FPC 3.0.0 RC2 Released!

[marcov]

Hello

We have placed the second release candidate of the Free Pascal Compiler
version 3.0.0 on our ftp servers.

Most important change since the first
release candidate is a change in the unicode resource-string handling.
Also there is a new Windows to Android cross-compiler installer.

You can help improve the upcoming 3.0.0 release by downloading and
testing this release. If you want you can report what you have done here:
http://wiki.freepascal.org/Testers_3.0.0

New features are listed at
http://wiki.freepascal.org/FPC_New_Features_3.0

Changes that may break backwards compatibility are documented at
http://wiki.freepascal.org/User_Changes_3.0.0

Issues with this release candidate that we already know of are listed in
the wiki: http://wiki.freepascal.org/Issues_3.0.0

A preview of the 3.0.0 docs is available at
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/3.0.0/

Downloads are available at:
* ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/languages/pascal/fpc/beta/3.0.0-rc2
* ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/beta/3.0.0-rc2
* ftp://freepascal.stack.nl/pub/fpc/beta/3.0.0-rc2

Enjoy!

The Free Pascal Compiler Team


                             Free Pascal Compiler

                              Version 3.0.0-rc2

****************************************************************************
* Introduction
****************************************************************************

Please also read the platform specific README file, if it exists.

This package contains an advanced freeware 32-bit/64-bit/16-bit pascal
compiler for several platforms. The language and the runtime library are
almost compatible with Turbo Pascal 7.0 and recent Delphi releases. There is
also partial support for the Macintosh pascal dialect.

News and changes related to this release are described in whatsnew.txt.

Free Pascal 3.0.0 is currently available for the following platforms:
- Linux-i386
- Linux-x86_64 (amd64)
- Linux-powerpc
- Linux-sparc
- Linux-ARM
- Win32-i386 (2000/XP, WinNT or later)
- Win64-x86_64 (XP or later)
- Wince-ARM (cross compiled from win32-i386)
- FreeBSD-i386
- FreeBSD-x86_64
- Mac OS X/Darwin for PowerPC (32 and 64 bit)
- Mac OS X/Darwin for Intel (32 and 64 bit)
- iOS (ARM and AArch64/ARM64) and iPhoneSimulator (32 and 64 bit)
- OS/2-i386 (OS/2 Warp v3.0, 4.0, WarpServer for e-Business and eComStation)
- Haiku-i386
- GO32v2-i386
- Nintendo Gameboy Advance-ARM (cross compile from win32-i386)
- Nintendo DS-ARM (cross compile from win32-i386)
- Nintendo Wii-powerpc (cross compile from win32-i386)
- AIX 5.3 and later for PowerPC (32 and 64 bit)
- Java JVM (1.5 and later) and Android Dalvik (Android 4.0 and later)
- Android (ARM, i386, MIPS) via cross-compiling.
- MS-DOS-i8086 (cross compiled from win32-i386 and Linux)
- Amiga, MorphOS and AROS

There are other platforms (like other BSD variants) which are more or less
working, but there is currently no maintainer for them and thus we cannot
provide adequate support. If you want to change this and create and
maintain versions for other platforms and targets, feel free to contact us,
e-mail addresses are listed below.


****************************************************************************
* Features
****************************************************************************

- high speed compiler
- fully 16, 32 or 64-bit code
   - 32 bit compiler can be used on x86_64 Linux distributions to compile
     32 bit applications
- language features:
   - almost fully compatible with Borland Pascal and Borland Delphi
   - ansi strings
   - wide strings
   - exception support
   - RTTI support
   - procedure overloading
   - generics (experimental)
   - operator overloading
   - COM, CORBA and raw interfaces support
   - dynamic array support
   - variant support
   - inlining
- code optimizer:
   - peephole optimizer (80x86 only)
   - jump optimizer
   - loading of variables into registers
   - assembler level dataflow analyzer (80x86 only)
   - stack frame eliminations
   - sophisticated register allocator
- integrated BASM (built-in assembler) parser
   - supports ATT syntax used by GNU C
   - supports Intel syntax used by Turbo Pascal (80x86-only)
- can compile code into assembler source code for these assemblers:
   - GNU Assembler (GAS)
   - Netwide assembler (Nasm)
   - Microsoft Assembler/Turbo Assembler (Masm/Tasm)
   - Watcom assembler (wasm)
- internal assembler for ultra fast object file generation
- can call external C code
   - h2pas utility to convert .h files to Pascal units
- smart linking (also known as dead code stripping)
- support for the GNU debugger
- integrated development environment (disabled by default on Mac OS X)
   - powerful user friendly Wordstar compatible multi file editor
   - context sensitive help supports help files in HTML, Windows HLP and
     Borland TPH format.
   - debugger on most platforms
- can create binaries running natively under both DOS and OS/2 (EMX version)
- no need for Linux distribution specific binaries, programs you write run
   on all distributions
- high quality documentation


