[fpc-pascal] When are used units recompiled?

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Wed, 5 Apr 2006, Micha Nelissen wrote:

> On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 18:37:27 +0200 (CEST)
> Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org> wrote:
> 
> > > You really don't expect the average newbie (to freepascal) programmer to
> > > read the error message "Can't find unit FOO" and then expect him to *guess*
> > > he has to use -vu ?!?!
> > 
> > Of course I do. What else do we provide -vu for ??
> > 
> > I expect EVERY programmer to have read the user's guide, 
> > I expect every full-time developer to have read the programmer's guide.
> > 
> > Otherwise, it's RTFM.
> 
> I don't agree: RTFM is *not* an excuse for insightful, to-the-point,
> clear, not too elaborate error messages.

Yes, and the 'elaborateness' is controlled by the -v setting.

The point is that "Can't find unit foo" can have several causes.

To find out the exact cause, you must use -vu. To find out even 
more, you use -vut. after that, it's -va...

RTFM is not an excuse, but people should also take some initiative 
and start looking for the cause of trouble. The first thing is to 
increase the verboseness of the compiler... For this, you should
read the manual.

It's hard to determine the exact number/amount of messages that is 
useful to detect/resolve problems. To get more 'feeling' for how 
to resolve problems, one can and should read the manual...

Michael.