thaddy/kol4

Kol4 is a framework for writing Windows programs in Object Pascal, the language used by Delphi and FreePascal. It is a continuation of an older project called kol.pas, originally created by Vladimir Kladov, and it works with both the FreePascal and Delphi compilers on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows machines running Intel or AMD processors. The main idea behind Kol is that it replaces the more common VCL or LCL frameworks that Delphi and FreePascal developers usually rely on for building the visual parts of an application. The author explains that the two approaches should not be mixed. The benefit of using Kol instead is that the finished Windows programs come out much smaller in file size, while developers can still write in an object-oriented style rather than calling the raw Windows API directly. The README argues this is still worth caring about today, especially for small utilities, even though storage space is generally cheap now. The author describes this project as both a fork and not quite a fork of the original Kol library. They explain they had contributed to Kol for many years and worked closely with its original creator, and took over the project because it was at risk of being abandoned and disappearing, which they felt would be a loss for the Object Pascal community. The repository includes a few demo programs, with more planned, and points to additional sample programs hosted on the site torry.net. A short version history in the README shows the project's early commits, starting from an initial version based on an older 3.23.4 release, along with early changes such as removing old assembler code and renaming the version to an early 4.00 release candidate.