****************************************************************************
* Minimum requirements
****************************************************************************

Processor:
   i386, x86_64, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS, i8086, Motorola 68k, Sparc or JVM
   runtime
Win32:
  - MS Windows NT/2000/XP or later (Win95, 98 and ME are not supported
    in FPC officially any longer).
  - 16 MB RAM
OS/2:
  - OS/2 Warp v3.0 with one of late fixpaks - FP 35 should be fine,
    OS/2 Warp v4.0 with FP 5 and above, WSeB, MCP or any eComStation version
    (OS/2 2.0/2.1 currently not supported, not even for compiled programs).
  - Certain features (e.g. Unicode support in the RTL) require proper
support
    only available in later OS/2 versions (at least OS/2 Warp 4.0 FP14),
    otherwise the functionality may be limited (but the binaries still work
    even on the older versions, albeit with some limitations).
Linux:
  - system running a 2.4.x kernel
FreeBSD:
- There are separate releases for FreeBSD 7.x system or 8.x system. The code
     works on 6.x too. Older versions might need specific adaptations.
Mac OS X:
  - Mac OS X 10.4 and higher


****************************************************************************
* Quick start - Win32
****************************************************************************

Download the distribution package (fpc-3.0.0.i386-win32.exe) and run it
- it is a self-extracting installer, so just follow the instructions
to install it. The installer should set the PATH environment variable as
appropriate.

To test the compiler, change to the demo\texts directory of the FPC tree
and type on the command line:
         fpc hello
         hello


****************************************************************************
* Quick start - DOS
****************************************************************************

Download distribution archive (dos300.zip for GO32v2) and unzip it into
a temporary directory.

Start the install program INSTALL.EXE and follow the instructions.

Don't forget to set PATH as mentioned by the install program. If running
under plain DOS, this can be done by opening file named AUTOEXEC.BAT located
in the root directory of your boot drive (usually C:\) with a plain text
editor (like EDIT.COM), extending the line starting with "set PATH=" (case
insensitive) with path to newly installed binaries (installation root as
selected in the installation program appended with "\BIN\GO32v2") and save
it.

To test the compiler, change to the demo\texts directory of the FPC tree
and type
         fpc hello
         hello


****************************************************************************
* Quick start - OS/2 / eComStation
****************************************************************************

Download distribution archive (os2300.zip for OS/2 or eComStation) and unzip
it into a temporary directory.

Start the install program INSTALL.EXE and follow the instructions.

Don't forget to set PATH and LIBPATH as mentioned by the install program.
This can be done by opening file named CONFIG.SYS located in the root
directory of your boot drive (e.g. C:\) with a plain text editor (e.g.
E.EXE), extending the lines starting with "set PATH=" and "LIBPATH=" (both
are case insensitive) with path to newly installed binaries (installation
root as selected in the installation program appended with "\BIN\OS2" for
PATH and "\DLL" for LIBPATH) and save it again as a plain text file.
Note that changes to LIBPATH require restart of your machine in order to
come
into effect.

To test the compiler, change to the demo\texts directory of the FPC tree
and type
         fpc hello
         hello


****************************************************************************
* Quick start - Linux/FreeBSD
****************************************************************************

Download fpc-3.0.0.<cpu>-<os>.tar and untar into a temporary directory.

Start the install script with ./install.sh and follow the instructions.

To test the compiler, change to the demo/texts directory of the FPC tree
and type
         fpc hello
         hello


****************************************************************************
* Quick start - Mac OS X/Darwin
****************************************************************************

The Xcode command line tools must be installed before FPC is installed. See
the download page for more information (the method changes with almost every
new Xcode and/or Mac OS X release, so the information in this readme is
usually out of date).

There are two methods to install Free Pascal for Mac OS X.

1) Download and install the Mac OS X installer package

2) Install fpc using fink

This second method additionally includes a text mode IDE, which partly works
using XQuartz xterm.


