Porting from Delphi to Lazarus

[vini7]

Hi

I am new to Lazarus..
I am poerting delphi code to lazarus.

I am getting following error:
1) SetVolumeLabel('c:\', VolumeName);
error: illegal expression.

2)Hint: Local variable does not seem to be initilized

3)Error: Identifier not found "GetUserName"
4)Error: Identifier not found "SetVolumeLabel"
5)Error: Identifier not found "ExitWindowsEX"
6)Error: Identifier not found "Ewx_Force"
7)Error: Identifier not found "Ewx_Reboot"
8)Error: Identifier not found "ShellExecute"
9)Error: Identifier not found "ShellExecute"
10) Warning: Local variable "FileHandle" does not seem to be initialized
11)Error: Identifier not found "GetVolumeInformation"


Why I am getting these error?? how to resolve these errors???

Please help..

vini7

[theo]

These are Winapi functions.
It might work if you include "Windows" in the uses clause, but then your software will only work on Windows, not Linux, MacOS etc.

[vini7]

is there any other alternative???

what about getUserName and setVolumeLabel?????

[theo]

These are highly system dependent things.
The native Linux file system has nothing like a VolumeLabel afaik.
On Linux, you get the user like getenvironmentvariable('USER');
For Reboot and such things, you'll need root privileges on Linux afaik.
You cannot "simply" recompile your code for other systems with this level of system dependency.

[Leledumbo]

I don't have any alternatives for GetUserName, SetVolumeLabel, ExitWindowsEX, Ewx_Force, Ewx_Reboot, or GetVolumeInformation. But for ShellExecute there are 2 alternatives. Either use TProcess from unit Process, or ExecuteProcess from SysUtils. Read this for further information. Perhaps for GetUserName, you can see if there's any related function in fcl-registry. Can you tell what actually ExitWindowsEX, Ewx_Force, Ewx_Reboot do?

[vini7]

but in my delphi code I am using these api and I want same type of features in linux based lazarus code.... So there must be some equivalent functions.... do u know or hoe to use these????

I think these are the main critical part while porting Delphi code to Lazarus code...

please explain me in more detail

[theo]

You should try to understand what your code does, why it does it and which alternatives there are.
You can't change things like VolumLabel if there is no VolumeLabel.
Shutting down or Rebooting the System is most likely not necessary for a Linux Application.
How to execute external programs in a cross-platform way is described here http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Executing_External_Programs

[Phil]

but in my delphi code I am using these api and I want same type of features in linux based lazarus code.... So there must be some equivalent functions.... do u know or hoe to use these????

I think these are the main critical part while porting Delphi code to Lazarus code...

please explain me in more detail

Delphi programmers often treat the Win API functions as part of the Delphi runtime. This is fine if the program will only be run on Windows, but not such a good habit if there's any chance the program will need to someday run on other platforms.

The Lazarus LCLIntf units supports some of the Win API functions where it makes sense and where there's a corresponding function or way to emulate it on all platforms.

Theo is right - you really need to step back and think about what your program is trying to do in a general sense. You know what it's trying to do in a specific sense (i.e., it's trying to call a number of Windows API functions). You'll also probably have to learn at least a little about your new target platforms (Linux, Mac OS?). Once you have this level of understanding of both your program and the target platforms, you can decide: can the code be rewritten to emulate what it does on Windows? can the code simply be eliminated? is there a simpler way to achieve what the code is doing on Windows?

Remember that the Free Pascal RTL has an extremely rich set of functions, both general (available on all platforms, for example everything in the SysUtils unit) and specific (Unix, BaseUnix units). If you spend some time investigating these units (see the .pdf files!) you may discover that you can do the same thing at a higher-level rather than at the OS API level.

Thanks.

-Phil

[vini7]

thanks for ur valuable advice.. i ll chk it out its requirment

[vini7]

I have resolved all windows based APIs.also used Tprocess for executing shell.

Now I am getting "unable to open applicarion.RES file"

what is res file?(i guess it is resource file)
then how to convert this delphi file to lazarus???

please help...


Thanks & Regards

vini7

[theo]

I think you don't need it. Just remove the line in you project file.
Read also:
http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Code_Conversion_Guide

[Phil]

Now I am getting "unable to open applicarion.RES file"

what is res file?(i guess it is resource file)
then how to convert this delphi file to lazarus???

With Delphi the .res file typically contains the application's icon and version resource. You can exclude it from compiling on Linux and OS X:

{$IFDEF MSWINDOWS}
{$R *.res}
{$ENDIF}

Thanks.

-Phil