thanks for the reply.
it hangs on build or run.
i originally had debugger off. thinking that was the problem, i turned it on. no difference, it hangs regardless.
no error messages, just sits there with the busy cursor spinning until i force quit. thinking i was impatient, i've let it set for hours.
it doesn't matter what project, a simple 'hello word', or one of the examples, or a working project i've brought over from windows.
lazarus does create a file, but when i click mac says "you can't open the application because it may be damaged or incomplete"