After installing the package, you can write your source code in your
favorite
editor (including Project Builder and XCode). To compile something, go
to the
directory containing your source files in Terminal and type:

         fpc name_of_your_source_file

The compiler only accepts one file name as argument, but will automatically
search for and compile any units used by the specified source file. Run
"fpc" without any arguments to get an overview of the possible command line
options.


****************************************************************************
* Documentation
****************************************************************************

The documentation is available as HTML pages, PDF, PS, and text although the
recommended format is pdf. The latest PDF version is available on
ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/fpc/dist/docs-pdf/, other formats are available
for download in the directory of the respective distributed release.

NB that there is at present no FPC specific documentation for the platform
specific API (like Win32 system functions, etc.). There is a note in the ftp
/doc explaining where MS help file documenting Win32 API can be obtained,
other platforms (especially Unix-based ones) often come with this
documentation included in system installation.


****************************************************************************
* Suggestions, Help, Bug reporting, snapshots,  ...
****************************************************************************

Suggestions, Help ...
---------------------
e-mail: fpc-devel@lists.freepascal.org (bugs, developer related questions)
e-mail: fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org (general pascal related questions)

Both these adresses are for mailing lists. If you're not subscribed,
be sure to mention this fact when sending questions to these lists,
so that people sending answers know about it and send you a copy.
Information about available lists and subscription can be found
on http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo

Combined with Lazarus, an IDE for the Free Pascal Compiler:
Web forum: http://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org (all questions)
Wiki: http://wiki.freepascal.org

WWW: http://www.freepascal.org
FTP: ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/fpc
(several mirrors exist, see website for links)

Additional information about mailing lists, news, future plans etc.
can be found on the web site.

SNAPSHOTS & SOURCES
-------------------
One of the features of FPC is the snapshots. These are made daily or weekly
from the developers' latest versions of the source. Snapshots are available
for GO32v2, Win32, OS/2 and Linux versions. The latest snapshots are in:
ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/fpc/snapshot/ in appropriately named .zip/tar
files.

You will also normally find in the snapshot archive file a readme, with
a note about the latest included changes. It is quite common, though it
doesn't always happen, that when a bug is reported it is fixed and a fixed
version can be obtained the NEXT day in the appropriate snapshot.... yes
really!

Also on the ftp site you'll find a /dist directory, with the latest
distributed releases, a /docs directory, and a /snapshot/<version>/source
directory, in which every night at about 0100 GMT the latest source
generated by the developers during the day & evening before is exported
from SVN into ZIP file fpc.zip.


Making your own snapshots
-------------------------
By downloading the /source files (makefiles are included) it is possible to
make your own version of the fpc compiler/rtl and to modify it. You are of
course free to do this so as long as you observe the licence conditions. In
order to make the compiler/rtl & IDE in a resonable time (eg <30 minutes)
you'll need at least 32 MB of physical memory (64 MB is better), at least
a 200 MHz processor and at least 100 MB of free disk space. You'll also
need some knowledge of makefiles & programming... it is not difficult but
it isn't easy either!

REPORTING BUGS
----------------
If you find a bug in the released version, you may want to try a snapshot
(see SNAPSHOTS above) to see if it has been fixed before reporting it to
the fpc-devel mailing list.

If you find a fault or 'feature' in a release, please report it either
using the bug reporting interface at http://bugs.freepascal.org, or to
the fpc-devel mailing list. PLEASE ALWAYS INCLUDE A COMPILABLE CODE
FRAGMENT that can be used to reproduce the problem (or a link to larger
archive if it cannot be reproduced with small example). Also state the
FPC version, target platform (Win32, Linux, ...), operating system
version (XP, Ubuntu 12.04, ...), the used compiler options and any other
useful info so the developers can reproduce the problem. Otherwise they
may not be able to fix it.


****************************************************************************
* License
****************************************************************************

The compiler and most utilities and executables distributed in this package
fall under the GPL, for more information read the file COPYING.v2.

Some specific utilities and programs come under the license described in
COPYING.v3, COPYING.DJ, COPYING.EMX, COPYING.RSX and licensez.ip.

FPC for JVM comes with some third party tools which are convered by
the following licenses:
   - jasmin.jar comes under the license described in jasminli.txt
   - bcel-6.0-SNAPSHOT.jar comes under the Apache 2.0 license, described by
     apache2.txt

Portions of FPC are based on libffi. See libffi.txt for the license of that
code.

Some of the licenses of the third party tools require to make the source
available. If you cannot find the sources or information where to find
them for a certain tool under such a license included into the FPC
distribution, please contact us through the contact details given
at http://www.freepascal.org/moreinfo.var and we will provide you
the sources or information where to find them.

