I'm getting a strange error message from the win32 compiler (ver 1.0.4, 2000/12/30) in a spot that seems like it should be fine. Here's a code snippet, which is just a couple of the more pertinent lines from the source file:

const
  MAX_LINES    = 1000000;
type
  DataRecord   = packed record
                   Data    : string;
                   Display : boolean;
                   Actual  : longint;
                 end;
var
  CurrentLine : longint;
  TotalLines : longint;
  DataFromFile : array [1..MAX_LINES] of ^DataRecord;
for CurrentLine := 1 to TotalLines do
  if DataFromFile [CurrentLine].Display then
  begin
    {$I-}
      writeln (PrinterPort,DataFromFile [CurrentLine].Data);
    {$I+}
    if ioresult  0 then Error (201,FALSE,Port);
  end;

Note that the program in question is, counting units, over 150K of source so I didn't attach it. :-) Also, all memory is assigned properly and the elements of the records have already been filled by the time the program gets to the above bit of code.

I'm getting two errors on the "if DataFromFile [CurrentLine].Display then" line; "Error: illegal qualifier" and "Fatal: Syntax error, THEN expected but identifier DISPLAY found".

Basically the line in question is just checking to see if the boolean from the record (DataFromFile.Display) is TRUE or FALSE. If it's TRUE the line is sent to the printer, otherwise it's ignored. To me that code looks okay, but to FPC is doesn't. Oddly enough, if I try and compile it using VP it compiles and runs fine.

So, did I find an FPC bug or am I doing something totally wrong here? :-)

TIA...

Jim

Hi!

DataFromFile : array [1..MAX_LINES] of ^DataRecord; if DataFromFile [CurrentLine].Display then

You declared DataFromFile as a record of Pointers (^DataRecord), but you try to access it as it was an array of record. Write the above line as:

  if DataFromFile [CurrentLine]^.Display then

so i should work.

Bye
Hansi

Hansi, Johan;

You're both correct -- I was looking right past that. It's even more amazing that VP compiled and ran the program just fine using the exact same source (and no, there wasn't any typing mistake -- I used cut and paste to take the code directly from the source file itself). Perhaps I should be sending an email to Allan at VP now... :-)

Jim

VP is delphi like and has automatic pointer dereferencing so you don't need the ^ anymore. This is against the strict pascal rules so we don't support it in the fpc modes. Try the to compile with -Sd that is more Delphi/VP compatible.

I don't know anything about VP, so I dont' understand why it compiles this except if you made a typemistake in the code above, but you are declaring an array of POINTERS to DataRecord, not of the records themself.
So you have to use DataFromFile[CurrentLine]^.Display;

Johan Blok