[fpc-devel] Another thread about the fact that official FPC releases are *unnecessarily* non-representative of the platforms it actually runs on

[Nikolay Nikolov]

On 9/28/20 12:24 AM, Travis Siegel via fpc-devel wrote:
>
> How does one get a 64-bit version on windows.  When I try to run a 
> 64-bit version on windows, I encounter an error, though I don't 
> remember what that error is, since I've not tried it for a couple 
> weeks.  I didn't even know there was a 64-bit windows version, because 
> as mentioned below, linking to the 64-bit version on the website links 
> to a 32-bit version.  Admittedly, I'm no fan of windows, and honestly, 
> I hate that I'm forced to use it for my everyday work, I'd much rather 
> use linux/macos, but at the moment, that's not an option, though I was 
> windows free for over 10 years at one point, that sadly has changed 
> over the past 5 years. <sigh>
>
> But, in any case, if there's a way to get 64-bit versions on windows, 
> I'd like to know how.
>
If you want to target Win64, using official FPC releases, you should 
download two packages:

fpc-3.2.0.i386-win32.exe

fpc-3.2.0.i386-win32.cross.x86_64-win64.exe


Install the first one, then the second one (it's an add-on package that 
adds win64 target support to the 32-bit compiler). After that you can 
compile to win32 via:

fpc -Pi386 hello.pas

and to win64 via:

fpc -Px86_64 hello.pas

The two install packages will be combined into one starting with FPC 
3.2.2, so it will be a single download.


Lazarus provides a native win64-hosted win64-targeting FPC, but I don't 
use it, because of the 80-bit floating point issues. That's why I don't 
recommend it. I prefer to install these two:

lazarus-2.0.10-fpc-3.2.0-win32.exe

lazarus-2.0.10-fpc-3.2.0-cross-x86_64-win64-win32.exe


This allows me to target both win32 and win64. I don't know if there's 
any downside to using these instead of the win64 version of Lazarus. 
Disclaimer: I don't write GUI apps, so I don't use the LCL.


Best regards,

Nikolay