> I've thought about doing this already in the past...
>
> What do you think it would take to port IBO to Lazarus? How

similar to

> Delphi is the language?
>
> What I'd do is hire a programmer to port it for me.
>
> Jason Wharton
>

I just stumbled across this thread, and would like to share my 2
cents:

The most interesting aspect of Lazarus is it being cross-platform
(Win32, Linux, MAC OS X... with development being done for Win64 and
WinCE). Most of its libraries are under a modified LGPL licence,
meaning that both closed and open source software can be developed
with it.

It gives a native feel to the resulting applications on the intended
platforms as it uses the native widgetsets of each platform (well
developed: Win32 and GTK; under development: GTK2, Qt, Carbon,
WinCE, fpGui).

It uses free pascal as language/compiler, and has units quite
similar to the Delphi ones. Its LCL is very close to the VCL as
well.

Converting Delphi projects varies from extremely easy to difficult,
depending mostly on how much the code depends on the WinAPI (that is
to have cross platform compatibility) as well as 3rd party
components. To make things easier, Lazarus has cross-platform
methods/functions that mimick the most common WinAPI counterparts.

There are some shortcomings still, but it is a very active project
that's evolving steadily. I strongly suggest you have a look at it.

My 2 cents...