So whatever happened to the whole PGDCE thing?

[Chebmaster]

how your filenames could possibly require unicode support.

Simple. Assume a Windows XP user who chose user name like "／人◕‿‿◕人＼". Windows creates his Application data folder with that string as part of the path. Non-Unicode applications fail.
I tested it and proved it.
Of course that user is an idiot noob, but still.

the following code compiles fine and displays correctly:

Do you realize your example is invalid because it uses Lazarus? Lazarus includes tons of hacks and custom RTL patching to make UTF-8 work on Windows as if it was default.
I write in pure FPC. The FPC RTL doesn't have the Lazarus hacks. If I try accessing TFileStream.Create('c:\Users\／人◕‿‿◕人＼\Application Data\chentrah\chentrah.ini', fmOpenRead); it will fail even with the file in place.
Fpc 3.x does have much better support for Unicode paths and only requires minor patching. sadly, it is not ready yet.

you do realize the people who maintain Debian are entirely unrelated to the developers of FPC/Lazarus

I do indeed. The Debian maintainers are much more thorough in their approach to stability and they deem fpc 3.x not ready. I agree with them.

[Akira13]

Do you realize your example is invalid because it uses Lazarus? Lazarus includes tons of hacks and custom RTL patching to make UTF-8 work on Windows as if it was default.
I write in pure FPC. The FPC RTL doesn't have the Lazarus hacks. If I try accessing TFileStream.Create('c:\Users\／人◕‿‿◕人＼\Application Data\chentrah\chentrah.ini', fmOpenRead); it will fail even with the file in place.
Fpc 3.x does have much better support for Unicode paths and only requires minor patching. sadly, it is not ready yet.

Uh, what are you talking about?

program Test;

uses
  SysUtils;

var
  AFileNameConsistingEntirelyOfUnicodeCharacters: AnsiString;
begin
  AFileNameConsistingEntirelyOfUnicodeCharacters := '௵௵௵௵實實實電電電電參參參ݠݠݼݼݼݼݼਈਈਈ.txt';
  if FileExists('C:\Test\' + AFileNameConsistingEntirelyOfUnicodeCharacters) = True then
    WriteLn('It exists!');
end.

There's the command line version of my example, which I just compiled and ran without issues using the FPC binary directly. I'm also unsure as to how you think Lazarus could "hack" or "patch" the RTL at compile time, considering that you cannot build it without an entirely pre-built FPC to link against.

I do indeed. The Debian maintainers are much more thorough in their approach to stability and they deem fpc 3.x not ready. I agree with them.

lol. I think the vastly more realistic scenario is "the people who maintain Debian are Linux power-users who don't remotely care about anything to do with Pascal and may even look down on the language as something for simpletons, and have just forgotten to update it for a really long time." I'd imagine the only reason it was ever added as a standard Debian package in the first place was because like one specific guy who just happened to use it on Linux and was also a Debian maintainer took the time to do it himself.

FPC/Lazurus is far more stable than most of what's out there. I've used nothing but the trunk of both of them for several years and have almost never experienced a situation where one of them conflicted with the other. And any time there was an issue it was either something I could easily work around myself, or it was just fixed in the actual codebase within a day or so.

[Chebmaster]

There's the command line version of my example,

Does NOT work when I compile this using fpc 2.6.4 => non-unicode executable
While fpc 3.x was crashing last time I tried building my project using it => no executable at all

Which one would you prefer? One that works badly or one that does not work at all?
That is the difference between fpc 2.6.4 (lame but stable) and fpc 3.x (supposedly better but chokes on internal errors).

P.S. And fpc 3.0.2 IS STILL INCOMPLETE:
See this example:

{$codepage utf-8}
{$mode objfpc}
program Test;
uses
  SysUtils, classes;

var
  AFileNameConsistingEntirelyOfUnicodeCharacters: AnsiString;
  s: TFileStream;
begin
  AFileNameConsistingEntirelyOfUnicodeCharacters := '௵௵௵௵實實實電電電電參參參ݠݠݼݼݼݼݼਈਈਈ.txt';
  if FileExists('d:\tmp\test\' + AFileNameConsistingEntirelyOfUnicodeCharacters) = True then
    WriteLn('It exists!')
    else WriteLn('false.');
  try
    s:= TFileStream.Create('d:\tmp\test\' + AFileNameConsistingEntirelyOfUnicodeCharacters, fmOpenRead);
    s.Free;  
  except
    WriteLn((ExceptObject as Exception).Message);
  end;
  readln; 
end.

Now see it FAIL to open a stream:

It exists!
Unable to open file "d:\tmp\test\????????????????????????.txt"

That's it folks. The RTL may be Unicode now (FileExists & friends) but CLASSES ARE NOT!

