Thanks, Tomas! This list is terrific. Whenever I need a function, I'm usually aching for something like this to help me find what I want. While searching is great, sometimes I don't know what word to search for, and I can spend 40 minutes doing various searches through the documentation, without a clue of which unit I should be using. Then I get frustrated and post to the list, and more often than not, I just didn't know the correct search term, and if I'd had a way of knowing which units to narrow my search down to, I probably could have found what I wanted. It's just invaluable to have such a summarization-- I think I'm going to print this out. I'd really like to see more of this helpful summarization in the documentation. If it were more prevalent, I think we would get fewer very basic questions posted to the list, and people could use the documentation more effectively to find the information they need.
~David. -------- Original Message -------- > From: "Tomas Hajny" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 6:02 AM > To: "FPC-Pascal users discussions" <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org> > Subject: Re: [fpc-pascal] Questions on Documentation > > Well, to be honest, I don't think this is a complete answer. It's > certainly true that you can achieve similar effects by using different > functions stored in different units. From this point of view, some kind of > categorization of supplied units would probably help, in fact - as it is > now, it's a list of units without providing any hint what to search where. > I don't think that it makes sense to try to list e.g. "all disk I/O > functions", because different things would be mixed together and it > probably wouldn't help either. > > Such categorization should probably include different programming models > (procedural, TP/BP style OOP, Delphi style OOP), whether ansistrings are > used or not (default with -Mdelphi/$MODE DELPHI or $H+), cross-platform > and platform specific units (with information about their > availability/useability for different targets), basic information about > type of functionality to be found there (similar to the "Overview" chapter > in individual unit descriptions, which is unfortunately little bit > uncomplete regarding information about categories mentioned above and even > missing altogether for many units) and availability of this unit in other > Pascal compilers (at least TP/BP, Delphi and FPC specific). Something like > this should probably appear at the beginning of the unit reference. From > this point of view, I'd suggest to fill your comment as a "Wishlist" type > bug record for area "Documentation" in our bug repository, so it doesn't > get forgotten. > > My (simplified) categorization to get you started (before we manage to get > it to our documentation): > > 1) procedural programming, short strings, cross-platform: > > - System - basic type definition, execution control, parameter processing, > string handling, type conversions, mathematic operations, memory > management, basic routines for console and disk I/O, constants and > variables describing the particular platform and/or current environment > (available in TP/BP and Delphi) > > - Strings - operations with PChar strings (available in TP/BP) > > - Matrix - vector and matrix routines (FPC specific) > > - UComplex - operations with complex numbers (FPC specific) > > - GetOpts - routines for more advanced access to program parameters > > - Keyboard - low-level access to keyboard (FPC specific) > > - Mouse - mouse support (FPC specific) > > - Video - routines for low-level access to screen (FPC specific) > > - Printer - very basic access to printer (available in TP/BP) > > - Sockets - basic support for TCP/IP socket communication (FPC specific) > > - CMem - replacement memory manager based on C run-time library to allow > easier integration with some code written in C (FPC specific) > > - CTypes - definition of C language types for easier integration with > routines written in C (FPC specific) > > - InitC - some functions required for linking of some libraries written in C > > - MacPas - special unit supporting constructs formerly available in some > Pascal compilers for Mac OS platform (ThinkPascal, Metrowerks etc.); > available for all platforms with FPC to support -Mmacpas/$MODE MACPAS (FPC > specific) > > - HeapTrc - debugging support unit for tracing of incorrect memory > allocation (more or less FPC specific, at least not available with TP/BP > and probably Delphi either) > > - LineInfo - debugging support unit to allow displaying of location (line) > in source files in case of an error based on debug information linked to > executable file (FPC specific) > > - Crt - more advanced console (keyboard and screen) routines (TP/BP > compatibility unit plus some FPC specific functions) > > - Dos - more advanced disk I/O, execution flow (including running of other > programs), date and time handling and access to environment variables, > plus some compatibility routines only available/making sense for DOS > platform (TP/BP compatibility unit plus some FPC specific functions; some > of the functions were provided in WinDos unit in older Delphi versions) > > - Graph - simple graphics support (TP/BP compatibility unit) > > > 2) procedural programming, ansistrings, cross-platform: > > - SysUtils - more advanced disk I/O, execution control (including > exception handling and running of other programs), access to environment > variables, string routines (support of ansistrings and widestrings), > conversion routines (strings, numbers, date/time), internationalization > support (Delphi compatibility plus some FPC specific functions) > > - StrUtils - various more advanced string routines (Delphi compatibility) > > - DateUtils - data/time handling routines (Delphi compatibility) > > - ConvUtils - conversion between different units of measurement (Delphi > compatibility) > > - SysConst - resource texts for SysUtils (Delphi compatibility?) > > - RTLConst - resource texts for other RTL libraries (especially unit Classes) > > - DynLibs - on-demand (run time) loading of dynamic libraries > > - Math - more complex mathematic and statistic routines; no ansistrings > really used here directly, although it loads unit SysUtils and thus > installs its exception handler (Delphi compatibility with FPC specific > additions) > > - FreeBIDI - helper routines for bidirectional text output (FPC specific) > > - Utf8BIDI - helper routines for conversion of UTF-8 encoded text > supporting bidirectional output (FPC specific) > > - ObjPas - basic support for -Mobjfpc and -Mdelphi including some type > redefinitions and resource string support; unit used automatically for > those modes, no need to add it manually (FPC specific, although the > provided routines are compatible to routines available System unit with > Delphi) > > > 3) TP/BP style OOP, shortstrings, cross-platform: > > - Objects - base of the object hierarchy, disk I/O and memory operations > for OOP programs - streams, resources, lists and collections (TP/BP > compatibility) > > - FV (Free Vision) units - complete framework for writing TP/BP-style OOP > programs with text-mode windowing user interface (TP/BP compatibility - > more or less compatible to Turbo Vision) > > > 4) Delphi style OOP, ansistrings, cross-platform: > > - Classes - base of the class hierarchy, disk I/O, execution control and > memory operations for OOP programs - streams, resources, lists, > collections, threads, components, actions, interfaces, data modules etc. > (Delphi compatibility) > > - VarUtils - variant support routines (Delphi compatibility?) > > - FCL units - non-visual classes for OOP programming (partly similar to > Delphi VCL, but only non-visual parts are provided here) > > > 5) procedural programming, shortstrings (although ansistrings may be > used/supported in some cases too), platform-specific: > > This list is fairly extensive, so I'll stick to information about > availability for individual platforms and ask you to have a look at the > description of individual units for more information about them. In > general, these units or FPC specific except for the Windows, WinCrt and > WinSock units available with Delphi, and unit LibC available with Kylix. > > - Ports - x86 platforms to support port access construct provided with TP/BP > > - CPU and MMX - x86 platforms for support of some low-level CPU-specific > functions > > - UnixType, BaseUnix, Unix, UnixUtil, SysCall, GPM, IPC - Unix platforms > (Linux, *BSD including Mac OS X, Solaris, NetwLibC, plus possibly BeOS and > QNX again in the future) > > - x86 - Unix platforms running on x86 > > - LibC - mostly Unix platforms, although it could be probably used with > other platforms too (Cygwin for Win32, Innotek GNU C/C++ for OS/2, etc.) > > - Linux, OldLinux - as the name implies, specific to Linux (the latter is > provided for compatibility with FPC 1.0.x and not supposed to be used in > new programs any more) > > - Windows, WinMouse, WinEvent, WinSysUt, WinCrt (plus package WinUnits > provided outside of RTL in "Packages" - MS Windows platforms (Win32, > Win64, WinCE) > > - WinSock - MS Windows, OS/2 and Netware > > - Go32, Emu387, DpmiExcp, DxeType, DxeLoad - GO32v2 > > - MacOS, MacUtils - classic Mac OS > > - Exec, Timer, DosLib, Utility, Hardware, InputEvent, Graphics, Layers, > Intuition, Clipboard, ASL, AHI and Get9 - MorphOS > > - Netware, NWCalls, NWNit, NWPre, NWProt, NWServ, NWSNUt - Netware > > - OS2Def, DosCalls, KbdCalls, MonCalls, MouCalls, VioCalls, PMWin, PMGpi, > PMStdDlg, PMBitmap, PMBidi, PMHelp, PMSpl, PMShl, PMWP, PMWSock, PMDev > (plus package OS2Units provided outside of RTL in "Packages") - OS/2 > > > I'm sure I forgot some units in this list. ;-) > > Tomas > _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
