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

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Thu, 1 Feb 2018, Denis Kozlov wrote:

> 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.

I would not bother with 1, since the goal is to remove the reference to a font
directory on windows and use the font API of the OS.

Michael.