P.S. That's why I have a hack in my engine to be used with FPC 3, containing modified versions of TFileStream, TIniFile and TStrings.
I hope it will not be needed someday.
But as it is, FPC 3 was rolled out prematurely. It should've stayed 2.9.x for a while longer.

P.P.S. I was planning to make a similar patch for fpc 2.6.4 with Unicode FileExists & friends, but I decided: why bother when fpc 3 would be there soon. Yeah. That 'soon' proved to be relative

[Ñuño Martínez]

I think this thread has degenerated a lot, hasn't it?

[phibermon]

I think this thread has degenerated a lot, hasn't it?

I hope you typed that in unicode

[Akira13]

I hope you typed that in unicode

Hahaha.

Honestly though, I'm still unsure why exactly Chebmaster has issues with that code even compiled under FPC 3.0+... maybe it's a Linux thing?

Wasn't trying to start a war... I'm just generally very skeptical anytime someone says "Yeah, I'm using [insanely old version of something], for [XYZ reason]."

XYZ reason is, 90% of the time, completely avoidable/preventable...

[Chebmaster]

maybe it's a Linux thing?

No, it's a Windows-only problem.

Long ago, when going unicode, Linux did the sensible thing by adopting utf-8. Microsoft though they know better, plus they had to uphold backward compatibility. Thus, all the *A/*W fuss and stuff. And this is the roor of Free Pascal's problems. While Linux making AnsiString encoding-aware was pretty enough, in Windows you have to switch all classes to using UnicodeString because that's what Windows uses natively.

90% of the time, completely avoidable/preventable...

This case falls into these pesky 10%.
Free Pascal's class library is *horribly* out of date with regards to Unicode file names on the Windows platform. If you develop a Windows application in pure FP, without using Lazarus-specific fixes, your application will be stomped by competition because it could fail where any sensible Windows applications have no problems since 15 years ago.
And while fpc 3 *did* fix the RTL, it *DID NOT* fix the classes. So good luck if you are using TStream *or* any third-party library that uses streams to read from files.
It's a glaring flaw that should have been addressed a decade ago.

P.S. So I have to use hacks in fpc 3 to make my application Unicode.
And I am *lucky* I don't have to deal with third-party libraries because they have no such hack...
Oh, wait, I do. I use Vampyre Imaging and I cannou use its functions of loading image from file. I have to load files into memory buffer myself then call vampyre function that loads images from memory. I'm lucky Vampyre *does* have such functions.

  TFileStream = class(classes.THandleStream)
  Private
    FFileName : UnicodeString;
  public
    constructor Create(const AFileName: UnicodeString; Mode: Word);
    constructor Create(const AFileName: UnicodeString; Mode: Word; Rights: Cardinal);
    destructor Destroy; override;
    property FileName : UnicodeString Read FFilename;
  end;
...
constructor TFileStream.Create(const AFileName: UnicodeString; Mode: Word);
begin
  Create(AFileName, Mode, 438);
end;


constructor TFileStream.Create(const AFileName: UnicodeString; Mode: Word; Rights: Cardinal);
var
  h: THandle;
begin
  FFileName:= AFileName;
  If (Mode and fmCreate) > 0 then
    h:= FileCreate(AFileName,Mode,Rights)  // it IS already unicode in 3.0.0
  else
    h:= FileOpen(AFileName,Mode);

  If (h = feInvalidHandle) then
    If Mode = fmcreate then
      Die(RuEn('Не удалось создать файл "%0"','Failed to create file "%0"'),[AFileName])
    else
      Die(RuEn('Не удалось открыть файл "%0"','Failed to open file "%0"'),[AFileName]);
  inherited Create(h);
end;

destructor TFileStream.Destroy;
begin
  FileClose(Handle);
end;

P.P.S. I'd call it "dick move" if didn't know the devs are mostly focused on Linux. This probably slipped their mind. And that Lazarus patch and everyone using it probably didn't help as it negated the problem somehow.
Still, this one great pitfall marginalizes Free Pascal by making it harder to write serious business applications for Windows.

P.P.P.S Worst case scenario: you write an application, going to great pains to make 100% sure it works. Like 90% people out there you are unaware that fpc is not unicode.
Finally it's time to show it to your boss. You launch it on his machine... Which coincidentally has user name like "фañ"... And your application flops with a weird error. Why? What? You lost your face.
You try fixing the problem ASAP pulling all-nighter to be ready try the next day, but... The problem is not easily fixable, you miss some instances of non-unicodeness in your tired state. Your application flops again in the face of your boss.
"What it is written in?" he asks. "Free Pascal...? Forget that crap and learn proper coding tools. You're fired."