: If you intend to contribute to the Lazarus project itself, you need the source code from the main branch.
If you have downloaded this zip file, follow these steps to get it running: : Unzip the folder to a location on your drive.
Lazarus-main.zip is typically a source code archive downloaded directly from the development repository (often GitLab or GitHub). It contains the "main" (development) branch of the software, which is the most current, albeit sometimes less stable, version of the environment. Quick Setup Guide Lazarus-main.zip
: If this sounds too complex, it is much easier to download the pre-compiled installer from the Official Lazarus SourceForge .
Lazarus is the IDE, but it requires the Free Pascal Compiler to actually build programs. : If you intend to contribute to the
Since you downloaded the (the zip) rather than an installer, you must "make" the IDE.
: Do not extract it to C:\Program Files on Windows, as restricted permissions can break the build process. Use a path like C:\Lazarus\ or your home directory instead. Install Free Pascal Compiler (FPC) : It contains the "main" (development) branch of the
Ensure FPC is installed and added to your system's PATH variable so Lazarus can find it. :