[fpc-pascal] Questions from Semi-Beginner

[Christo Crause]

On Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 10:48 AM CSlemaker via fpc-pascal <
fpc-pascal at lists.freepascal.org> wrote:

> Title:  OS Upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 – Free Pascal Consequences ?
>
> I am currently running under Windows 7 but I MUST upgrade to Windows 10
> Pro.
> <snip>
> Will I need to recompile my Pascal source files for object compatibility
> with Win 10?
> Should I install the latest version of Free Pascal, and if so, which
> version is that?
> Will I have any compatibility problems with my source codes and an
> up-to-date compiler?
>

The change in Windows version should in principle (yes, famous last words)
not impact on your legacy code.  There may be edge cases where permission
levels may change and prevent code from running.  That said I don't program
much on Windows.

Perhaps a bigger factor will be the changes in compiler behaviour. The
compiler team is serious about maintaining backwards compatibility, but
there are some breaking changes (not much really), see the following links:
https://wiki.freepascal.org/User_Changes_3.0
https://wiki.freepascal.org/User_Changes_3.2.0


> <snip>
> P.S. - "Lazarus" is a term I'm not familiar with.  Is it a completely new
> IDE for Free
>    Pascal?  Is there a document which describes differences with the old
> IDE?
>    Is the old IDE still available in case I have trouble with Lazarus?
>

Lazarus is an independent IDE forFPC that has a graphical interface (a
Delphi IDE clone, somewhat similar to Visual Studio), perhaps a richer
feature set compared to FP and a visual form editor for visual editing of
graphical forms ("windows").  You can install and test it in parallel to
the old FP IDE, there isn't any interaction.  If you don't like Lazarus you
can continue working in FP. A couple of screen shots of Lazarus:
https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Screenshots
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