an uninstall, you can remove/delete all files from the installation folders (assuming you have a normal install, and your config therefore is in C:\users).

The only reason why an uninstall/delete may be needed is because sometimes (between version) files have been moved to new location. The installer does not remove the old ones, and when the files suddenly are in 2 locations, then that can cause problems.


To find the location of your config (if you want to back it up)

Menu: View > Ide Internals > About IDE

In the window that opens look for "primary config path".

This is were all your config/settings are. Including which packages are installed.
And usually also any packages that you downloaded with the online package manager.

About packages.

When you start the new IDE first time, it may give some warnings. Your installed packages will not be active. But the IDE still knows them.

Menu: Tools > Build Lazarus using profile ....
That will restore them.

Mind that 3rd party package (online package manager) may need to be upgraded to work. If not the compilation may give errors, or the rebuild IDE may not work correct (there will be a "lazarus.exe.old" in that case).

So if you have OPM packages, open the OPM and update them.

[TBMan]

I'm wondering if, for my use of Lazarus, if "it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies. I'm running version 3.8

[Martin_fr]

I'm wondering if, for my use of Lazarus, if "it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies. I'm running version 3.8

Well, read the release notes and check if any of the new stuff is important to you.

But also keep in mind, there are many bugs fixed. You may not have experienced them (not yet), but should you run into one of them, then you will need to check if it is still present in 4.0. Because no one who could help you would know (or be likely to spent the time to figure it out).
Also there will be no further update to 3.x. There will be no 3.10 (there are a very few further fixes in the branch, but they are only available when building from source from the branch)

If you are on Windows, you can do a second install. This is completely independent of the first install, so you can have both versions.
But if you want to keep using a project in the 3.8 version you should make a copy "menu project > publish project" to use in 4.0.

That would allow you to know if 4.0 is worth it for you. And also, if you run into any bug, you can test if it is resolved in 4.0.

[TBMan]

I un-installed and installed 4.0 - so far so good. I rebuilt a couple of projects and they seem fine, thanks.

[Hansvb]

Hi,
I wondered if this was made this way on purpose or if it is an unexpected feature. I had added a few options to the editor's toolbar while Lazarus was in anchordocking mode. If anchor docking is turned off, these extra options are gone. Turn your anchor docking back on and they're back.

[Martin_fr]

I had added a few options to the editor's toolbar while Lazarus was in anchordocking mode. If anchor docking is turned off, these extra options are gone. Turn your anchor docking back on and they're back.

Afaik (need to be double checked), the content of the Editor toolbar is part of the "Desktop" => i.e. "active desktop" / "debug desktop" / ...

Anchordocking has its own set of desktops (since within the layout window positions are different).

So the toolbar has its own config too.

[Hansvb]

2 different settings can be useful. I was just curious if this was set up that way on purpose.

[CM630]

On one of the devices (Win 10 64 bit) after updating from Lazarus 4.0rc3 32 bit to Lazarus 4.0 32 bit when creating a “New Project -> Application” I get
Acces violation.
No other info, no other hint.
Pressing “Ok” results in the same message box over and over.
“Abort” result in a message box titled “Read error”. It contains

Access violation.
Access violation.

and a “Cancel” button. When I press it, Lazarus gets closed.