Widgetsets support platform-sensitive development with the Lazarus IDE system. They act as adapter libraries that provide an interface between a platform-independent sourcecode written in Free Pascal and platform-specific system functions. Thus they allow for development of platform-native software without requiring to provide specific source code for different target platforms.
Widgetsets act as basis for the Lazarus Component Library (LCL).
Currently (June 2020), the development status of widget toolkit interfaces is roughly as follows: [1]
| Widget set | Supported operating systems | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Windows API, GDI | Windows | Mainstream use |
| Windows CE API, GDI | Windows CE | Mainstream use |
| GTK+ 1.2.x | Linux (via X11) | Deprecated |
| GTK+ 2.8+ | Linux (X11 and framebuffer), Windows, and Mac OS X (via X11) | Mainstream use |
| GTK+ 3.x | As Gtk2 | Alpha |
| Qt 4.5+, 5.6+ [2] | Linux (X11 and framebuffer), Windows, Mac OS X | Mainstream use. Works in Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Maemo, etc |
| Cocoa | Mac OS X | In progress |
| Carbon | Mac OS X | Mainstream use |
| fpGUI | Windows, Windows CE, Linux (via X11) | Initial stage |
| Lazarus Custom Drawn Controls | Android, Windows, Linux (via X11), Mac OS X | Initial stage |
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The Lazarus Component Library, abbreviated LCL, is a visual software component library for the Lazarus IDE.
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The Free Component Library, abbreviated FCL, is a software component library for Free Pascal.