[fpc-pascal] Free Pascal created libraries used by other languages

[Marco van de Voort]

In our previous episode, Graeme Geldenhuys said:
> > 2. Since FPGui is object oriented, it will be unusable unless you devise
> >    a 'flat' API.
> 
> Is't there a way the FPC compiler can automatically flatten object oriented
> code?

No.
 
> As a test I created a new library project and included the
> fpgui_toolkit.pas unit which contains references to all units available in
> fpGUI Toolkit. I had to add the -fPIC compiler parameter and in
> successfully compiled a fpgui_toolkit.so file.

You got a .so file. How do you know it is correct?

> I know I can't use that file, because no functions have been exported. But
> viewing the .so file with Midnight Commander (pressing F3) shows me what
> looks like a 100% flattened API of fpGUI Toolkit - it's probably debug
> information. But doesn't that mean the compiler could also do something
> similar an instead generate exported methods (flattened API).

You see mangled names, exactly what you would see if you did this on a C++
.so. IOW this dll is not flattened.

Do this on a C dll to see the difference.
 
Roughly there are only three options:
- wait for packages support
- implement packages support
- export a C api (more or less as Jonas said), and take the more difficult
   usage (and need to rewrap if you want OO interface) for granted.

Reread the wiki entry to get an idea what packages are about.