Stop wasting time on FPC 2.6 and Laz 1.4!

[ChrisF]

[...] After Lazarus revision 50128-50129 with the usage of UTF8 as DefaultSystemCodepage the most problems with the usage of FPC 3.0.0 are gone. [...]

What are the changes involved into these 50128-50129 revisions exactly ?

[snorkel]

And, did I mention that trunk has some new cool features?

Do tell What are these cool new features :-)

[Michl]

Thank you for fixing the ACP issues with FPC 3.0, when the new UTF-8 system is not used. Loosing the system codepage was a big worry for some people, understandably.
This work is not finished yet but I have understood it can work cleanly without nasty unexpected bugs.

Thank you for your flowers, it isn't such a big thing.

What are the changes involved into these 50128-50129 revisions exactly ?

As summary the changing of the DefaultSystemCodepage to CP_UTF8.

This lines are the biggest change:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. -{$IFDEF EnableUTF8RTL}
2. +{$IF (FPC_FULLVERSION >= 30000) AND NOT DEFINED(DisableUTF8RTL)}
3.  initialization
4.    SetMultiByteConversionCodePage(CP_UTF8);
5.    // SetMultiByteFileSystemCodePage(CP_UTF8); not needed, this is the default under Windows
6.    SetMultiByteRTLFileSystemCodePage(CP_UTF8);
7. -{$ENDIF}
8. +{$IFEND}
9.  
10. ...
11.  
12. procedure SetMultiByteConversionCodePage(CodePage: TSystemCodePage);
13.   begin
14.     DefaultSystemCodePage:=CodePage;
15.   end;
16.  
17. procedure SetMultiByteFileSystemCodePage(CodePage: TSystemCodePage);
18.   begin
19.     DefaultFileSystemCodePage:=CodePage;
20.   end;
21.  
22. procedure SetMultiByteRTLFileSystemCodePage(CodePage: TSystemCodePage);
23.   begin
24.     DefaultRTLFileSystemCodePage:=CodePage;
25.   end;  

[JuhaManninen]

Do tell What are these cool new features :-)

- Configurable IDE CoolBar which replaces the static Toolbar. It shares settings GUI with EditorToolbar which is moved to IDE's codebase.

- Configurable desktops about like Delphi has since long time. A desktop contains window pos/size, IDE CoolBar config, EditorToolbar config, component palette config etc.
A debug desktop can be defined. Works also with AnchorDocking.

- improvements in window layout storage, with and without AnchorDocking.

- FreeSparta branch has a working docked form designer which will be moved to trunk later. It makes most sense with AnchorDocking but can be used without.

- improvements in Codetools for new language features.

- Initial version of project groups.

... and many minor fixes. Why don't you try yourself? :-)

[gour]

If you want to develop with Lazarus, you get the best possible comfort. In the most cases you will have no contact with any string conversion. Lazarus uses the 8 bit Unicodestring UTF8 by default and this wouldn't be changed if there is a new version based on FPC 3.0.0.

That's good to hear.

I see some panic with the new strings but I can't see a reason for that. I'm using Lazarus Trunk and FPC Trunk a long time and don't understand the endless discussions on that strings. After Lazarus revision 50128-50129 with the usage of UTF8 as DefaultSystemCodepage the most problems with the usage of FPC 3.0.0 are gone. And to be correct, with FPC 3.0.0 it is the first that you can build clean ACP applications with Lazarus.

Thank you being bearer of good news!

[Leledumbo]

- FreeSparta branch has a working docked form designer which will be moved to trunk later. It makes most sense with AnchorDocking but can be used without.

Still waiting for this to happen. I just test freesparta branch occasionally but my primary work is on trunk.

[balazsszekely]

@Leledumbo
I just test freesparta branch occasionally but my primary work is on trunk.

You can copy "1_spartaBasic" package from FreeSparta branch and install it under the trunk. It will work just fine if you have fpc 3.0.0+. It's stable on windows, still has some issues under linux and osx, but Maciej will fix them.

[JuhaManninen]

You can copy "1_spartaBasic" package from FreeSparta branch and install it under the trunk. It will work just fine if you have fpc 3.0.0+.

Yes. You can also use it in Lazarus trunk directly from your free-sparta checkout. Just get it from here:
  http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/branches/free-sparta
then select the package in Lazarus trunk instance and build it.

It's stable on windows, still has some issues under linux and osx, but Maciej will fix them.

The Linux issues were fixed recently. At least for me it works now with GTK2 and QT.
Please test everybody. Maciej is fixing bugs diligently.

[rvk]

Please test everybody. Maciej is fixing bugs diligently.

I still can't test 1_spartaBasic fully because of the problem with "AnchorDockingDsgn 0.5" which keeps opening on my second screen. And since I start Lazarus frequently (and keep moving it to my first screen) that really gets old after a few times.

http://mantis.freepascal.org/view.php?id=28803

(If I get some time I'll see if I can produce a patch myself. Apparently I'm one of the few with two screens )

[Thaddy]

I think a two monitor setup is rather more common than you think, Rick.
I filed some semi-related bug reports about that about a year and two years ago.

[rvk]

I think a two monitor setup is rather more common than you think, Rick.
I filed some semi-related bug reports about that about a year and two years ago.

Then I'm one of the few who tried AnchorDockingDsgn with two monitors, lately
(there were a few related bugs which were fixed and those fixes resulted in this bug)

[JuhaManninen]

I still can't test 1_spartaBasic fully because of the problem with "AnchorDockingDsgn 0.5" which keeps opening on my second screen.

You can use 1_spartaBasic also without AnchorDockingDsgn.

[rvk]

I still can't test 1_spartaBasic fully because of the problem with "AnchorDockingDsgn 0.5" which keeps opening on my second screen.

You can use 1_spartaBasic also without AnchorDockingDsgn.

Yes, that's true too. (I'll make sure it's in my trunk-compile script.)

(Now I remember again. My second monitor is named 1 because it's on HDMI while my primary monitor 2 is on DVI. Maybe that setup is less common. And AnchorDockingDsgn always seems to default to monitor 1. For the time being I hacked it to go to the correct monitor.)

[Thaddy]

Interested in the steps, Rick. I like anchor docking but never ever got it fully working with Lazarus. That keeps me under-using it as an editor.

Any change of a write-up?

[balazsszekely]

@rvk @Juha
Please test this on your computer:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. var
2.   I: Integer;
3. begin
4.   for I := 0 to Screen.MonitorCount -1 do
5.    ShowMessage(IntToStr(Screen.Monitors[I].Left));  
6. end;

If the first monitor Left position is bigger then the second one, then lazarus is reading the monitors in the wrong orther or your monitors are switched. On windows you can check this by pressing the identify button(Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display\Screen Resolution). Anchordocking reads the active monitor correctly.