[fpc-pascal] FP IDE - can't find System unit

[Tomas Hajny]

Marco van de Voort wrote:
>> On 30/08/2007, Jonas Maebe <jonas.maebe at elis.ugent.be> wrote:
>> >
>> > Set up the correct unit directories under Options->Directories
>
>> So does that mean FP IDE doesn't read the global fpc.cfg file located
>> it /etc or in my $HOME directory?  If it doesn't, why not? It would
>> make sense to do so?
>>
>> BTW:
>>   I'm only trying to compile a very simple application, that doesn't
>> use any units not included in FPC.  I can understand that I need to
>> add unit directories for 3rdParty libraries, but not sure why for
>> units included with the Free Pascal Compiler (that's already setup in
>> fpc.cfg).
>
> Keep in mind that the cmdline compiler, and the IDE compiler are two
> separate instances of the compiler. The textmode has fpc.cfg, the IDE its
> own (possibly directory/project specific) settings.

I'd say the main reason is as follows: IDE maintains the configuration
visually (i.e. in user friendlier way). It loads the configuration on
startup from a file and saves it back every time one saves the
configuration in IDE - at that point the file gets rewritten. In order to
be able to load the file, IDE needs to understand its structure fully,
which is difficult to achieve with the current file structure together
with parallel manual maintenance of the file (for the command-line
compiler not providing any other alternative).

Tomas