The documentation, unless otherwise noted, is distributed as free
text, and is distributed under the GNU Library General Public
License as found in file COPYING.

The runtime library, package libraries, free component library, and
other libraries which are used to create executables by the compiler
come under a modified GNU Library General Public license. Additional
information about the library license is found in COPYING.FPC.

License conditions for DPMI provider for GO32v2 version (CWSDPMI.EXE)
can be found in cwsdpmi.txt, sources and/or binary updates may be
downloaded from http://clio.rice.edu/cwsdpmi/.

The DOS version (go32v2) contains some binaries of DJGPP. You can obtain
the full DJGPP package at: http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/

NOTE: OS/2 version of the installer uses the library UNZIP32.DLL from
       Info-ZIP. Info-ZIP's software (Zip, UnZip and related utilities)
       is free and can be obtained as source code or executables from
       Internet/WWW sites, including http://www.info-zip.org.

[valdir.marcos]

I know it is just an estimate. Actual duration may vary with many factors:
http://wiki.freepascal.org/FPC_Release_Schedule

Lazarus 1.4 was branched in 11 Jan 2015 and released in 19 Apr 2015.
http://bugs.freepascal.org/roadmap_page.php

Lazarus - 1.6 (Scheduled For Release 2016-02-01) may also take months from branch to release just like happened to Lazarus 1.4.
http://bugs.freepascal.org/roadmap_page.php?project_id=1

After FPC 3.0 final is released, would we have a bigger probability of a new version of Lazarus 1.4.6/1.4.8 + FPC 3.0 or Lazarus 1.6.0/2.0.0 + FPC 3.0?

[mischi]

Although I would also like to know this, I think, there are simply too many unknowns to make any reliable prediction. I assume that RC2 of fpc-3.0.0 is not far from the final release and could be used for trying to build lazarus.

MiSchi

[JuhaManninen]

After FPC 3.0 final is released, would we have a bigger probability of a new version of Lazarus 1.4.6/1.4.8 + FPC 3.0 or Lazarus 1.6.0/2.0.0 + FPC 3.0?

Lazarus 1.4.6/1.4.8 no.
There are many Unicode related issues involved. We try to solve them with the new UTF-8 system as much as possible, but it still breaks old code in some situations.
But hey, it should not be a problem for you because you can install FPC 3.0 (or the RC versions) and compile Lazarus using it.

[taazz]

how about

After FPC 3.0 final is released, would we have a bigger probability of a new version of Lazarus 1.4.6/1.4.8 + FPC 3.0 or Lazarus 1.6.0/2.0.0 + FPC 3.0?

Lazarus 1.4.6/1.4.8 no.
There are many Unicode related issues involved. We try to solve them with the new UTF-8 system as much as possible, but it still breaks old code in some situations.
But hey, it should not be a problem for you because you can install FPC 3.0 (or the RC versions) and compile Lazarus using it.

since its so easy then how about back porting a couple of bug fixes or components to 1.4.4 add fpc 3 and name it 1.4.6 before stabilizing the utf8 port and lazarus 2.0?

[JuhaManninen]

since its so easy then how about back porting a couple of bug fixes or components to 1.4.4 add fpc 3 and name it 1.4.6 before stabilizing the utf8 port and lazarus 2.0?

Yes, backporting Unicode related fixes should be OK.
Releasing a Lazarus dot maintenance version with the new FPC 3.0 would however break too many things.
Proposed fixes to be merged can be added under "Submitted by others" here :
  http://wiki.freepascal.org/Lazarus_1.4_fixes_branch

[Deepaak]

awesome, eagerly waiting for final release.   

[valdir.marcos]

Lazarus 1.4.6/1.4.8 no.
There are many Unicode related issues involved. We try to solve them with the new UTF-8 system as much as possible, but it still breaks old code in some situations.

since its so easy then how about back porting a couple of bug fixes or components to 1.4.4 add fpc 3 and name it 1.4.6 before stabilizing the utf8 port and lazarus 2.0?

Yes, backporting Unicode related fixes should be OK.
Releasing a Lazarus dot maintenance version with the new FPC 3.0 would however break too many things.

So, we would better keep on trunk (FPC 3.1 and Lazarus 1.5) for new projects until FPC 3.0 and Lazarus 1.6/2.0 are released?

[JuhaManninen]

So, we would better keep on trunk (FPC 3.1 and Lazarus 1.5) for new projects until FPC 3.0 and Lazarus 1.6/2.0 are released?

