by J.R. Powell

Created on: June 02, 2011   Last Updated: April 21, 2012

The Lazarus IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is software that can be used to create computer programs. It is similar to Delphi, however the Lazarus IDE is open source and available for free. With Lazarus, applications can be created that use forms, buttons, edit boxes, etc. similar to what is found in commercial applications like Delphi or applications in the Visual Studio software suite. Lazarus comes with Free Pascal, an open source version of the Pascal programming language.

• Installing Lazarus

The Lazarus software can be found a http://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus/files/

There are different Lazarus program files available at the above link for various operating systems. Select the relevant option according to the system you will be installing the software on.

Once you have downloaded the installation file, run the installation program to install the software onto your system.

Note that, if you do encounter any problems with the installation of Lazarus or running the software, or programming problems, there is a Lazarus support forum that can be reached by selecting "forum" at http://lazarus.freepascal.org/.

• Running Lazarus

Click on the Lazarus icon or select the Lazarus program from your programs directory (if using windows Vista, if you installed it into the default location, from the "Start" menu, select "all programs", select the Lazarus folder, then click on Lazarus. The Lazarus software should now run.

• Creating a Lazarus Application

For the tutorials in this guide, first create a new application:  From the menu, select "File", then "New ...", then "Project-Application".

On screen should now be displayed a form, labelled "form1", the form is where various controls can be added, for example 'edit boxes' where a user can enter text, buttons that a user can click, etc.

• The Object Inspector

The Object Inspector should also be displayed (by default on the left hand side of the screen). The 'properties' tab of the Object Inspector allows you to view or set many of the properties of an object (such as a form, edit box, button, etc), for example it's name, on screen position and many more.

The 'events' tab of the Object Inspector allows you to create a function that is run when a certain event happens, such as a user clicking on a button, etc.

• The main section

In the main section of Lazarus, by default at the top of the screen, as well as where a project can be loaded/saved/compiled

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>