[fpc-devel] ftfont and FreeType

[Werner Pamler]

Am 17.07.2020 um 23:29 schrieb Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-devel:
> First you'll have to explain something:
> Why does it break existing code according to you ?
> The default library name is the same in both units.
Compile and run the noguidemo in the Lazarus folder 
components/tachart/demo/nogui. It creates a chart without a gui and 
saves it as a png file. Compiling with fpc 3.0.4 this occurs immediately 
and flawlessly. Compiling with fpc 3.2.0 or fpc trunk, however, there is 
an error message that the freetype.dll is not found.

So, the changes in ftfont.pp are "breaking", because a program which 
used to work correctly had stopped working. I do agree, though, that my 
phrasing "code-breaking" was not correct, strictly speaking, because no 
changes in code are required to make the program run: the user only must 
provide the freetype.dll (of the correct bitness).

I do not have a problem with this change when I know that there was good 
reason behind it and it  was not made by incidence or error (such things 
happen...). But in any case, a breaking change should be mentioned in 
the official wiki pages.