On 08.11.2017 11:14, Mattias Gaertner via Lazarus wrote:
A server is not needed. You can write standalone browser applications that work
offline too.
OK. Great ! Stand alone browser based applications might be one
desirable type of application, but AFAIK, the more commonly required
type of application would be server based.
Sigh. Michael, sometimes I got the impression you are stuck in a loop.
Use TFPTimer and TThread.
You might be right :-)
But it's not just me, but it's based on the Lazarus claim "write once,
compile everywhere" which means that I can design and test an
application in - say - Windows (using the "RAD"-way that once has been
introduced by (Borland-) Delphi, and then tell Lazarus to create a
server application with a browser GUI by just compiling my code. In a
perfect world this should simply work, in a less perfect world, some
tweaks might be necessary to optimize the thing for either platform to
run on.
- Communication between the Server application and the part running on the
brower via a 3rd party web server.
There are various ways since years.
I do know. Some are depreciated, I feel at the moment WebSocktes is the
way to go.
But see above: the Lazarus user should not even see this, but the
infrastructure would organize the communication in a (as good as
possible) compatible way, by just telling Lazarus to compile the
application as a server based application with a browser based GUI
accessible via a web-server.
- allowing for decent Debugging in Lazarus (e.g. via an optional built-in
web server, which AFAIK already is in place) .
Server debugging is already possible. But I agree, it could be easier.
Client side debugging is working. You can use the browser's debugger to set
breakpoints in the Pascal code and step through.
I suppose you are talking about pas2js, running in a Browser, which is
perfectly viable, of course.
What I meant was debugging the server based part of the application
(which accesses an attached GUI part done in pas2js. Here (AFAIK) a
webserver unit that allows for attaching to a browser to display the GUI
while the application (i.e. the "business code") runs under Lazarus,
already is provided. so I don't assume any problems here. (While in
Delphi AFAIK, this is a major problem).
- Lazarus providing a GUI builder for the browser based GUI.
That's a big topic. Some parts already work.
As I already did some research om that (some time ago) I do know that is
is a big topic :) . That is why I ask. Great to hear that it is worked
on and something already is functional.
Moreover IMHO a migration path from Java script in the Browser (pas2js)
to using WebAssembly in the Browser should be considered.
It has been started in FPC, but no one is working on that.
So same state as since quite a while. Regarding that most decent
browsers nowadays provide the WebAssembly framework, it seems viable to
ask, but of course developing time is limited.
-Michael
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