[fpc-devel] DOS Platforms

[Tomas Hajny]

Vinzent Hoefler said:
> Ok, first status on the matter:
>
> Tonight I've spent some time with the sources and my Win2K machine. For
> me it seems as the Makefile(.fpc)'s are not yet up to date for the
> go32v2 target (object files didn't get deleted on cleanall, some unit
> paths were missing, that sort of stuff) [FYI: I checked out the current
> 2.0.1 from CVS], but in the end I managed to make the compiler cycle
> manually. Hmm, well, let's see if I still remember how I did it, when I
> get back to it this evening ;).

First of all - make sure you don't use Win32 versions of the GNU tools
(especially make.exe etc.) when trying to build for the GO32v2 target
under WinXX. The best is to change your PATH setting within the given
session. Then the existing makefiles should work out of the box.

In general, it _is_ possible to build under W2K under some conditions too
(_not_ under WinNT due to missing LFN support for DOS sessions), but as
you already found out, it isn't very stable and you get random crashes any
time due to the NTVDM problems, so I certainly wouldn't recommend starting
with this part (for building the compiler at least - Win2K etc. provide
better error checking mechanisms, so e.g. SIGSEGVs can be completely
undetected under W9x, whereas W2K shows them immediately; I suspect the
problem with exception handlers is probably similar case, i.e. they don't
work under W9x either, but this problem is only signalized under WinNT and
above).


> Well, at the moment I'd say, I take look at the makefile, see what I do
> with those "error setting exception" messages and trying to compile
> something larger to test with. I expect hard-to-find effects soon
> enough.

Makefile should be OK (see above). "Error setting exception" messages only
appear under WinNT and above. That could be either result of better error
checking (see above too), or an incompatibility of WinNT and above - just
that you don't fall into a trap too early...


> Oh, yes. One question: Should I use the current fpc2.0.1 release from
> the CVS or would it be better to switch to the 2.1.x branch already to
> not get too far behind the current development? Just don't say
> "both". ;-)

It shouldn't matter too much - I'd suggest to start with 2.1.x (in line
with our policy as already mentioned by Florian); merging of your changes
to 2.0.x should be rather easy to do later.

Tomas