[fpc-devel] Transparent file names in ISO mode

[Karl-Michael Schindler]

Hi.

Current state of the compiler:
The fpc option 'transparent file names in ISO mode' (-Sr) implies the file extension ‘.txt’ for text files. While this is fine for windows-like OSes, it is less suited for unixoids and others. Think ‘README’ and the like. The extension ‘.dat’ as default is out there as well, admittedly on more rare and outdated OSes. But other Pascal compilers (P2..6, gpc) do not use any file extension for transparent file names.

Specific use case:
Delila (http://users.fred.net/tds/lab/software.html) is a large set of ISO-Pascal programs and scripts, which heavily relies on transparent file names WITHOUT file name extensions. Although it started long time ago, it is still in use and gets cited in recent publications. 
So far, other Pascal compilers have been used, but their support of OSes becomes more and more limited. The multi platform support of fpc favors a transition, but this issue would require lots of rewrites and is the major road block of the transition.

Suggestion:
Change the default of the option ‘-Sr' to no file extension and use -Sr<x> to pass a specific file extension, like .txt, .dat or anything else.

Regards - Michael Schindler.