"SfR Fresh" - the SfR Freeware/Shareware Archive

Member "fpcbuild-2.2.2/fpcsrc/ide/readme.ide" of archive fpcbuild-2.2.2.tar.gz:

    1              Welcome to the Free Pascal IDE!
    2             ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
    3 
    4  Please take the time to read this file to avoid most
    5  common installation problems, and to get the most out of
    6  this software!
    7 
    8   General information Ü
    9  ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
   10  First of all: note that the IDE is currently still in
   11  beta state! That means that some functions may not work,
   12  or may not work as expected. We do our best to fix all
   13  bugs and make the IDE reliable and stable, however, you
   14  may still encounter some problems using it.
   15  Therefore you should be careful using untested functions,
   16  and make regularly backup copies of your source files!
   17  If you encounter any problems using the IDE, then please
   18  report it to the authors by sending an e-mail to
   19  "bugs@freepascal.org" or by entering it in the bugs
   20  database at "http://www.freepascal.org". (Note, that we
   21  can't fix bugs we don't have any knowledge of, or can't
   22  reproduce, so, it's in your own interest to report bugs
   23  as fast and precisely as possible.)
   24 
   25  You should be also careful with hotkeys and shortcuts!
   26  The IDE is designed to be compatible with the BP IDE as
   27  much as possible, however, the platform differences and
   28  some improvements may break that compatibility at some
   29  points, which may result in slightly or totally different
   30  behaviour than expected. Therefore, you should first
   31  experiment with the IDE some time before using for
   32  serious purposes, and read all available docs before
   33  reporting a "bug"!
   34 
   35   Version conflicts Ü
   36  ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
   37  IDE snapshots are created on a regular basis. That means,
   38  that the IDE and it's embedded compiler are always the
   39  most up-to-date versions.
   40  Unless you've installed the IDE from a full distribution,
   41  you'll have to install the latest compiler and RTL
   42  binaries to avoid version conflicts and get the IDE
   43  working. You can do this by downloading the latest binary
   44  snapshots from "http://www.freepascal.org" and copying
   45  it's contents directly over your existing installation.
   46  (You can also install these files in separate directories
   47  and set up the IDE to search for them at that place.
   48  However, this may result in different behaviour and
   49  incompatibilities between of the command-line based and
   50  the embedded compiler.)
   51  When installing a new snapshot you should make sure you
   52  back up your existing installation! This is not a
   53  neccessary step for the IDE to function, however, it may
   54  proove very helpful, when the newly installed snapshot
   55  contains a new bug or is incompatible in some aspects
   56  with your previous one.
   57 
   58   Configuration Ü
   59  ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
   60  Once you have installed the IDE, it requires two
   61  configuration changes before it can compile. This is due
   62  to the fact that the IDE includes its own compiler; it
   63  does not use ppc386.exe and thus it also does not use the
   64  configuration in the file fpc.cfg.
   65 
   66  Select Target from the Compile menu and then check the
   67  correct default target (this is Go32V2 for DOS).
   68  Next, choose Directories in the Otions menu and in the
   69  line "Unit directories" enter the path to your copy of
   70  the RTL directory, usually c:\pp\rtl\go32v2. If you have
   71  done everything correct and it still doesn't work, you
   72  may have grabbed a snapshot that has a bug; in this case
   73  try again one or two days later or ask for help on one of
   74  the mailing lists (see later!).
   75 
   76   Documentation Ü
   77  ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
   78  Although the IDE itself has no kind of "native"
   79  documentation or help, it is capable of reading HTML,
   80  Turbo Pascal (TPH), and Norton Guide (NG) format files.
   81  That means, that you can use both the FPC documentation
   82  (included in your distribution, or downloadable from the
   83  Free Pascal HP) and/or the help files of your Turbo or
   84  Borland Pascal (from version 5.5 thru 7.0) installation.
   85  You can install help files of all types in the on-line
   86  help system by going to Help menu, selecting Files and
   87  adding them to the list.
   88 
   89   Linux and FreeBSD Ü
   90  ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
   91  Free Vision, the windowing library on which the IDE is
   92  based, is more advanced than a VT100 terminal can
   93  handle. Unfortunately, Unix terminal emulators provide
   94  mostly VT100 functionality, and do not allow access to
   95  all VGA characters.
   96 
   97  On a VT100 compatible terminal, Free Vision replaces VGA
   98  characters as good as possible using the characters that
   99  the VT100 does have. This works very well, but it means
  100  that window borders arrows and other characters do not
  101  look optimal. Free Vision uses a slightly enhanced
  102  version of this VT100 mode on FreeBSD.
  103 
  104  When running on the Linux console (no X) Free Vision
  105  switches into Linux console mode and makes use of the
  106  /dev/vcsa* devices to display the full character set. To
  107  make use of this mode, you must use a VGA console font in
  108  codepage 437, 850, 852 etc. encoding. If your distribution
  109  uses /etc/sysconfig/console, these are good values to put
  110  into that file:
  111 
  112  CONSOLE_FONT="cp850-8x16"
  113  CONSOLE_SCREENMAP="8859-1_to_uni.trans"
  114  CONSOLE_UNICODEMAP=""
  115 
  116  To allow non-root users to use the Linux console mode you
  117  must make sure they have permission to use /dev/vcsa*.
  118  The best way to do this is to make sure the utility
  119  "grab_vcsa" is in a directory pointed to by the
  120  environment variable "PATH" and configured setuid root.
  121  It will change the ownership of the /dev/vcsa device the
  122  user is using to him until he logs out.
  123 
  124  The Linux console mode can be combined with fbdev. At
  125  high resolutions, i.e. 1024x768, the IDE becomes very
  126  pleasant to work with.
  127 
  128   More information Ü
  129  ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
  130  If you need more informations you can:
  131   þ read the FAQ and the documentation
  132   þ join one or more of the 4 mailing lists
  133 
  134  For the FAQ, for the on-line version of the docs,
  135  and for information on joining the mailing lists go to
  136  the Free Pascal homepage at http://www.freepascal.org.
  137 
  138  Well, I think, this should be enough info for the start.
  139  Thanks for taking time reading this file, and please
  140  don't forget to report any bugs or problems you encounter
  141  using the IDE as soon as possible. Also feel free to
  142  write us, if you have any comments, suggestions, ideas,
  143  etc. regarding the compiler and/or the IDE!
  144 
  145  Have as much fun using the IDE, as we had creating it! ;)
  146 
  147                   The Free Pascal IDE Development Team
  148