I would recommend FPC 3.0 or this RC2 version together with Lazarus trunk if you are interested in its new Unicode support.
If you are interested in latest development in FPC then of course you should use its trunk version, too.

[taazz]

since its so easy then how about back porting a couple of bug fixes or components to 1.4.4 add fpc 3 and name it 1.4.6 before stabilizing the utf8 port and lazarus 2.0?

Yes, backporting Unicode related fixes should be OK.
Releasing a Lazarus dot maintenance version with the new FPC 3.0 would however break too many things.
Proposed fixes to be merged can be added under "Submitted by others" here :
  http://wiki.freepascal.org/Lazarus_1.4_fixes_branch

Erm I was just being greedy with the back port comment I did not expect anything to come out of it. What it would break to take 1.4.4 as is snap it the brand new fpc 3.0 release and make an 1.4.6 release with out enabling the "unicode" mode, just the way it is now. If it is simple for us to replace fpc 2.6.4 with 3.0 then creating a new version should be easy too, that would allow all component developers to test for a specific version making their life a bit easier (or not) from supporting every vanilla custom build out there.

[JuhaManninen]

If it is simple for us to replace fpc 2.6.4 with 3.0 then creating a new version should be easy too, ...

Sure it would be easy to create such version but it would have nasty bugs.
FPC 3.0 has a new codepage aware string type. It does not work well with LCL directly. That's why FPC team has kindly provided a system to switch the default encoding to UTF-8 and it works better than we expected in most situations.
Some code however depends on Windows system encoding so much that the new system cannot be used. I have made a new wiki page to list problems and their solutions in such case:
  http://wiki.freepascal.org/Lazarus_with_FPC3.0_without_UTF-8_mode

In fact I understood that we need to support system codepage with FPC 3.0+ mostly because of feedback from you and some other people. I am a little surprised now that you don't seem to understand the issue at all.
Anyway, we need help to find solutions and update the new wiki page. Also your help would be appreciated.

[taazz]

If it is simple for us to replace fpc 2.6.4 with 3.0 then creating a new version should be easy too, ...

Sure it would be easy to create such version but it would have nasty bugs.
FPC 3.0 has a new codepage aware string type. It does not work well with LCL directly. That's why FPC team has kindly provided a system to switch the default encoding to UTF-8 and it works better than we expected in most situations.
Some code however depends on Windows system encoding so much that the new system cannot be used. I have made a new wiki page to list problems and their solutions in such case:
  http://wiki.freepascal.org/Lazarus_with_FPC3.0_without_UTF-8_mode

Ok you do see the problem here right?

In fact I understood that we need to support system codepage with FPC 3.0+ mostly because of feedback from you and some other people. I am a little surprised now that you don't seem to understand the issue at all.
Anyway, we need help to find solutions and update the new wiki page. Also your help would be appreciated.

There multiple issues here to understand lets just assume for now that I do not understand any of the issues, what I have to do see those problems in my IDE and where can I get the test cases (not code necessarily although most welcomed). I took a look on the meta group you mentioned and most of those bugs seem minor. testing time again I guess oh well.

[valdir.marcos]

So, we would better keep on trunk (FPC 3.1 and Lazarus 1.5) for new projects until FPC 3.0 and Lazarus 1.6/2.0 are released?

I would recommend FPC 3.0 or this RC2 version together with Lazarus trunk if you are interested in its new Unicode support.
If you are interested in latest development in FPC then of course you should use its trunk version, too.

I would prefer to use Lazarus and FPC stable versions, but for now I am using trunk versions because of some fixes related to Firebird and SEH that are present in FPC 3.0 such as:

Structured Exception Handling (SEH):
http://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,23815.msg142723.html#msg142723

Big varchar fields are truncated (not saved completly) on Firebird and Postgre:
http://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,24962.msg159736.html#msg159736
http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=26068

To me up to now, Unicode support is important, but not essential. What I need most is the bunch of fixes and other improvements present in FPC 3.0.
http://wiki.freepascal.org/FPC_New_Features_3.0

@marcov, @JuhaManninen and @taazz:
Thanks for all information and for your patience.

[valdir.marcos]

Was FPC 3.0.0 tagged as final on 2015-11-12?
http://wiki.freepascal.org/FPC_Release_Schedule
http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpc/tags/release_3_0_0/compiler/version.pas

[marcov]

Was FPC 3.0.0 tagged as final on 2015-11-12?

3.0.0 is tagged, and release should be near, very near.