Lazarus

Here’s a quick introduction. Pascal is a programming language designed to encourage good programming practices. Free Pascal is a professional compiler for the aforementioned Pascal programming language. And Lazarus is a integrated development environment (IDE) that uses Free Pascal for rapid application development (RAD) purposes. Or to put it on other words, Lazarus is a visual IDE for RAD using Free Pascal.

Lazarus is a cross-platform application. This means it is available for all major operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. You’ll quickly get it up and running, no matter if you have a PC, a Mac, or a Linux-powered machine. Getting it up and running on a Windows PC is a particularly simple task. You need only download an installer, run it, and then follow the instructions presented by a setup wizard.

You can use Lazarus to create a graphical Free Pascal application, a simple Free Pascal command line program, a console application, a Free Pascal shared library, an InstantFPC program, and more. You can use Lazarus to create all sorts of applications, including file browsers, image viewers, database applications, graphics editing software, games, 3D software, medical analysis software, and so on. The applications you create can be open source or commercial.

Speaking of which, I have to remind you that Lazarus is free and open source software released under a GNU General Public License (GPL).

Lazarus is used by programmers, scientists, students, and developers all over the world. It’s popular because it is a properly good IDE. Get it yourself and use it to develop all sorts of applications.