[fpc-announce] FPC 1.9.8 aka 2.0.0-RC2

[Florian Klaempfl]

Hello,

The Free Pascal Team is pleased to announce that FPC version 1.9.8
(or 2.0.0-RC2) is available and ready for download.

This is a pre-release of version 2.0. As such, it is considered a beta of
the upcoming 2.0 release, which is expected to be released in a few weeks.

While this is officially a beta, we believe that this version is release
quality. We would very much like you download and install this version, and
give any feedback regarding bugs and other issues.

If no major bugs are found, version 2.0 will be released in a short
timeframe.

Highlights in this version:

Compiler:
   + New platforms:
     - Linux: arm architecture (cross compiler).
   + Mac OS X: ABI-compliant passing of records to procedures and functions

RTL/FCL/FV:
   * improved variant support
   * improved widestring support

IDE:
   + vector unit window
   + x86_64/linux and sparc/linux working

Docs:
   + txt format

And of course many many bugfixes.

A complete list of changes can be found in the whatsnew.txt file in the
distribution.

Downloads are available from the website for the following platforms:
- Darwin (Mac OS X)
- FreeBSD
- Linux (I386/Sparc/PPC/x86_64 (amd64)/arm)
- Netware (clib and libc)
- Win32

To download, go to
   http://www.freepascal.org/sdown.html
and select a mirror near you. Look in the section 'official beta releases'
and select the platform of your choice; then follow the download
instructions.

If you choose the SourceForge mirror, the download instructions are
different. Also note that sourceforge mirrors are not immediatly up-to-date.

Enjoy it,

   The Free Pascal team.