[fpc-devel] "Blank slate" next version of FPC

[Neil Graham]

On 17/02/19 10:37 AM, Ralf Quint wrote:
> On 2/14/2019 9:28 PM, James via fpc-devel wrote:
>> I'm interested in starting (or joining) a discussion on the next 
>> (*non* backwards compatible) version of FPC. Instead of being 
>> classically object oriented, there is merit in examining a model with 
>> ad-hoc polymorphism like Rust.
>
> I am, like apparently many others, NOT interested in such shenanigans. 
> Either program in Pascal or program in Rust.
>
> Adding newfangled gadgets and gizmos might be all fine and dandy, but 
> don't force it down the throat of everyone as a must. I am not going 
> to throw away 40 years of libraries and snippets away and start from 
> scratch, just so some folks can claim to run with the in-crowd. I got 
> work to do... 

I think for the most part, if any clean slate is needed for FPC it is 
for the Libraries and not the language.  A Class library that was built 
to support the language as it currently stands rather than collecting 
layers of legacy. TThing TFPThing TFPGThing layers etc.

As such it needn't break any backwards compatibility,  The same language 
can support the old and the new and users can choose which one they wish 
to use.  The new would presumably be more coherent and have the benefit 
of hindsight, the old would remain having the bulk of the existing 3rd 
party support for many years still.

There's no reason these two can't be developed in parallel by different 
people.