Hi All,

In the beginning of this year I could compile this:

  TMyRecord = record
    Id: Integer;
    Name: String;
    ChildRecords: array of TMyRecord;
  end;

...but now with FPC 2.2.4 I get "Error: Illegal expression" on line 4

Why the change? (And if there is a good reason, could the error message be more descriptive?)

Regards,

Paul.

I can't even compile it with FPC 2.0.4 (the oldest FPC version I have lying around, and which was released in August 2006). What was the previous FPC version that you used and which could compile the above?

(And if there is a good reason, could the error message be more descriptive?)

I guess it should be possible to give an error similar to what Kylix does:
tt.pp(9) Error: Type 'TMyRecord' is not yet completely defined

Jonas

D2010 compiles this.

Best regards,
Paul Ishenin.

Jonas Maebe wrote

I guess it should be possible to give an error similar to what Kylix does:  tt.pp(9) Error: Type 'TMyRecord' is not yet completely defined

if dynamic arrays are actually pointers, why the record should not be completely defined?
Isn't using dynamic array would be something similar to this:

PMyRecord =^TMyRecord;
TMyRecord = record
 Id: Integer;
 Name: String;
 ChildRecords: PMyRecord;
 ChildCount: Integer; // implicit dynamic array field.
end;

thanks,
dmitry

I don't know why Kylix refuses it. It's true that in theory it could be compilable (and apparently some very old FPC version did and very new Delphi version does compile it).

Jonas

Jonas Maebe wrote

I don't know why Kylix refuses it. It's true that in theory it could be compilable (and apparently some very old FPC version did and very new Delphi version does compile it).

It seems that it's "fixed" in 2010 only, because the structure cannot be compiled by Turbo Delphi.

thanks,
dmitry

In our previous episode, dmitry boyarintsev said:

2009 also eats it

Sorry, I was confused. It must have been something I tried some months ago and abandoned. The source file is more recent than the compiled executable.
I do hope someday soon it will be possible with FPC to TMyRecord = record

   Id: Integer;
   Name: String;
   ChildRecords: array of TMyRecord;

end;
:-)