[fpc-pascal] Call for testing: array constructors

[Sven Barth via fpc-pascal]

Hello together!

Since revision 36105 FPC now supports the use of array constructors
using the "[...]" syntax inside ordinary code blocks like Delphi does
since - I think - XE8. And yes, even nested ones are supported (take a
look at $fpcdir/tests/test/tarrconstr5.pp for a bit of inspiration).

Considering that this changed how "[...]" is handled I'd like you all to
test whether your existing code still works (especially if it's dealing
with sets!) and to try this new feature to see if there are any problems
that our testsuite doesn't cover yet.

If you report bugs, then please attach the tag "array constructors".

Have fun! :D

Regards,
Sven
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Freevision etc.

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

On 04/05/17 11:30, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:


Is anybody currently using Freevision dialog(ue)s? I've got some very
odd problems transferring initial values onto the screen and getting
stuff back, at least some of which appears to be platform-specific
(comparing x86_64, i386 and arm, all Linux).
For example, the checkboxes in a group appear to be numbered $10, $20
instead of $01 etc., and I've not yet found how to interface with
radiobuttons: only 0 works.


The record that Dialedit generates to represent initial or extracted 
dialogue box values has alignment and/or packing problems. There's a 
comment in the source that the FreeVision sources expect dwords while 
the author using a debugger believed that words were correct.


I was able to get things working adequately by assuming that the correct 
type for a RadioButton was a byte, and that the CheckBoxes the followed 
it were..., well something larger but I'm still not sure what.


--
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]
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[fpc-pascal] importtl and ignored [out, retval] parameters

[Lubos Pintes]

Hello,
I wanted to import the UIAutomationClient type library. Thus I compiled 
the UIAutomationClient.idl to .tlb and then used importtl to convert it 
to pascal.
Importtl converted this incorrectly, it ignored [out, retval] parameters 
on many places. For example, two examples from IUIAutomationElement 
interface.

IDL:
HRESULT GetRuntimeId (
[out, retval] SAFEARRAY(int) * runtimeId );

HRESULT FindFirst (
[in] enum TreeScope scope,
[in] IUIAutomationCondition * condition,
[out, retval] IUIAutomationElement ** found );

Pascal:
// GetRuntimeId :
   function GetRuntimeId:HRESULT;stdcall;
// FindFirst :
   function 
FindFirst(scope:TreeScope;condition:IUIAutomationCondition):HRESULT;stdcall;



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Re: [fpc-pascal] Freevision etc.

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 2017-05-04 13:52, Michael Van Canneyt wrote:
> All this fails if the needed libraries are not available

You are indeed correct of course.

Below is the output as seen on a server that has no X11 related libraries 
installed.


$./osmail -h
Shared object "libXft.so.2" not found, required by "osmail"
$



Having two binaries also has other benefits. Your "launch binary" can do checks 
for a GUI environment, but it can also be used for over-the-wire binary 
updates. eg: You can't overwrite a running binary under Windows, but with a two 
binary setup the update can be done before launching the real application 
executable.

Regards,
  Graeme

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Re: [fpc-pascal] Freevision etc.

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Thu, 4 May 2017, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:


On 2017-05-04 13:21, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
text-mode console or over something really crude like telnet... and I 
hope you're doing that for fpGUI since you keep telling us how good it 
is :-)


As I said, I do that often in my own (and commercial) applications that
use fpGUI. The fpGUI framework itself also has some extra checks in to
see if a GUI environment is available, and will exit gracefully with a
error message if such an environment doesn't exist.


All this fails if the needed libraries are not available, and they are
compiled in statically for X.

home: >ldd fpguidemo
linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x7fffbfbdb000)
libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so.6 
(0x7ff823a12000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6 
(0x7ff8236d8000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXext.so.6 
(0x7ff8234c5000)
libXft.so.2 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXft.so.2 
(0x7ff8232b)
libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfontconfig.so.1 
(0x7ff82306d000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x7ff822e68000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x7ff822a9f000)
libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x7ff822885000)
libpng12.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng12.so.0 
(0x7ff82265f000)
libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1 
(0x7ff82243d000)
libXrender.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXrender.so.1 
(0x7ff822233000)
libexpat.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexpat.so.1 
(0x7ff822009000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 
(0x7ff821dec000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x562638a98000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x7ff821ae3000)
libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXau.so.6 
(0x7ff8218de000)
libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXdmcp.so.6 
(0x7ff8216d8000)


We have lots of headless server instances where the X libs are simply not
installed. So the binary will not even start, and there will be no fallback
to text either.

The only solution for this situation are 2 binaries.

Michael.
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Freevision etc.

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 2017-05-04 13:21, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
> text-mode console or over something really crude like telnet... and I 
> hope you're doing that for fpGUI since you keep telling us how good it 
> is :-)

As I said, I do that often in my own (and commercial) applications that
use fpGUI. The fpGUI framework itself also has some extra checks in to
see if a GUI environment is available, and will exit gracefully with a
error message if such an environment doesn't exist.

