DeleD Community Edition

[trucker2000]

There are so many choices. Too many. I downloaded one of the older delphi compilers becouse it was free. When I attempted to install it, it demanded a code from delphi.com. That address said the compiler was out of date and not supported anymore. No code, no finished install.
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Some day I will grow up and be a real modeler.
"Never give up! Never surrender!!"
Sys specs:
asus
8 gigs ram
Invidia gtx560 video card
Windows 8 (worst op sys Ever)

[paul_nicholls]

Hi trucker,
as you found out, I dont' think there are ANY free Delphi compilers available anymore unless you use cracks/serial keys.

I believe the free turbo delphi version have been discontinued now too

Freepascal/Lazarus IDE is free, but I think there are currently quite a few Delphi GUI bits that are not directly compatible or convertable with freepascal/Lazarus IDE.

cheers,
Paul
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Long live DeleD!

Hi ho...hi ho...it's off 3d modeling I go...

[Paul-Jan]

There is currently NO free compiler on the market that will compile the DeleD sources without modifications. DeleD was made with Delphi, a professional (and rather costly) development environment.

We are aware that this is a rather large hurdle for those willing to take a shot at an open source project, it's just that converting the code to compile through a free compiler like FreePasal/Lazarus is a rather big undertaking at the moment.(*)

From the upside (from the project perpective), 95% of the developers that speak Delphi/Pascal already have a copy of Delphi at their disposal. It's the industry standard for Win32 Pascal Development.

If you can get your hands on a Turbo Delphi Explorer 2006 (a free edition) you are good to go, but according to Embarcadero (the company behing Delphi) it´s officially off the market (some russian sites still offer it for download, but I guess that wouldn't be legal then). There also used to be a free Delphi 6 Personal edition that would work, but again: officially pulled off the market probably means illegal. Just as illegal as the billion cracked Delphi 7 copies floating round the internet.

Rumors (from a trusty source) are they plan to bring out a free/cheap version of Delphi again in the near future. So good news there, although it would mean having to port DeleD to unicode (not a big problem, and might be nice for bonus for users outside eur/usa).

(*) It would be great if we could find someone to do this, but it would require an experienced freepascal developer with a a huge amount of time and commitment...

[chronozphere]

I do have the Turbo Delphi 2006 Installer + a working serial. Since the product was free anyway, I don't think it's wrong to share these.

It would be the easiest way of letting people contribute until a FPC compatible version of the source is made (I don't see that happen any time soon).

[chronozphere]

I just found the following link:

http://www.turbomirror.com/

Here you can download BDS2006 including all it's dependancies. I'm not sure whether license-file/serial are included. You might be able to get them if you register at the embarcadero developers network. If not, I could provide my files to make it work for everyone.

This is great because BDS2006 is the most appropriate version of Delphi to use for this project IMHO (I know it's old, but it works great).

[trucker2000]

Delphi 7 is no longer available. I have delphi 6, but understand there are problems with it.

[oliebol]

Every solution has a problem:

== Turbo Explorer ==

Turbo Explorer (or any other free Codegear product in the future) has several problems Codegear/Borland had a consistent problem that they don't have a free version forever, and that the regular course changes might terminate the program entirely (as now has happened with TE).

Aside from that, note that Turbo Explorer can't install design time components.

I don't know if there are forms with designtime components on them, but it could require some reengineering to support TE.

This also includes some components that normally come with Delphi like tspinedit (and the rest in the "SAMPLES" tab) and tchart (which is external but packaged with delphi)

=== Just buy a license ===

The problem with the "Serious devels have a commercial Delphi license" avenue, is that they will all have a different version, and that some will
start to update, while some are left behind.

While this was always hard since it forces you to support old versions with myriads of ifdefs, the unicode-generics of D2009+ make this more painful.

The missing of a say Eur 100-250 pricepoint version is dearly missed here.

(well actually they let you upgrade trials sometimes for upgrade price, so make sure you registered with some trial in their databases if you think about getting a cheaper license but are in no hurry)

=== Lazarus ===

Lazarus has problems too. No MDI, changes in TImage etc etc.

Probably the most work initially, but the most sustainable long term. There will be nuisances due to changing version, but at least all will go at approx the same time (and an old version will remain working forever, and can be freely shared if you need a ref version)

=== Conclusion ===

I would start with Lazarus directly no matter what. The other options are not sustainable. I would also not let this wait till there is somebody available, it should be a responsibility of all

(because then only sb will be interested in an year, and even if he is not overwhelmed because he has to do it alone, it will take another half year before he really gets going, and so maybe in total two years before you have something workable)

At best have a "keep it working with Delphi" backup to not stiffle working on the codebase entirely while the migration is in progress, but make clear it is temporarily.
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Marco V

[dazza101]

I am new to DeleD and haven't programmed in Pascal for 20 years... but was recently looking at free compilers and found Lazarus, which can (apparently) compile Delphi Code with some mods. Not sure if this is useful, but thought I would mention it

[adr]

Good fine. I dont know the code myself, but I'll help the people that do know it and want to help.

[Paul-Jan]

Good find indeed. "some mods" is actually "a whole lot of mods", but it should be doable by a fairly experienced freepascal developer. See earlier posts in this thread.

[chronozphere]

http://www.andyaska.com/?act=download&mode=detail&id=34

Just wanted to share this with you guys. It is a modified stripped-down version of turbo delphi. Looks really handy to me. Not sure it's legal though.

[oliebol]