Adding new Z80 platforms? Advice needed.

[Wysardry]

As mentioned in the thread "Status of Z80 cross compiler?" I would like to add several new Z80 based computers to the current compiler targets.

Since I last posted in that thread I have had major problems with my main laptop and basically have to start again from scratch due to reinstalling Windows.

This time around, I have three different 64-bit systems I could use to do this:-

• A 6 year old Dell laptop with 16 Gb RAM running Windows 10
• A 12 year old Samsung laptop with 6 Gb RAM running Debian 12
• A 2 year old Raspberry Pi 4 with 4 Gb RAM running Raspberry Pi OS

My first question is, which of these would be most suitable for working on FreePascal code?

I don't currently have WSL on the Windows computer, as it seems redundant if I have two other machines running Linux that I could use.

[Curt Carpenter]

Having abandoned Windows a long time ago, I've been very happy with Ubuntu-Debian and I think it would be more than adequate for your project.  Curios what Z80 machines you want to work on.

[ccrause]

• A 6 year old Dell laptop with 16 Gb RAM running Windows 10
• A 12 year old Samsung laptop with 6 Gb RAM running Debian 12
• A 2 year old Raspberry Pi 4 with 4 Gb RAM running Raspberry Pi OS

My first question is, which of these would be most suitable for working on FreePascal code?

I guess all three should be suitable for working on the compiler itself. Another consideration is the availability of cross bintools (as, ld, objdump etc.) for your host OS. Debian has packages for many different cross bintools targets.

[Wysardry]

Curt Carpenter: I have only recently installed Debian on the Samsung (which had Windows 7 on before) and it is growing on me.

I'm looking to add support for the Enterprise 64/128 and the Sharp MZ-700. As the MZ-700 was highly compatible with the MZ-80A, MZ-80K and MZ-800 I would be looking to include support for those at the same time.

ccrause: It was mostly the tool availability I was wondering about. I know I had to install MSYS2 when I used Windows 10 before.

My first thought was to use Debian on the Samsung, so that I could switch to the Raspberry Pi if I had hardware issues. Raspberry Pi OS is based on Debian, after all.

I feel that switching from Windows to either of the other options would be more disorientating.

[PascalDragon]

My first question is, which of these would be most suitable for working on FreePascal code?

The most important part is that the binutils for the target platform are available. For FPC itself it doesn't matter whether you use Windows or Linux, just use what you're more comfortable with.

[Wysardry]

Thanks. I have used Windows for much longer, but am unfamiliar with most of the needed versioning and make tools.

It seems that most emulators are easier to install on Windows, so that's one plus point for it.

Would using the Debian version of WSL2 make sense? Is it easy to install the Lazarus IDE on that? The only info I've found so far is about four years old, so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

[PascalDragon]

Would using the Debian version of WSL2 make sense? Is it easy to install the Lazarus IDE on that? The only info I've found so far is about four years old, so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Debian is at least rather stable and the binutils for legacy systems might not change that much. So, yes, Debian should be suitable.

However installing Lazarus in WSL2 has the additional problem that you either need a very current system so that you can follow this guide or you also need to setup a X server on Windows.
Alternatively you point the compiler configured in the Windows Lazarus to the Linux binary of the compiler (see here).

[Wysardry]

Although my laptop is almost 7 years old now, it does have a new enough build of Windows 10 to follow that guide. Thanks.

My main reason for wanting to use Debian is that my other computers run some form of it, so switching to one of them would be easier if I needed to.

Is there a test program available to check whether all the standard features of FreePascal work on a new target? Do people generally use FPTest, fpcunit or something else?

I'm a little vague about what the minimal/core features are.