Unit categorization: what changed
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Title: Unit categorization
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| 1 | + | **Unit categorization** of units provided in the [[Free Pascal]] [[RTL|Runtime Library]] is based on different criteria into several groups. | |
| 2 | + | ||
| 3 | + | Criteria used below include different programming models (procedural, [[Turbo Pascal]]/[[Borland Pascal]] style OOP, [[Delphi]] style OOP), whether ansistrings (or more generally, reference counted types) are used or not (ansistrings are by default on with -Mdelphi/\$MODE DELPHI or \$H+), whether the units are cross-platform or platform specific units (with information about their availability/useability for different targets). Furthermore, basic information about type of functionality to be found in individual units should hopefully help especially new users to understand better where to search for particular routines. Finally, availability of individual units in other Pascal compilers (at least whether they are available with TP/BP, Delphi or whether they are FPC specific) are mentioned. | |
| 4 | + | ||
| 5 | + | ## Procedural programming, short strings, cross-platform | |
| 6 | + | ||
| 7 | + | System | |
| 8 | + | Basic type definition, execution control, parameter processing, string handling, type conversions, mathematic operations, memory management, basic routines for console and disk I/O, constants and variables describing the particular platform and/or current environment (available in TP/BP and Delphi) | |
| 9 | + | ||
| 10 | + | Strings | |
| 11 | + | Operations with [[PChar]] strings (available in TP/BP) | |
| 12 | + | ||
| 13 | + | Matrix | |
| 14 | + | Vector and matrix routines (FPC specific) | |
| 15 | + | ||
| 16 | + | UComplex | |
| 17 | + | Operations with complex numbers (FPC specific) | |
| 18 | + | ||
| 19 | + | GetOpts | |
| 20 | + | Routines for more advanced access to program parameters | |
| 21 | + | ||
| 22 | + | Keyboard | |
| 23 | + | Low-level access to keyboard (FPC specific) | |
| 24 | + | ||
| 25 | + | Mouse | |
| 26 | + | Mouse support (FPC specific) | |
| 27 | + | ||
| 28 | + | Video | |
| 29 | + | Routines for low-level access to screen (FPC specific) | |
| 30 | + | ||
| 31 | + | Printer | |
| 32 | + | Very basic access to printer (available in TP/BP) | |
| 33 | + | ||
| 34 | + | Sockets | |
| 35 | + | Basic support for TCP/IP socket communication (FPC specific) | |
| 36 | + | ||
| 37 | + | CMem | |
| 38 | + | Replacement memory manager based on C run-time library to allow easier integration with some code written in C (FPC specific) | |
| 39 | + | ||
| 40 | + | CTypes | |
| 41 | + | Definition of C language types for easier integration with routines written in C (FPC specific) | |
| 42 | + | ||
| 43 | + | InitC | |
| 44 | + | Some functions required for linking of some libraries written in C | |
| 45 | + | ||
| 46 | + | MacPas | |
| 47 | + | Special unit supporting constructs formerly available in some Pascal compilers for Mac OS platform (ThinkPascal, Metrowerks etc.); available for all platforms with FPC to support -Mmacpas/\$MODE MACPAS (FPC specific) | |
| 48 | + | ||
| 49 | + | HeapTrc | |
| 50 | + | Debugging support unit for tracing of incorrect memory allocation (more or less FPC specific, at least not available with TP/BP and probably Delphi either) | |
| 51 | + | ||
| 52 | + | LineInfo | |
| 53 | + | Debugging support unit to allow displaying of location (line) in source files in case of an error based on debug information linked to executable file (FPC specific) | |
| 54 | + | ||
| 55 | + | Crt | |
| 56 | + | More advanced console (keyboard and screen) routines (TP/BP compatibility unit plus some FPC specific functions) | |
| 57 | + | ||
| 58 | + | Dos | |
| 59 | + | More advanced disk I/O, execution flow (including running of other programs), date and time handling and access to environment variables, plus some compatibility routines only available/making sense for DOS platform (TP/BP compatibility unit plus some FPC specific functions; some of the functions were provided in WinDos unit in older Delphi versions) | |
| 60 | + | ||
| 61 | + | Graph | |
| 62 | + | Simple graphics support (TP/BP compatibility unit) | |
| 63 | + | ||
| 64 | + | ## Procedural programming, ansistrings, cross-platform | |
| 65 | + | ||
| 66 | + | SysUtils | |
| 67 | + | More advanced disk I/O, execution control (including exception handling and running of other programs), access to environment variables, string routines (support of ansistrings and widestrings), conversion routines (strings, numbers, date/time), internationalization support (Delphi compatibility plus some FPC specific functions) | |
