There was some discussion of TStringList and people asking for a different base of work along these lines... I might have something.

Actually, whether or not he remembers - Michael Van Canneyt (Forgive my spelling if I'm wrong) like 5 years ago explained some very important "class" inner workings - which opened my eyes do designing classes - and when that light was turned on - I built my own set of classes from the ground up.

Basically, I have 3 a class called DL (Double Linked List), that has methods that resemble Microsoft ADO or other "database technologies" and other class lib's for that matter.

Basically, you can "append" "insert" "Sort (admittedly bubble only)", DeleteItem, Find Item etc.

This core class has the ability to store pointers to objects, or be used standalone - its like having a mini database table with a couple fields predefined.

Descendants of this base class are: XDL (Extended DL, has AnsiString fields Name, Value, Desc added to the "TABLE COLUMN LIST")

And lastly XXDL (Um.. Extra Extended DL) Which has an array of 4 platform size Integers add to the table "row"

Basically I've been using these classes for 5 years now (Started 1.0.9 I think maybe earlier) and they are pretty solid. Additionally, there is a function you can call that dumps the entires contents of the "double linked list" to a text log file and another that lets you dump it as HTML - makes the table for you. Even has a way to change the column "captions" and which columns to show. Great for debugging!

I'm not trying to pitch anything - and frankly guys I'm swamped - started a business - but I'm still in shoe string budget mode - coding like a banshee on a web based application - which doesn't pay until its done more or less - and doing websites and the like for bread-n-butter monies.

All I'm saying is I have some really solid code I've created and I need someone to take the initiative to at least see some of it work and give a yeah or nay - I'll give what time I can - and only parts of this "system" of classes I made are online at http://www.jegas.org in the download page.

I've built an ODBC connector with these classes that is as easy to use as Microsoft ADO, I've made this same connector transparently use MySQL Direct API - Same code base can use ODBC or MySQL direct (as far as I have brought it so far) by simply changing a config file in one place. You code works the same (SQL syntax not withstanding) But something like SELECT * FROM MYTABLE is identical, and same syntax as those XDL classes... things like MOVEFIRST, MOVELAST etc.

If anyone is interested - let me know - I'll knowledge transfer what I can. Just remember if you grab that source - you need to compile with the -Sc switch to use operators like += *= (I changed my fpc.cfg file)

So if you seriously are looking for a way to managestrings in a collection of sorts - mine are rocksolid, but I don't know how they weigh against all the things the core FPC team takes into consideration. I can say I used platform size variables for the pointer/integer/cardinal stuff, and it runs on Linux and Windows daily. I have quite the class lib - but I didn't base it on the Delphi TClassThis or TClassThat structure - I'm a loyal user of objfpc and native FPC. As For classes - I I just wanted to write my own so I knew all the inner workings. I do use many core lib's provided with FPC as a rule though - like RTL and system units etc.

Good Day - I'll say no more ;)
Jason P Sage