From: see@sig.below   
      
   On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 13:43:01 +0000 (UTC), Marco van de Voort   
    wrote:   
      
   >FPC has these libraries. (the BP ones, not the BPW ones), and has a language   
   >mode that is even more compatible than delphi.   
   >   
   >Note that Delphi is suitable for TP upgrades (the language is compat enough,   
   >and piecewise you can find quite some units too), but it is just not ready   
   >to go. The first step is to not make a normal application, but a "console   
   >application".   
   >   
   >The good part about FPC is that it is closer to TP languagewise and   
   >librarywise, the bad part that the Delphi and BP IDEs are still better in   
   >quality. So it depends a bit on how addicted you are to perfect IDEs.   
      
   I have downloaded and installed Free Pascal, however things have not   
   gone that well. The units in BP required the detail of the   
   function/procedure declaration in the interface to be detailed with only   
   the function/procedure call in the implementation. Free Pascal required   
   the full detail in both the interface and the implementation.   
      
   The program I wrote does a lot of checking of data entry to make sure it   
   falls within certain ranges.   
      
   Here is a snippet.   
      
   repeat   
     inputinteger(minlstdentries,2,x[9],y[9],0,tc,dc)   
   until minlstdgames in [1..maxlstdentries_single,   
                          1..maxlstdentries_multi];   
      
   Now this snippet works perfectly in BP and BPW, but free Pascal spits   
   the dummy.   
      
   ALL the variables being checked are integers, but Free Pascal aborts   
   with the error "Type conflict between set elements". I can comment out   
   one of the sets (either one) and the code works under Free Pascal, but   
   as soon as I have both sets included the error is generated and the run   
   aborts. I tried having two discrete sets with the OR operator between   
   them, but Free Pascal reports that this operation is not implemented. I   
   should say that BP and BPW also do not like this either.   
      
   One of the reasons I want to get things working as a Windows Application   
   is that the output for the run is written to a file, and in the days of   
   DOS this was quite OK. Now with long filenames, you get the truncated   
   filenames/folder names and trying to explain these cryptic names to   
   someone who has only ever used Windows and the Windows interface is   
   quite a challenge. I tell them to set everything off the root folder and   
   limit names to 8.3, but then they are not allowed to do this and   
   everything must be off Documents and Settings\.   
      
   So you can see the need to get things working better ;-)   
      
   --   
      
   Regards,   
      
   Ian A. White,   
   ianwhite@wai.com.au   
   Blacktown.  NSW.  2148   
   Australia   
      
   Ph:    0418 203 229 (Int'l: +61 418 203 229)   
   Fax: (02) 9622 0450 (Int'l: +61 2 9622 0450)   
      
   www.wai.com.au   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)