Pyscripter – Open-source Python IDE written in Delphi | Hacker News Reader

Pyscripter – Open-source Python IDE written in Delphi

github.com

Oh, the nostalgia! Looking at the project felt like taking a trip in a time machine: the blog on Blogspot, the release files on SourceForge, the use of Delphi, and the screenshots reminiscent of typical 2000s IDEs.

It is not a criticism. The challenging task of creating an IDE deserves a lot of respect. I’m just surprised by the tech choices.

This is Windows only.

I wonder, why don't they use Lazarus (https://www.lazarus-ide.org/)? That would also make it cross-platform, and probably gain much more interest in the project.

Lazarus was around 4 years old when the first version of Pyscripter was released.

Porting to it, might be an option at some point, but changing compiler without breaking anything, is not a tiny task for Delphi things.

I'd say the biggest roadblock would be JEDI which assumes Windows everything.

https://wiki.freepascal.org/JVCL_Components

Delphi can target cross-platform as well.

https://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio/fm-applicati...

No, not a good Idea. We did tons of efforts to achieve good multiplatform open source dev tools with exclusively FLOSS dependencies. Take dev-cpp as a remainder of what happens when people follow such path.

And this is a comment I often link whenever I ser any news related to Delphi: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37520509

I still think of Dev-C++ with great fondness from time to time.

It was good when C++ was C with Objects.

Nowadays, C++ is just a beast.

I mean, nobody’s stopping you from just writing C with Objects.

It's not C++ then and possibly the autoccompletion features or more modern

C+Objects features will not work on DevC++

that's simply not true, no C++ standard version has removed old-school style C++ features, nothing is stopping you from using plain Jane C++ with new, delete, plain-old-data structs, etc.

Think of it like this: Delphi's existence is a reminder that people will regress to the comfort of windows if they find a tool "that just works", is fast, efficient and native.

It is a reminder that these properties are to be taken seriously.

I almost forgot how bad the dev-tools ecosystem was back in the day. I remember back in 1998, when I was 15, I took on a vacation job in a car shop (wet sanding car parts) just to afford Visual C++ 6.0.

I also had to order the compiler through a local dealer and delivery took 6 weeks. But I still have the box and CD-ROM :)

The Linux world was good. We didn't had a RAD, but we had good compilers, debuggers, source navigation tools and very good programming text editors.

It was around that time that I knew Linux and started migrating.

I rather use something like this than Electron crap.

Sadly you are in the minority. Kids these days haven’t experienced anything but bloated software their whole lives. Latency has no meaning for them

I may be, however most of those kids are actually using tablets, which adds another vector to the whole perception problematic.

Still, I try to do my little part, with exception of VSCode, given some SDK requirements that I don't control, anything Electron based only has a place on a browser tab on my personal computers.

A blast from the past! Pyscripter was definitely a top contender back in Python 2.3 days. Not sure when I stopped using it and why. Seems to be actively maintained. Will have to try again.

Yes, I had it installed back in those days. I stopped using it because Notepad++ (quick check something without getting asked for permissions) plus VS Code (linting, refactoring, other small things) plus my pimped Code browser 4.9 (Zen-like Overview) do the things I need.

And with LLM Support: OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok and local LLM models using Ollama.

This is windows only, yes? I used Altium which is also Delphi I think and it's the only other software I've known to use it (though haven't extensively checked) and we need to just not

Nothing beats Spyder IDE.

Looks quite nice.

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