Debian releases a Gtk3 Lazarus lazarus / 32-Linux ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dbannon · 2026-03-15 11:27 So, some more news. Firstly, the deadline to fix the Debian manifestation of Lazarus (and the apps dependent on it) has been pushed back to April the 13. Maybe they considered (last) Friday the 13th too unlucky ? Today a new release of Lazarus 4.6 appeared in Unstable with a Gtk3 Lazarus binary. Seems they have taken some (or all ?) recent Gtk3 patches to main and apply them at source packaging time. I have just tried it and it seems remarkably stable but not without issues. Important thing is that if this is allowed to migrate to Testing (ie Forky) then the FPC/Lazarus apps already in Forky (which of course are not Gtk3) will not be removed. Nice. One thing to be aware of, if we see new users appearing asking questions about (Forky's) Lazarus 4.6 and Gtk3, lets remember that they are really using a 'main' for, at least, Gtk3 ! Forky is not due for formal release for another 18 months or so, so lots of time to catch up but  its necessary to use Testing to build source packages for submission to Debian and some people just like to use Testing. Davo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- paweld · 2026-03-15 11:45 Thank you very much, David, for the information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dbannon · 2026-03-16 01:45 Some Further Observations. I am a bit surprised to see that Debian "appear" to have fixed at least two annoying (one a breaker) bugs that still exist in our Lazarus Main. As well as showing a transparent Object Inspector (O.I) when the initial Project Wizard is shown, the Main version of Lazarus sometimes, usually, shows no content in the OI and,if its closed and reopened, is totally black (pictured]. OI always works in Debian version but main and Debian versions reopen the OI in micro size. The Main version does not open a project when its selected in the Project Wizard in the Recent Projects combo. Debian version works OK. Additionally, as mentioned above, closing and reopening windows such as Object Inspector or Messages reopens then with close to zero height and width. This seems a real killer IMHO and I am surprised it has ot been seen by others. Ayone else ?  I see it on my Bookworm working machine and the Unstable (Sid) VM. Can be resized if you know to look for them. These tests done on a Debian Unstable box to ensure both are using same version of Gtk3. The Debian version as installed, for the Main version I built Main from source using the Debian FPC322. I see all three issues on my Bookworm box too. Davo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AmatCoder · 2026-03-16 07:41 Lazarus package in Debian has been heavily patched up to switch to GTK3. You can see all the patches that have been applied here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JuhaManninen · 2026-03-16 08:36 The zero height and width must be related to Wayland. I haven't seen that with X11. I saw a transparent Messages window. True, project selected in the Project Wizard Recent Projects combo is not opened. Quote from: AmatCoder on March 16, 2026, 08:41:14 amLazarus package in Debian has been heavily patched up to switch to GTK3. You can see all the patches that have been applied here. Some GTK3 commits are backports from Zeljan, some are by Mazen Neifer. Which one fixes the Project Wizard Recent Projects combobox issue? I could not find it by just looking at the commits. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thaddy · 2026-03-16 08:44 Yes, the 0/0 bug is related to wayland in the sense that the widget set should take care of it. The good news is that the new wayland expension API for window size and positioning can be used to solve it in a generic way. That hasn't been done yet, because that API is extremely recent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dbannon · 2026-03-16 09:05 Quote from: JuhaManninen on March 16, 2026, 09:36:09 amThe zero height and width must be related to Wayland. I haven't seen that with X11. My Bad, I should have mentioned that I am NOT using Wayland on either of my test boxes. Note, did I mention that the blank Object Inspector only shows up when you have opened Lazarus for the second (plus) time ? Clear away the config dir and it works fine the first time ! QuoteSome GTK3 commits are backports from Zeljan, some are by Mazen Neifer. Which one fixes the Project Wizard Recent Projects combobox issue? I could not find it by just looking at the commits. No, I went through the patches myself (downloaded the changes file) and it was not obvious to me. I'm getting ready to fit a new hard disk to my machine so, when and if that is successful, I'll go over that list again. Its interesting that the (Debian) Pascal Devs mailing list has been particularly quiet in the last week or so. Davo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dsiders · 2026-03-16 11:57 Quote from: AmatCoder on March 16, 2026, 08:41:14 amLazarus package in Debian has been heavily patched up to switch to GTK3. You can see all the patches that have been applied here. What could possibly go wrong? It compiles... ship