[fpc-devel] End of support for Win XP?

[Denis Kozlov]

It still feels *very early* to drop support for Windows XP. I haven't 
used it properly in years, but I can't say the same about the target 
user audience. I still test some builds against Windows XP.

It would be a shame to drop support for Windows XP over 
SHGetKnownFolderPath(), when alternatives like SHGetFolderPath() and 
even older SHGetSpecialFolderPath() still work in all existing NT 
versions, including 2000, XP, 7, 8, 10. I totally support the use of 
newer API when it is available, however it is not too difficult to use 
an older API with dynamic bindings, especially if we are talking about a 
single function.

A proposal:
1) Use windirs.GetWindowsSpecialDir in fpttf.pp, which already uses a 
more backwards compatible SHGetFolderPath().
2) Optionally, improve windirs.GetWindowsSpecialDir to use a newer 
SHGetKnownFolderPath() when it is available.

If this is suitable, I can produce a patch for both.

Denis


On 30/01/2018 21:40, Florian Klämpfl wrote:
> Am 29.01.2018 um 21:11 schrieb Russell Davies:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Just curious, does the use of SHGetKnownFolderPath() in trunk package winunits-base in fpttf.pp mean
>> the end of Windows XP support as this function is not available in XP's shell32.dll
> Probably yes, at least with the release of 3.2.0. After all, Win XP is almost for 4 years out of
> support. But if somebody decides to stick with Win XP, he can stick also with FPC 3.0.x, it will not
> stop working.
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