[Lazarus] Inno Setup no longer supports Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me

[Marco van de Voort]

On Fri, Aug 03, 2012 at 01:04:13PM +0200, Reinier Olislagers wrote:

> > (win9x support might be something that will get harder when more unicode
> > centric releases as fpc/trunk.7.1 come out, though the unicode changes are
> > glacial at the moment)
> That does sound like a good plan for FPC trunk.
> 
> What do we do with Lazarus though?
> At least the 1.0 code base would presumably need Win9x support.

Note that I don't think it is a /good/ plan. It is IMHO simply the only
sustainable compromise if win9x must be long term supported in all new
releases.  (and it is a different question alltogether if we should, IMHO
not. If I had my way it would have ended with 2.6.0 already)

The only other (and IMHO better) solution is simply branch a FPC and Lazarus
that still support it, and minimally maintain that ad infinitum.  That means
maintaining two installs for people that target win9x, but at least it puts
the burden where the pain is. Not on unsuspected devels that haven't touched
win9x in ten years or longer.
 
> http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Development_Process#Lazarus_branches_.2F_version_numbers_around_1.0
> AFAIU, current trunk is 1.1.
> We could e.g. branch it off and have a separate Win9x architecture
> branch based on the (to be created) Win9x branch off FPC trunk in time
> for 1.2?

I don't know the tradeoffs for Lazarus. Widgetset is another dimension to
the target platform, so it is an independent choice from what FPC does.

Specially with crucial unicode decisions in limbo it is hard to predict a
sane course.

That's one other reason I don't like committing to support it. The future
of FPC/Lazarus must be defined by other things than win95 support
considerations.

On the other hand, the current situation with nobody doing anything with
win9x except whining when the release doesn't work (afterwards) is not going
to continue. At least not with FPC. 

I'm not waiting or repacking on win9x issues popping up during release
process anymore.  If it is going to be a viable target, people must work and
test with it also between releases and with trunk.

Same goes for Dos and OS/2 btw.