[lazarus] Delphi and FPC compatible LCL version

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 00:31:57 +0100
Florian Klaempfl <Florian.Klaempfl at gmx.de> wrote:

> Marc Weustink wrote:
> >> I have updated the lclpatch.zip file with the newest changes 
> >> (2003-11-15 14:21 downloaded 18:40) in LCL and I have removed many
> >> Delphi dependend IFDEFs.
> > 
> > 
> > OK, thanks for it, this one looks a bit better, however....
> > 
> > We (thedevels) have had a litle discussion about it, and the final 
> > conclusion is that the LCL won't support Delphi.
> 
> If someone provides Delphi compatibility patches why shouldn't they be 
> incorporated into the lcl?

You have to distinguish between this patch and the idea behind the patch.

The idea: make LCL compilable by the Delphi and FPC compiler.
Possibilities:
- Add a lot of IFDEFs (like the patch)
- convert the ObjFPC mode to Delphi mode

The first makes the code less readable and less maintanable. IFDEFs are
evil.
Iff we support the Delphi compiler, then it has to be done with the second
alternative. But this means of course, we will loose the unambigious objfpc
mode and it's very useful pointer arithmetics. 

The patch also contains some "beautifications" of unit names (Lcl instead of
LCL). Our normal naming scheme is either to write abbreviations lowercase or
uppercase. Only words are written lowercase with initial letter big.

And some other minor things, that needs fixing. (Marc mentioned some items).

This is why the patch itself is not applied. It would cost too much time
fixing.


I will write something about the idea itself in another mail...


Mattias