fpGUI Interface

│ Deutsch (de) │ English (en) │ español (es) │ français (fr) │

Introduction

fpGUI is a widgetset completely written in Object Pascal. It links directly with the underlying windowing system, and thus avoids the need for many external libraries. More information on its website: http://fpgui.sourceforge.net

Other Interfaces

• Lazarus known issues (things that will never be fixed) - A list of interface compatibility issues
• Win32/64 Interface - The Windows API (formerly Win32 API) interface for Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista/10, but not CE
• Windows CE Interface - For Pocket PC and Smartphones
• Carbon Interface - The Carbon 32 bit interface for macOS (deprecated; removed from macOS 10.15)
• Cocoa Interface - The Cocoa 64 bit interface for macOS
• Qt Interface - The Qt4 interface for Unixes, macOS, Windows, and Linux-based PDAs
• Qt5 Interface - The Qt5 interface for Unixes, macOS, Windows, and Linux-based PDAs
• GTK1 Interface - The gtk1 interface for Unixes, macOS (X11), Windows
• GTK2 Interface - The gtk2 interface for Unixes, macOS (X11), Windows
• GTK3 Interface - The gtk3 interface for Unixes, macOS (X11), Windows
• fpGUI Interface - Based on the fpGUI library, which is a cross-platform toolkit completely written in Object Pascal
• Custom Drawn Interface - A cross-platform LCL backend written completely in Object Pascal inside Lazarus. The Lazarus interface to Android.

Platform specific Tips

• Android Programming - For Android smartphones and tablets
• iPhone/iPod development - About using Objective Pascal to develop iOS applications
• FreeBSD Programming Tips - FreeBSD programming tips
• Linux Programming Tips - How to execute particular programming tasks in Linux
• macOS Programming Tips - Lazarus tips, useful tools, Unix commands, and more...
• WinCE Programming Tips - Using the telephone API, sending SMSes, and more...
• Windows Programming Tips - Desktop Windows programming tips

Interface Development Articles

• Carbon interface internals - If you want to help improving the Carbon interface
• Windows CE Development Notes - For Pocket PC and Smartphones
• Adding a new interface - How to add a new widget set interface
• LCL Defines - Choosing the right options to recompile LCL
• LCL Internals - Some info about the inner workings of the LCL
• Cocoa Internals - Some info about the inner workings of the Cocoa widgetset

Creating your first LCL application with fpGUI

This is a step-by-step guide to build your first application with the fpGUI widgetset

1. Download the latest Lazarus from subversion and build it (not necessary if you downloaded a pre-compiled snapshot)

2. Download fpGUI source code from the SourceForge.net Git repository as follows:

git clone git://fpgui.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/fpgui/fpgui

3. Now we need to make the Lazarus LCL find the fpGUI code. We have two options:

3.1. Supported on all platforms. Copy two directories and one file from the downloaded fpgui to lazarus

<fpGUI dir>/src/gui ⇒ lazarus/lcl/interfaces/fpgui/gui
<fpGUI dir>/src/corelib ⇒ lazarus/lcl/interfaces/fpgui/corelib
<fpGUI dir>/src/VERSION_FILE.inc ⇒ lazarus/lcl/interfaces/fpgui/VERSION_FILE.inc

3.2. Linux or any other Unix type platforms. Create symbolic links from the fpGUI's corelib, gui directories and VERSION_FILE.inc to the Lazarus LCL directory as follows:

ln -s <fpGUI dir>/src/gui lazarus/lcl/interfaces/fpgui/gui
ln -s <fpGUI dir>/src/corelib lazarus/lcl/interfaces/fpgui/corelib
ln -s <fpGUI dir>/src/VERSION_FILE.inc lazarus/lcl/interfaces/fpgui/VERSION_FILE.inc

4. Open Lazarus, open the menu Tools-->"Configure Build Lazarus", select all options to None and LCL to Build+Clean, select fpGUI widgetset and rebuild it.

5. Go to the menu Compiler Options, select fpGUI as the widgetset and you can recompile your project to fpGUI =)

Implementation details

Component mapping

This is a table indication which FPGUI controls are used to build each LCL control.

LCL Control	FPGUI Control	Comments
TPageControl	TfpgPageControl	-
TButton	TfpgButton	-
TBitBtn	TfpgButton	fpGUI's standard button class supports images.
TSpeedButton	TfpgButton	fpGUI's standard button class supports images and flat look etc.

Road map for the fpGUI interface

Here: Roadmap#Widgetset dependent components