The usual remote functionality of X11 also works perfectly with fpGUI
applications. ie: run a app here, but it displays on a different server.


> initialisation block, but it would mean splitting out e.g. text-mode 
> --help and graphics-mode --about into separate places.

With my applications, I normally implement a reusable initialize.inc
file which sits before the fpgApplication.Initialize() call.

This include file does command line parameter handling and in case of
database applications, initialised tiOPF for me. When it comes to
command line parameters, I check if I need to handle anything (eg: -h or
--help) then do a IF IsConsole THEN ELSE and that is it.  Quite
simple.

Here is the code for the application output I showed earlier.


// Help
if gCommandLineParams.IsParam(['h', 'help']) then
begin
  if IsConsole then
  begin
  writeln(Format(cAppNameFormatStr, [ApplicationName,
cMajorVersion, cMinorVersion, uiVersionBuild, cBuildVersion]));
  writeln('Compiled on ' + cCompileDateTime);
  writeln('');
  writeln('The following parameters are available:');
  writeln('');
  writeln('   h, helpShows this help');
  writeln('   lc Logs debug information to the
console');
  writeln('   lv Logs debug information to a visual
screen');
  writeln('   ls Logs debug information to debug
server');
  writeln('   l  Logs debug information to a file');
  writeln('   style  Applies a custom style to the
application. Available');
  writeln('  options are: ' +
fpgStyleManager.StyleTypesAsString);
  writeln('');
  writeln('NOTE: This program requires a graphical windowing
environment to function.');
  Exit;
  end
  else
  begin
fpgApplication.Initialize;
tiShowString(
Format(cAppNameFormatStr, [cAppName, cMajorVersion,
cMinorVersion, uiVersionBuild, cBuildVersion])
+ LineEnding + 'Compiled on ' + cCompileDateTime
+ LineEnding + ''
+ LineEnding + 'The following parameters are available:'
+ LineEnding + ''
+ LineEnding + '   h, helpShows this help'
+ LineEnding + '   lc Logs debug information to the
console'
+ LineEnding + '   lv Logs debug information to a
visual screen'
+ LineEnding + '   ls Logs debug information to
debug server'
+ LineEnding + '   l  Logs debug information to a file'
+ LineEnding + '   style  Applies a custom style to the
application. Available'
+ LineEnding + '  options are: ' +
fpgStyleManager.StyleTypesAsString
, 'Quick Help', False);
fpgApplication.Run;
Exit;
  end;
end;

   // activate application logging code here

   // apply user defined fpGUI style here

   // activate tiOPF initialisation code here





Regards,
  Graeme

-- 
fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal
http://fpgui.sourceforge.net/

My public PGP key:  http://tinyurl.com/graeme-pgp
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Freevision etc.

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

On 04/05/17 12:00, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:

On 2017-05-04 12:03, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:>> I've not used Freevision/Turbovision before, but am 
experimenting with>> James Clarke's DialEdit as an experiment to see whether I can create a>> fallback 
user interface for use if an interactive program is running in>> a shell session. The Lazarus side of things 
isn't a problem, I know from>> the past how to break out before the GUI is initialised and so on.> I was 
mistaken, this can't be done easily so there's no advantage in > trying to build a single program for both GUI and 
text modes.>

And it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t offer up an alternative.


Agreed, such as --help or --version output. However it looks as though 
it's important to check anything that attempts this on e.g. the system 
text-mode console or over something really crude like telnet... and I 
hope you're doing that for fpGUI since you keep telling us how good it 
is :-)



So as you can see, what you want to do is possible. Maybe LCL just needsmore 
work around its initialization code - being less eager toinitialize its GUI. ;-)


I think it could probably be done by slipping a unit in just before 
cthreads, provided that this terminated aggressively. That's actually 
less intrusive that the editing I've been doing in the .lpr 
initialisation block, but it would mean splitting out e.g. text-mode 
--help and graphics-mode --about into separate places.


--
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Freevision etc.

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 2017-05-04 12:03, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
>> I've not used Freevision/Turbovision before, but am experimenting with
>> James Clarke's DialEdit as an experiment to see whether I can create a
>> fallback user interface for use if an interactive program is running in
>> a shell session. The Lazarus side of things isn't a problem, I know from
>> the past how to break out before the GUI is initialised and so on.
> I was mistaken, this can't be done easily so there's no advantage in 
> trying to build a single program for both GUI and text modes.
> 


And it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t offer up an alternative. fpGUI
based applications can indeed do what you want. I do this all the time
for command line handling. If a GUI program is run from a terminal (no
X11 server), it will still output to the console telling the user what
program it is, version info, command line parameters and importantly,
that it requires a GUI to function. In a GUI environment (eg: MS
Windows) it will display a dialog with all the same information, if the
-h command line parameter was passed in.

