DOS ain't dead

Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate (Announce)

posted by Laaca , Czech republic, 01.04.2020, 23:34

OK, tried this release and my impressions are rather positive. (I will speak about GO32V2 version only)

+ Installer (INSTALL.EXE) works
+ For most packages it needs LFN driver. In the beginning of the instalation it warns about it. Some packages is anyway possible to properly install even without LFNs and even those where they are supposed to be really required is possible to force manualy the installer to install.
It is fair behaviour.

- Unfortunately the LFNs are reported as requierred even for the very basic packages like basic GNU tools or the Turbo pascal compatible units.
It would be much better to be SFN compatible for this minimal DOS set.
But OK, I understand that FPC in targeted primary for the modern platforms and to keep such level of DOS compatibility would be difficult.
Anyway - for us, DOS entusiasists is still possible the create a more DOS friendly package of FPC.

- Even other complication with the LFN requirement is the location of the RTL units. They are in the LFN directories.
I recommend to manulaly edit the FPC.CFG and FP.CFG files and replace the LFN paths to their SFN equivalents. After this correction will the compiler again work even in the non-LFN environment.

- As Rugxulo mentioned, the IDEDOS.ZIP package is corrupted. But surprisingly it can be cured by tool PKZIPFIX. I did it and uploaded the fixed version here:
http://laaca.sweb.cz/idedos.zip

+ Huge pleasant surprise is the perfectly working IDE (the FP.EXE file) hidden in the above mentioned IDEDOS.ZIP file.
After many years and after many releases it finally works out of the box even with fully working integrated debugger. (but yes, here is still the bug with not working output screen saving in VESA modes)
And the debugger is based on the very new GDB 7.7.1

- I can confirm the crash with the bundled external GDB.EXE file. It is not the duty of the FPC team because it is a external utility. Maybe people from the DJGPP group could help there.
Or you can use this slightly older GDB 7.2
http://laaca.sweb.cz/gdb.exe

---
DOS-u-akbar!

Complete thread:

• Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Laaca, 30.03.2020, 20:41 (Announce)
  • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - marcov, 31.03.2020, 10:00
  • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Rugxulo, 31.03.2020, 19:37
    • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Laaca, 01.04.2020, 23:34
      • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - RayeR, 02.04.2020, 14:57
      • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - marcov, 03.04.2020, 14:53
        • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Rugxulo, 12.04.2020, 14:10
          • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Laaca, 12.04.2020, 16:41
            • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Laaca, 25.04.2020, 19:01
              • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - marcov, 26.04.2020, 17:54
                • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Rugxulo, 29.04.2020, 09:22
                • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - Laaca, 29.04.2020, 23:03
                  • Freepascal 3.2.0 release candidate - marcov, 30.04.2020, 19:48
                    • Other bug - Laaca, 14.05.2020, 10:08
                      • Other bug - Laaca, 14.05.2020, 20:38
                        • Other bug - Laaca, 20.05.2020, 22:49
                          • Other bug - marcov, 22.05.2020, 19:16