[Lazarus] File functions in codetools FileProcs

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Tue, 13 Jul 2010, Mattias Gaertner wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:06:39 +0200 (CEST)
> Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 13 Jul 2010, Juha Manninen wrote:
>>
>>> Mattias Gaertner wrote:
>>>> Uses section?
>>>> Maybe you mean required package?
>>>
>>> Maybe. I have lazarus.lpi open and my mind is mixed up.
>>>
>>>
>>>> BTW, unit FileUtil is one of the base units of the LCL, without
>>>> widgetset dependencies. Using it in console applications is safe.
>>>
>>> Yes, after adding LCL dependency and NoGUI widgetset. Currently the converter
>>> does not add LCL dependency for console apps. I will make it optional later.
>>> Some developers considered NoGUI widgetset as a bad idea, as you remember.
>
> It is, because you see no warning if you use widgetset functions,
> that do not work.
> But unit FileUtil and some other base units work widgetset independent.
> They are more like FCL extensions but in a lazarus way of doing it.
>
>
>>>> But when converting a console application it is not clear if
>>>> UTF8 filenames is a good choice (IMO).
>>>
>>> Can you please explain. I don't know the details here. I thought file name
>>> conversion is an OS related issue, not GUI related.
>>
>> It is GUI related.
>> The lazarus GUI uses UTF-8, so when transferring a filename from a TFileNameEdit
>> (or TOPenDialog) to a FileOpen() function, the conversion from UTF-8 to system
>> encoding must be done.
>>
>> Console applications will normally not use UTF-8 in the first place, they
>> will normally be using system encoding from the start, so it is a bad idea
>> to insert conversion routines, since none is necessary to start with...
>
> Yes, if you only target windows.
> If you want to convert a delphi console program to let it run
> under Linux or Mac, then you have to check all file functions. If you
> use system encoding, widestring or utf8 depends depends heavily on the
> code and there is no good general advice.

Agreed 100%.

Michael.