Here is such output of one of my programs (run from the login terminal -
no X11):

===
$ ./osmail -h
Opensoft Mail & News v1.00 (build 18)
Compiled on 2017/05/01 11:09:41

The following parameters are available:

   h, helpShows this help
   lc Logs debug information to the console
   lv Logs debug information to a visual screen
   ls Logs debug information to debug server
   l  Logs debug information to a file
   style  Applies a custom style to the application. Available
  options are: "auto", "Win2000", "Motif", "Carbon",
"Plastic Dark", "Plastic Dark Gray", "Plastic Medium Gray", "Plastic
Light Gray"

NOTE: This program requires a graphical windowing environment to function.
$
===

So as you can see, what you want to do is possible. Maybe LCL just needs
more work around its initialization code - being less eager to
initialize its GUI. ;-)

Regards,
  Graeme

-- 
fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal
http://fpgui.sourceforge.net/

My public PGP key:  http://tinyurl.com/graeme-pgp
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Freevision etc.

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

On 13/04/17 10:00, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:

I've not used Freevision/Turbovision before, but am experimenting with
James Clarke's DialEdit as an experiment to see whether I can create a
fallback user interface for use if an interactive program is running in
a shell session. The Lazarus side of things isn't a problem, I know from
the past how to break out before the GUI is initialised and so on.


I was mistaken, this can't be done easily so there's no advantage in 
trying to build a single program for both GUI and text modes.



My first problem is that there's a name clash between the Freevision and
LCL variants of some units.


With two separate programs this ceases to be a problem, Lazarus or a 
straight FPC compilation works.


Is anybody currently using Freevision dialog(ue)s? I've got some very 
odd problems transferring initial values onto the screen and getting 
stuff back, at least some of which appears to be platform-specific 
(comparing x86_64, i386 and arm, all Linux).


For example, the checkboxes in a group appear to be numbered $10, $20 
instead of $01 etc., and I've not yet found how to interface with 
radiobuttons: only 0 works.


--
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Record operator for assignment

[Ryan Joseph]

> On May 4, 2017, at 4:27 PM, Marco van de Voort  wrote:
> 
> Scripting languages often already by default initialize a datatructure, and
> then such language constructs only performs additional initialization.
> 
> Pascal and similar lowlevel languages don't by default initialize them, and 
> then whole initialization is
> more logical.

It’s optional and basically just a default constructor which takes all fields 
as it’s arguments. You don’t need to call it if you don’t want. Swift is 
compiled afaik but it does way more behind the scenes than I’d like Pascal to 
do and does behave like a scripting language in many ways (inferred types for 
example). That being said Pascal records should still have a default 
constructor since this is a pattern repeated extremely frequently.

Regards,
Ryan Joseph

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Re: [fpc-pascal] Record operator for assignment

[Sven Barth via fpc-pascal]

Am 04.05.2017 10:37 schrieb "Ryan Joseph" :
>
>
> > On Apr 28, 2017, at 3:51 PM, Ryan Joseph 
wrote:
> >
> > I almost struck out there. ;) There’s at least a possibility for anyone
interested. A few years ago I looked at the compiler source and decided it
was beyond me to even understand the code base well enough to do anything.
How do people get into this any ways? The learning curve is so steep it’s a
miracle anyone is able to contribute.

One starts with something simple and works one's way up. My first real
compiler contribution were if I remember correctly class helpers. And at
that time I knew next to nothing about the compiler and thus had to learn
by doing and debugging.

Regards,
Sven
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Record operator for assignment

[Marco van de Voort]

In our previous episode, Ryan Joseph said:
> All structures have an automatically-generated memberwise initializer, which 
> you can use to initialize the member properties of new structure instances. 
> Initial values for the properties of the new instance can be passed to the 
> memberwise initializer by name:
> 
> var vga = Resolution(width: 640, height: 480)

Scripting languages often already by default initialize a datatructure, and
then such language constructs only performs additional initialization.

Pascal and similar lowlevel languages don't by default initialize them, and 
then whole initialization is
more logical.
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Re: [fpc-pascal] Record operator for assignment

[Ryan Joseph]

> On Apr 28, 2017, at 3:51 PM, Ryan Joseph  wrote:
> 
> I almost struck out there. ;) There’s at least a possibility for anyone 
> interested. A few years ago I looked at the compiler source and decided it 
> was beyond me to even understand the code base well enough to do anything. 
> How do people get into this any ways? The learning curve is so steep it’s a 
> miracle anyone is able to contribute.

I was looking at a Swift language guide (Apple’s new language) and they have 
this exact same syntax for initializing structs (like a default constructor 
that Pascal is missing).

From their guide “vga" is a struct with 2 fields: width and height. Swift uses 
labels in functions (like Objective-C) but the end result is that it looks 
identical to the Pascal syntax for defining constant records.

==

All structures have an automatically-generated memberwise initializer, which 
you can use to initialize the member properties of new structure instances. 
Initial values for the properties of the new instance can be passed to the 
memberwise initializer by name:

var vga = Resolution(width: 640, height: 480)

Regards,
Ryan Joseph

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