[fpc-pascal] Error compiling on AROS/m68k: 1980-0-0 is not a valid date specification

[Carsten Strotmann]

Hello Charlie,

thanks for your help.

Karoly Balogh (Charlie/SGR) <charlie at scenergy.dfmk.hu> writes:

> Hi Carsten,
>
> On Thu, 17 Dec 2020, Carsten Strotmann via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>> I've trying FPC on an Vampire 4 SA machine with ApolloOS/AROS
>> m68k.
>
> Which version of FPC are you trying? Trunk, 3.2.0 stable, you 
> built your
> own, or you downloaded one of the official Amiga releases?

it's the one that comes pre-installed with the Vampire 4 SA. I 
really
like the fact that FPC comes pre-installed. It identifies itself 
as
3.2.0 (2020/06/13) (fpc binary is 112808 bytes)

>
>> Whenever I try to compile a pascal program (simple "Hello 
>> World" style)
>> the compiler stopps with an interal error message "Error: 
>> 1980-0-0 is
>> not a valid date specification".
>>
>> My guess this is something between the OS (AROS/ApolloOS) and 
>> FPC.
>
> No, this is most likely the Vampire 4 or more specifically its 
> FPGA CPU
> implementation ("Apollo core") being incompatible with a true 
> m68k. Are
> you trying to use the SoftFPU or the hardware FPU version?

is there a way to get this information from the installed 
binaries? As
FPC was pre-installed, I have no idea which version the Apollo 
developer
used.

> This matters,
> because the TDateTime type maps to "Double" (64bit float) in the 
> run time
> library, and the most problematic part of that CPU core is known 
> to be the
> FPU, especially with higher precisions. The error you're getting 
> is
> definitely coming from one of the TDateTime helper functions in 
> the
> sysutils unit. (Search in rtl/objpas/sysutils/dati.inc.)
>
>> Can anyone give me a clue how to debug this issue?
>
> It's entirely a speculation from my part, but if I can judge it 
> by my past
> experiences trying to investigate issues reported by Vampire 
> users, I
> doubt there's anything to debug in FPC in this regard.
>
> If you're using the hardware FPU version, try using the SoftFPU 
> version
> (which should be the default on m68k-amiga, actually).

I've downloaded 3.2.0a (SoftFPU) from the FreePascal website, and 
that
version works fine. So it might be a HardFPU version.

I also see that the pre-installed version was installed with the 
clock
in the system was set to the start of the Amiga Time 
(1.1.1978). Might
that create a problem?

It would be good it we can find the issue and report back to the 
Apollo
team, so that they can fix the pre-installed version.

Greetings

Carsten