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

[Ondrej Pokorny]

Am 20.02.19 um 21:33 schrieb Florian Klämpfl

> > Am 20.02.19 um 08:36 schrieb Paul van Helden:
> > As a big
> >/fan of the Pascal language, I'd rather break compatibility and see the /> >/language evolve than the stoic attitude of the core devs as seen on this /> >/list. /
> People could change this attitude by contributing to FPC. But very few 
> do constantly with high quality patches.

Not at all. My experience is that contributing to FPC compiler development is just a waste of time.
1.) First you have to convince core compiler developers that your idea is good. This usually starts a long discussion with different opinions like this one. (That's why I don't take part in it.)
2.) If you then hear "patches welcome", take your time and send your patch, you often don't get any kind of feedback and your issue report stays open forever. You actually don't know if your patch is just poor quality or if the people who said "patches welcome" said it just to end the discussion and counted on the fact that you would never send a patch.

You wrote the reason yourself:

> The current FPC devs are simply 
> overloaded with the areas they have to maintain so it is pretty clear 
> that excitement about new features is very low.

Yes, this is the true excuse that I also accept.

No rant. Just saying how the reality is. As an external contributor, you cannot change anything - and especially not the attitude of core compiler developers. It's just better to be happy with what FPC offers, don't lose your time and the time of FPC core developers with useless discussions about new features, don't lose your time with developing and sending patches, accept features and behavior you don't like and live with them. If you really want to use your feature set, maintain your own personal FPC fork.


Please don't misunderstand me - I want to stress that in the end I do like this attitude of FPC core developers to be very critical about external patches and new features. It could end up in a horrible mess if every idea and every patch is applied. I do like the attitude "if I am not 100% sure about a patch/feature, I don't apply it". I just have to dispute that we (external contributors) can change something.


(Just a note: I regret that Sven withdrew his IfThen compiler intrinsic, though :) )

Ondrej

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