[Lazarus] Beyond Compare 4 built with Lazarus 1.2

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sat, 28 Dec 2013, Jürgen Hestermann wrote:

> Am 2013-12-28 12:46, schrieb Michael Van Canneyt:
>>> Even when looking into documentation there is no information about
>>> which string encoding the routines use/need.
>>> For example, not a single word about string encoding here:
>>> http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/findfirst.html
>> For a simple reason: currently, in the released version of FPC, there is no 
> need to document encoding.
>
> ??.
> So I can use any string type I like for the path of FindFirst?
> Strange.

No. Ansistring.

>> The language guide clearly states that in Delphi mode, String = Ansistring.
>
> What language guide?

The Object Pascal Language guide.

http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/ref/ref.html

Specifically

http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/ref/refsu10.html#x33-360003.2.4


> If I look at the web documentation of FindFirst there is
> absolutely *no* information about the string type of the path.
> Why not? It should be the reference.
> It does not even tell me that it is a string:
>  const Path: ;

Aha. That was a bug in fpdoc when releasing 2.6.2. Normally, it should read

const Path: string;

My apologies, I thought this had been fixed since the release :(

> What should the user think here?
> That it can be an untyped variable like for fillchar?

No.

>
>
>> In ObjFPC mode it is shortstring, unless set to ansistring as well using 
> {$H+}.
>> So, in both cases 'string' = a single byte string, system codepage.
>> There is - in the released FPC - no overloaded version with widestrings.
>> Hence there is no need to document encoding: it is implicit.
>
> I don't understand what you are trying to say.
> When I (as a programmer) want to use i.e. FindFirst I have to hand over a  path.
> I now want to declare a string type for this.
> Which one should I use?

String.

Which means either AnsiString or ShortString. 
So, in both cases a single byte string, system codepage.

> Could it be whatever I want?
> I can't find out with the documentation.

I admit that the bug in fpdoc has not exactly helped. I have since fixed that,
and in version 2.6.4, this problem should be fixed.

But, assuming that it says 'string', that gives you enough information.

Michael.