[fpc-devel] FPC dynamic libraries

[Daniël Mantione]

Op Thu, 8 Feb 2007, schreef Michael Van Canneyt:

> > Design a plugin binary API, dynload the plugin. It is not necessary that 
> > the RTL is shared for this purpose (allthough it could reduce the size).
> > 
> > This way you only have to keep the plugin API backwards compatible, 
> > and could allow binary plugins to be used with any Lazarus version. 
> > Keeping a plugin API compatible is very doable, unlike of the full RTL, FCL 
> > and LCL, which seems next to impossible to me.
> 
> Why ?

There is OOP code in those libraries. The slightest code modification will 
change the layout of the VMT.

> Borland does it.

Borland does not. Each Delphi version has its own BPL packages, for 
example you have vcl50.bpl. The only reason it is workable with Delphi is 
that they don't release very often.

> Secondly, there are serious problems with this approach which make it unusable
> for an IDE like Lazarus.
> 
> Assume I get a component instance from the plugin (MyObject), then extremely 
> simple and basic statements like
> 
> If (MyObject is TComponent) then
>   XYZ
> 
> will fail, even though MyObject is a TComponent, because the VMT of the 
> MyObject TComponent parent resides in the library, and the VMT of TComponent
> used in the If statement is inside Lazarus, causing the statement to fail, 
> even though it should be true. When using packages, the statement will function
> correctly.

I was talking a binary API, and that automatically disallows sending 
classes through the API, because you want to prevent that an internal 
change breaks your external API. Simply design the API in a proper way.

> The only option are packages, and packages need an RTL in a dynlib.
> That this requires a strict versioning schedule, is part of the deal. 

Indeed, and because this is not a workable solution, just count the 
number of changes in the VCL, a proper designed binary API is what you 
need.

> Borland's packages are also incompatible between released versions.

Sure, but above you said Borland keeps them compatible.

Daniël