it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zeljko · 2026-03-16 14:56 Quote from: AmatCoder on March 16, 2026, 08:41:14 amLazarus package in Debian has been heavily patched up to switch to GTK3. You can see all the patches that have been applied here. OMG, and then ppl will fill bugreports against laz 4.x gtk3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- theo · 2026-03-16 15:13 Quote from: zeljko on March 16, 2026, 03:56:46 pmQuote from: AmatCoder on March 16, 2026, 08:41:14 amLazarus package in Debian has been heavily patched up to switch to GTK3. You can see all the patches that have been applied here. OMG, and then ppl will fill bugreports against laz 4.x gtk3 Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea. You've done an incredible job over the last few days, and the GTK3 IDE is getting better and better. But is it ready for “prime time” yet? I don't know—maybe it's still a little too early? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PascalDragon · 2026-03-16 15:23 Quote from: Thaddy on March 16, 2026, 09:44:47 amThe good news is that the new wayland expension API for window size and positioning can be used to solve it in a generic way. That hasn't been done yet, because that API is extremely recent. And it also won't help, because the project leads for the Gnome and KDE compositors respectively said that they don't have a desire to support that extension. 🙄 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zeljko · 2026-03-16 21:32 Quote from: theo on March 16, 2026, 04:13:01 pmYeah, I don't think that's a good idea. You've done an incredible job over the last few days, and the GTK3 IDE is getting better and better. But is it ready for “prime time” yet? I don't know—maybe it's still a little too early? Few days ? Well, ok, I'd say months , even years. If something is commited today, that does not mean that it is coded today or yesterday But yes, heavy work has been done. It is not yet ready for the prime time, printing is open task (we'll I think it can be done in a day or two - just copy and fix gtk2 implementation, since it already uses cairo there) and many small unimplementations or bugs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- theo · 2026-03-16 22:28 Quote from: zeljko on March 16, 2026, 10:32:15 pmFew days ? Well, ok, I'd say months , even years. If something is commited today, that does not mean that it is coded today or yesterday Sure. I just noticed that the commit tracker has had a lot of GTK3 entries lately. Thanks for that! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dbannon · 2026-03-16 23:13 Quote from: zeljko on March 16, 2026, 03:56:46 pmOMG, and then ppl will fill bugreports against laz 4.x gtk3 Yes, that was the main reason I started this thread. Davo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dsiders · 2026-03-17 00:07 Quote from: theo on March 16, 2026, 11:28:36 pmSure. I just noticed that the commit tracker has had a lot of GTK3 entries lately. Commits to the main branch do not equate to commits to fixes_4. The Debian maintainer has been told he can't force these things through in that manner - but apparently doesn't care because ... you known ... Debian. They're creating this clusterfuck... they should have to deal with it. Unfortunately, in the end, it's going to ruin this projects' (Lazarus) reputation. But hey, everyone's pet development projects get to stay in the Debian repos (even if they're broken)... so mission accomplished. Let's all pat ourselves on the back while we watch the community quietly wither away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- robert rozee · 2026-03-17 04:10 not sure if anyone else has thought of this: that Debian is playing a different game than the rest of us? from the perspective of Debian, they are only interested in Lazarus and FPC for Linux, and in particular their particular flavour of Linux. to this end Debian (in theory) have no interest in maintaining the ability of FPC and Lazarus to run on or generate executables for Windows, MacOS, or anything else other than an operating system as shipped by DEBIAN. indeed, if it is easier for Debian to remove what they consider superfluous code and features that relate to Windows et al, then they will. so we do need to be cautious - an FPC and Lazarus shipped by Debian only needs to cater for around 5% (or less) of the desktops out there - ie, those running Linux. an argument could be put that if forking Lazarus (and/or FPC), the Debian folks should be renaming the two projects: perhaps as "Debian Pascal IDE" and "Debian Pascal Compiler", in order to distinguish their versions of the project(s) that target 5% of desktops (ie, only those running Linux), from the Lazarus/FPC that targets 90%+ of desktops (running Linux, Windows, MacOS, etc). cheers, rob   :-) addendum: red text added to remove any confusion being experienced by Thaddy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thaddy · 2026-03-17 12:30 Debian is the feeding distribution for about 60% of all Linux distributions including Ubuntu (which is the biggest, also as $$$ contributor), Mint and many more.. Have you been living under a stone?