[fpc-pascal] const records passed incorrectly

[Anthony Walter]

Hi all. I am new to fpc and linux in general, though I do have a long
time experience with Delphi.

I was writing some code basic system (using the libc library) when I
ran across the following  problem .. some code:

const
  libc = 'libc.so.6';

type
  TTimeSpec = record
    Sec: Cardinal;  { Seconds }
    NSec: Cardinal; { Nanoseconds }
  end;
  PTimeSpec = ^TTimeSpec;

function nanosleep(const RequestedTime: TTimeSpec; Remaining:
PTimeSpec): Integer; cdecl; external libc;

The problem with fpc and the above import is with the RequestedTime
parameter, declared as a const record. In Delphi declaring a const
record parameter cause the compiler to generate code to pass the
record by reference (that is to say passing the address). In fpc,
however this is not happening.

My question is why. Why isn't fpc generating the code to pass a const
record as a reference?

I can find tons of WinAPI code where records are passed as const
references by Delphi. I see this issue causing me some headaches as I
port my Delphi code to run across platforms using fpc.