[fpc-devel] Component FTag and Tag should be int64

[michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be]

On Mon, 22 Nov 2010, Andrew Brunner wrote:

> I was looking at the code for Tag property in classes unit and noticed I can't safely use Tag to keep runtime pointers (at least on a 64 bit compile). What is the likelihood of getting tags changed to support universal access under 64/32 bit compiles?
>
> What is the logic behind the shortfall? I suspect just legacy and it could be easily fixed. _______________________________________________

The logic is that it is bad programming to use an integer to store a pointer.
And we don't want to encourage bad programming.

Yes, I know it's easy, and yes I know it's common practice. 
Neither make it right to do so.

We'll fix the issue as the upcoming Delphi 64-bit - unfortunately - forces us 
to follow suit.

Michael.