The new version of the IDE Lazarus 2.2 has already been released

After three years of development release post was released of the integrated development environment Lazarus 2.2, based on the FreePascal compiler and performing tasks similar to Delphi.

The environment It is designed to work with FreePascal compiler version 3.2.2 in which a large number of new changes have been made and especially improvements of which the full support for OpenGL stands out, as well as the compatibility with HighDPI, among other things.

General features that stand out from Lazarus IDE:

• It is a GPL licensed IDE.
• Lazarus runs on Gnu / Linux, Windows, and macOS, among others.
• We can create native binaries, and distribute them without dependencies in any runtime environment.
• It has an Easy Drag & Drop form designer to create powerful layouts.
• It has automatic synchronization between GUI-Forms and code.
• Provides the user with a powerful code editor with syntax highlighting and code completion.
• It also offers a built-in compilation and debugger system. We can run, test and debug our projects from the IDE.
• The Lazarus package system allows you to install third-party plugins to extend the IDE.

What's new in Lazarus 2.2?

In this new version of Lazarus 2.2 the set of widgets Qt5 comes with full OpenGL support, in addition to adding buttons to collapse docked panels and improving the HighDPI support.

Another of the changes that stands out in this new version is that a new Spotter plugin is included to find IDE commands, as well as added panel modes based on multi-line tabs ("Multiline Tabs") and windows that do not overlap ("Floating windows on top").

In addition, it is also highlighted that an optional home page has been implemented, where you can select the type of project to create, I also knowe added hotkeys to code editor to replace, duplicate, copy and move lines and selections.

While the extensions for the main common translation files (templates) changed from .po to .pot. With this, as of this new version, this change will simplify its processing in the PO file editors as a template to start new translations.

It is also noted that the LazDebugger-FP (FpDebug) 1.0 debugger is now enabled by default for new installations on Windows and Linux.

A mechanism has been added to disable the rendering of skin sets (stopping the rendering of '[' as the beginning of a set in a mask), activated via the moDisableSets setting. For example, "MatchesMask ('[x]', '[x]', [moDisableSets])" in the new mode will return True.

Of the other changes that stand out:

• Added the DockedFormEditor package with a new form editor that replaces Sparta_DockedFormEditor.
• The Jedi code format was improved and support was added for most of the modern Object Pascal syntax.
• Anonymous functions support was added to Codetools.
• Improved interfaces for inspection of objects and projects.
• Components moved to render Freetype fonts to a separate package "components / freetype / freetypelaz.lpk"
• The PasWStr component has been removed due to the presence of code that is created only in earlier versions of FreePascal.
• Optimized registration of internals and their binding to widgets by calling TLCLComponent.NewInstance.
• Updated libQt5Pas library and improved support for Qt5-based widgets. QLCLOpenGLWidget view added to provide full OpenGL support.
• Improved precision in selecting form sizes on X11, Windows, and macOS systems.

Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details In the following link. 

How to install Lazarus IDE on Linux?

For those who are interested in being able to install this IDE on their system, the first thing to know is that the IDE is cross-platform and offers already compiled packages for some Linux distributions. You can get the packages from the link below.

The installation of the packages can be done with your favorite package manager or from the terminal.