[fpc-devel]BUGS!

[Alan Grimes]

Hi, I reciently downloaded the DOS version on a true DOS system. 

First off, This thing is good enough to be commercial software! It is
software of the highest calibre. And, best of all, it runs on DOS
without fucking everything up! 

It is decades ahead of any GNU.org project in existance. (Simply making
it run well under DOS gives it a 10 year lead over a Linux package).


However I must report a few problems I have with it: 

1. The source distro doesn't install on 8.3 systems. I can unpack the
source directory manually and everything seems to be in order, but I
don't expect that I will be able to exparament with it in its present
form... 

2. The source directory is very difficult to navigate. It is almost as
bad as /usr/bin under Unix. A well written "map" or "index" file should
be added with all haste. Additionally, it appears that certain machine
and OS specific files are held in the general directory. This only adds
to the clutter. I suggest a structure somewhat like this:

/source/compiler/
      |-IA32
      |  |-- DOS  (Optionally; just having OS files in their prcessor
                  categories should be sufficient. )
      |  |-- Linux
      |  |-- FreeBSD
      |  L-- That other OS from Redmond...
      |-PPC
      |  |- OS X
etc....

3. Documentation (Part I): The documentation is the best I've seen in
years but still it has a few things which could be better: 

Section 1.3: This list is nearly identical to the handout I got in
highschool back in '94... =P   Unfortunately, one needs to go rummaging
through the rest of the document in order to find the discussion of
these keywords. Saying something like: 

"ASM  (Pg.40)
 Begin (Pg.35)
 Break (Pg. 63)" 

would be a great improvment. 

4. Documentation (part II): While your syntax diagrams are a nice
innovation (Its the first time I have read a language text that used
them), A thourough discussion of the *symantics* of the varrious
language features seems to be missing. Of particular interest to me is
what exactly "PROGRAM" means to the compiler. 


Okay, that's enough "bugs"; My plans for the system is to fork a version
that I will call "Spherical", Its runtime environment will be used as
the kernel of my Sphere Operating System. The root environment will NOT
support the "program" type, rather software written to run at system
level must use a new "SPHERE" outline. Sphere is/will be a system
oriented operating system.


-- 
Waiting for a typical DOS application to crash is like waiting for hell
to freeze over.
http://users.erols.com/alangrimes/  <my website.