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

[michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be]

On Tue, 23 Nov 2010, Andrew Brunner wrote:

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> On Nov 23, 2010, at 2:27 AM, Max Vlasov <max.vlasov at gmail.com> wrote:
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>> On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 5:13 PM, <michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be> wrote:
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>> We'll fix the issue as the upcoming Delphi 64-bit - unfortunately - forces us to follow suit.
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>> Will it also create an additional confusion in design time? I mean, non-RAD compilers possibly only have compile-time context, while Lazarus has also design-time. One example, if the Tag is 64-bit and one set up the environment to cross-compile from 32-bit IDE to 64-bit, he or she even won't be able to change a 64-bit integer property in the designer.
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> That would not be an issue as Int64 is available under all flavors of FPC.
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> I don't see the hold up in adding a patch for Data field. There is just one unit to change. What makes this so complicated that it hasn't be accomplished yet???

The task itself is easy. The consequences of this may not be so easy:

TComponent is a basic class. Many many instances are created during the
lifetime of an application. Adding a field that adds 4/8 bytes to such a
class is something we're not eager to do, since it has potentially a large
impact on the memory consumption of existing apps.

Everything has its reasons, as you can see.

Michael.