I downloaded 'FreePascal' form FreePascal.org. I went OK, I unpacked the .tar file and ran 'sh install.sh' and it created a lot of folders, all with something in them. It asked a few questions along the way, do you want this, do you want that?. To be on the safe side I answered 'y' to everything.

It suggested it was going to install an interactive IDE.

Where is it all? How do I get it to go? There are no new menu items, no new desktop icons, as far as I can see there are no changes at all!

I found some 'makefiles' which look like compiler scripts but how on earth do I get 'Hello World' to run?

How do I execute a makefile? How do I call the compiler?

I am even more confused than ever!

I downloaded 'FreePascal' form FreePascal.org. I went OK, I unpacked the .tar file and ran 'sh install.sh' and it created a lot of folders, all with something in them. It asked a few questions along the way, do you want this, do you want that?. To be on the safe side I answered 'y' to everything.

It suggested it was going to install an interactive IDE.

Where is it all? How do I get it to go? There are no new menu items, no new desktop icons, as far as I can see there are no changes at all!

I found some 'makefiles' which look like compiler scripts but how on earth do I get 'Hello World' to run?

How do I execute a makefile? How do I call the compiler?

I am even more confused than ever!

Assuming your install went fine......and i can guarantee this works for you .

not sure if you got " command "on ubuntu but i have it on kde's (kubuntu) start menu so i guess you should have it too somewhere open command (it is like the cmd in windows) and type " fpc " and enter....is something happening? I had the same happening on other distros of Linux but could open the new installed programs like this.

rcm

Well it worked! I opened a 'terminal' and typed 'fpc' and I got a huge help file. I then did fpc >fpchelp.txt and got it all in a text file.

If I can get the printer to work I will print it out and see what I have... whopee!

I downloaded 'FreePascal' form FreePascal.org. I went OK, I unpacked the .tar file and ran 'sh install.sh' and it created a lot of folders, all with something in them. It asked a few questions along the way, do you want this, do you want that?. To be on the safe side I answered 'y' to everything.

It suggested it was going to install an interactive IDE.

Where is it all? How do I get it to go? There are no new menu items, no new desktop icons, as far as I can see there are no changes at all!

I found some 'makefiles' which look like compiler scripts but how on earth do I get 'Hello World' to run?

How do I execute a makefile? How do I call the compiler?

I am even more confused than ever!

Assuming your install went fine......and i can (can't it was supposed to be...but luckily something came out..) guarantee this works for you .

not sure if you got " command "on ubuntu but i have it on kde's (kubuntu) start menu so i guess you should have it too somewhere open command (it is like the cmd in windows) and type " fpc " and enter....is something happening? I had the same happening on other distros of Linux but could open the new installed programs like this.

rcm

Any news ? is it working now?

by the way i found this too maybe it helps you ....

freepascal community

Now I have FreePascal working, I need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like Delphi on Windows which will allow me to recompile all my source.

I downloaded 'Lazarus', unpacked it and ended up with.... bugger all...

I have sniffed around the installation scripts and it kind of suggests it needs to be compiled but it doesn't say where the source code is, which compiler (Pascal,C,C++) it just does the now typical Linux thing... nothing.... There are couple of binary files called Lazarus and StartLazarus but neither responds to anything....

So it looks like another day of frustration, back to good old Windows 2000..... (joke)

Now I have FreePascal working, I need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like Delphi on Windows which will allow me to recompile all my source.

I downloaded 'Lazarus', unpacked it and ended up with.... bugger all...

I have sniffed around the installation scripts and it kind of suggests it needs to be compiled but it doesn't say where the source code is, which compiler (Pascal,C,C++) it just does the now typical Linux thing... nothing.... There are couple of binary files called Lazarus and StartLazarus but neither responds to anything....

So it looks like another day of frustration, back to good old Windows 2000..... (joke)

Hmmm. Compiling is also not my speciality since Linux is only a Hobby for me, i can't really help you a lot there. But one thing that i did visit is the ubuntu forum and that may be good help for you ....ubuntu forums

another thing that maybe useful is a good Book about Linux....

I have some but never really had enough time to open them . One of them is "Linux" from Michael Kofler . It maybe be a bit "old"(linux kernel 2.2 and alongside with the book came Red Hat Linux 6.0) but you still find basics and commands in there which may be good help.

rcm

First I think that Ubunta is a great desktop Linux distribution. But if somebody wants to dig a bit deeper, and start to do software development or starts to install of the project packages.

You better try to stick with something with the largest support group, and a distribution with all the support libraries on CD.

Ubunta is a great lite version of the Debian Distribution. Debian which for the professionals is a really great distro, also great to develop software, but not the easiest to work with also (for a beginner).

For most ex-Windows developers, I advice to switch to Fedora Core 5, most development packages available with the push of a button.

In this case “yum install fpc fpc-doc fpc-src” will install everything you need in the right folders and great a nice icon for you in the pull-down menu “programming”

Thank you Richard, you are about two months too late! I Installed Free Pascal again, Lazarus again and still could not get them to work. I nearly drove the forum people crazy!!

I gave up, deleted it all, changed my mind and refused to be beaten so installed it all again from scratch for the third time,and guess what? I ended up in exactly the same place as before!!

I then discovered an interpreted language, Python. I managed to get an application working with minimal trouble but it brings back memories of BASIC, I never did like interpreted languages although I have worked with a couple (PAL and a semi-interpreted thing...), Java is almost interpreted but lets not split hairs here!!

So I bought a hard drive which I have installed in the desktop and set up Ubuntu on that with dual boot. Now I have to figure out how to talk to the disc drive to burn, how to get at the NTFS files on the Win2K hard drive which sounds difficult for Ubuntu but possible. I want Nero for Linux!!

My hair is growing back, maybe Linux is not so bad after all...

I found out how to see the NTFS drive and it is great, I can read/write OK

I also got 'gnomebaker' with apt-get and I have just burned my first CD, it looks OK too!!

What a wonderful Saturday!!

Colin