Lazarus Component Library
The Lazarus Component Library, abbreviated LCL is a visual software component library for the Lazarus IDE.
The LCL consists of a collection of units that provide components and classes especially for visual tasks. It is based on the Free Pascal libraries RTL and FCL. By binding platform-specific widgetsets it supports platform-sensitive software development for several operating systems including Android, Desktop Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.
Currently (summer 2013), the development status of widget toolkit interfaces is roughly as follows.
| Widget set | Supported Operating Systems | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Windows API, GDI | Windows | Mainstream use |
| Windows CE API, GDI | Windows CE | Mainstream use |
| GTK+ 1.2.x | Linux (via X11) | Deprecated |
| GTK+ 2.8+ | Windows, Linux (X11 and framebuffer) and Mac OS X (via X11) | Mainstream use |
| GTK+ 3.x | As Gtk2 | Alpha |
| Qt 4.5+ | Windows, Linux (X11 and framebuffer), Mac OS X | Mainstream use. Works in Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Maemo, etc |
| Cocoa | Mac OS X | In progress |
| Carbon | Mac OS X | Mainstream use |
| fpGUI | Windows, Windows CE, Linux (via X11) | Initial stage |
| Lazarus Custom Drawn Controls | Android, Windows, Linux (via X11), Mac OS X | Initial stage |
The plan is to write a new GTK3 backend from scratch, because the GTK2 backend was no clean implementation and inherits GTK1 traits.
Further reading
- Michaël van Canneyt; Florian Klämpfl (2012), Free Pascal (Free Pascal 2 ed.), Computer & Literatur Verlag GmbH, ISBN 978-3936546729, 393654672X
- Michaël van Canneyt; Mattias Gärtner; Swen Heinig; Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho; Inoussa Ouedraogo; Jörg Braun (2011), Lazarus, Böblingen, Germany: Computer & Literatur Verlag GmbH
- Michaël van Canneyt; Mathias Gärtner; Swen Heinig; Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho; Inoussa Ouedraogo (2011), Lazarus - the complete guide, Blaise Pascal Magazine
- Roderick Person (2013), Getting Started with Lazarus IDE, Packt Publishing, ISBN 978-1782163404, 1782163409