Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages

sysrpl

I am pleased to announce the first release of full dynamic package support for the Free Pascal Compiler and the Lazarus IDE. This feature has been a long time coming for the FPC ecosystem and has taken more than 20 years to realize through the work of many FOSS individuals. Dynamic packages allow programmers to create and install components, controls, and Lazarus extensions in seconds without rebuilding the entire Lazarus IDE. They can also be used in by Free Pascal programmers to develop and deploy plugins that expose native Pascal classes and types through dynamic package libraries. To support this functionality, I have made numerous improvements to the compiler, its runtime, and the Lazarus IDE. I have also created additional IDE extensions to improve the experience of working with Lazarus packages. Read more at the link above.

Pompidou

Good Thanks.

kristianp

This seems to be a fork of Lazarus. The official Lazarus is at https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

HexDecOctBin

Last time I tried Lazarus, the strangest feature that FPC was missing when compared to Delphi was being able to declare variables anywhere (as opposed to only at the top of a block). FPC is still stuck in a very C89 model of declarations for some reason, perhaps that's just what happens when ecosystems stagnate.

sizzzzlerz

Is Pascal used much these days. I learned it way back in the 80s since several of my MSEE classes used it. Professionally, I never used nor heard of it being used except for Apple. I'm sure it has evolved since the dark ages to incorprorate more modern programming techniques but with the wide range of languages available today and the fact that it is rarely taught anymore, why might some decide to use it on their project?

publlus_enigma

Well done to the entire team behind this! I haven't programmed Pascal since the 90s, but I always appreciated the design philosophy and tools like Turbo Pascal for rapid development. I find myself becoming increasingly disillusioned by many modern/popular languages, development methodologies and frameworks (particularly around interpreted languages lime JavaScript and Python), so I will check this out!

Perenti

I love Free Pascal. I've tried using claude/codex/qwen to write in it, but all the models seem to love writing uncompileable code, and ending up in fearsome knots over it. It's my number one "knock something together that just works" language for humans though.

ethin

I would love to use Lazarus, but the UI toolkit it uses has some very bad accessibility bugs that make it practically unusable with my screen reader. FreePascal's love of syntax diagrams is also a turn-off for me (I've always preferred things like EBNF or similar for grammar notation).

rurban

Anthony: Whats "dynamioc library support"? Is that a typo in the commit message?

fithisux

It may find its way into MoonCompiler, if not already there https://github.com/Moonbot-Tech/MoonCompiler

yonisto

Congratulations! This is a great achievement. How do you handle base address assignment on windows?

devilrider

Is that a virus-version fork? No source, no installer?