On Sat, 3 Jul 2010 13:58:56 +0100 jjb <[email protected]> wrote: > Are these people users of Lazarus in their day jobs or is Lazarus just a > hobby that they don't ever expect to use professionally? For some it is a hobby, some use it for commercial stuff. Perhaps you want to take a look here: http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Projects_using_Lazarus
> I only found Lazarus by accident it seems to have a much lower profile than > other open source stuff (eg python, php, java etc). > Is there a reason for this? Pascal is the reason. > I guess I'm asking in a roundabout way if this community is growing. There are more mails daily than ten years ago, so it looks like the community is growing, but not very fast. > One of the issues always brought up is price. Lazarus doesn't have this > problem so I wonder > if price is a factor in Delphi's relative unpopularity. No, it is Pascal. Many people see it as an inferiour language only used for teaching. Other languages have a much higher hype-factor. > I believe that C++ is the language of the serious game developers. I also > believe that object pascal provides > almost the same power as C++ but without a lot of the pain. Correct me if I > am wrong as I don't know any of this from experience > only from reading. Don't forget that assembler is used even in modern games routinely. But regarding your question Object Pascal is well up to the task, especially with the great FPC compiler, which is able to produce very efficient code, but commercial games have been written in Delphi as well. Remember that game programming is no easy task. It needs a good understanding of higher level math and often physics. Nowadays you have to be able to programm your graphics hardware really well (meaning OpenGL or Direct3D is a must), which adds another layer of complexity. And for a current AAA title you need at least 5 artists (graphics and sound) for every programmer (6 - 10 of these should be enough), a big marketing department and more than 10 Million dollar to invest. ;) Hope this helps a little bit R. -- A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail? -- _______________________________________________ Lazarus mailing list [email protected] http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