| 68 | + | ||
| 69 | + | StrUtils | |
| 70 | + | Various more advanced string routines (Delphi compatibility) | |
| 71 | + | ||
| 72 | + | DateUtils | |
| 73 | + | Date/time handling routines (Delphi compatibility) | |
| 74 | + | ||
| 75 | + | ConvUtils | |
| 76 | + | Conversion between different units of measurement (Delphi compatibility) | |
| 77 | + | ||
| 78 | + | SysConst | |
| 79 | + | Resource texts for SysUtils (Delphi compatibility?) | |
| 80 | + | ||
| 81 | + | RTLConst | |
| 82 | + | Resource texts for other RTL libraries (especially unit Classes) | |
| 83 | + | ||
| 84 | + | DynLibs | |
| 85 | + | On-demand (run time) loading of dynamic libraries | |
| 86 | + | ||
| 87 | + | Math | |
| 88 | + | More complex mathematic and statistic routines; no ansistrings really used here directly, although it loads unit SysUtils and thus installs its exception handler (Delphi compatibility with FPC specific additions) | |
| 89 | + | ||
| 90 | + | FreeBIDI | |
| 91 | + | Helper routines for bidirectional text output (FPC specific) | |
| 92 | + | ||
| 93 | + | Utf8BIDI | |
| 94 | + | Helper routines for conversion of UTF-8 encoded text supporting bidirectional output (FPC specific) | |
| 95 | + | ||
| 96 | + | ObjPas | |
| 97 | + | Basic support for -Mobjfpc and -Mdelphi including some type redefinitions and resource string support; unit used automatically for those modes, no need to add it manually (FPC specific, although the provided routines are compatible to routines available System unit with Delphi) | |
| 98 | + | ||
| 99 | + | ## TP/BP style OOP, shortstrings, cross-platform | |
| 100 | + | ||
| 101 | + | Objects | |
| 102 | + | Base of the object hierarchy, disk I/O and memory operations for OOP programs - streams, resources, lists and collections (TP/BP compatibility) | |
| 103 | + | ||
| 104 | + | FV (Free Vision) units | |
| 105 | + | Complete framework for writing TP/BP-style OOP programs with text-mode windowing user interface (TP/BP compatibility - more or less compatible to Turbo Vision) | |
| 106 | + | ||
| 107 | + | ## Delphi style OOP, ansistrings, cross-platform | |
| 108 | + | ||
| 109 | + | Classes | |
| 110 | + | Base of the class hierarchy, disk I/O, execution control and memory operations for OOP programs - streams, resources, lists, collections, threads, components, actions, interfaces, data modules etc. (Delphi compatibility) | |
| 111 | + | ||
| 112 | + | VarUtils | |
| 113 | + | Variant support routines (Delphi compatibility?) | |
| 114 | + | ||
| 115 | + | FCL units | |
| 116 | + | Non-visual classes for OOP programming (partly similar to Delphi VCL, but only non-visual parts are provided here; visual/GUI classes are provided with [[Lazarus]]) | |
| 117 | + | ||
| 118 | + | ## Procedural programming, shortstrings | |
| 119 | + | ||
| 120 | + | Ansistrings may be used/supported in some cases too, platform-specific. | |
| 121 | + | ||
| 122 | + | This group is fairly extensive, only information about availability for individual platforms is given here. See the description of individual units for more information. In general, these units are FPC specific except for the Windows, WinCrt and WinSock units available with Delphi, and unit LibC available with Kylix. | |
| 123 | + | ||
| 124 | + | ### Various units available for more than one platform | |
| 125 | + | ||
| 126 | + | Ports | |
| 127 | + | Support of port access construct provided with TP/BP on x86 platforms | |
| 128 | + | ||
| 129 | + | CPU and MMX | |
| 130 | + | Support of some low-level CPU-specific functions on x86 platforms | |
| 131 | + | ||
| 132 | + | UnixType, BaseUnix, Unix, UnixUtil, SysCall, IPC | |
| 133 | + | Unix platforms (Linux, *BSD including Mac OS X, Solaris, NetwLibC, plus possibly BeOS and QNX again in the future) | |
| 134 | + | ||
| 135 | + | GPM | |
| 136 | + | Unix platforms that support this library (Linux). It is less broadly supported than previous units. | |
| 137 | + | ||
| 138 | + | x86 | |
| 139 | + | Unix platforms running on x86 | |
| 140 | + | ||
| 141 | + | Windows, WinMouse, WinEvent, WinSysUt, WinCrt (plus package WinUnits provided outside of RTL in "Packages") | |
| 142 | + | MS Windows platforms (Win32, Win64, WinCE) | |
| 143 | + | ||
| 144 | + | WinSock | |
| 145 | + | MS Windows, OS/2 and Netware | |
| 146 | + | ||
| 147 | + | ### Linux specific units | |
| 148 | + | ||
| 149 | + | Linux | |
| 150 | + | As the names implies, contains routines and symbols specific to Linux. | |
| 151 | + | ||
| 152 | + | Libc | |
| 153 | + | is Linux/x86 only, see [[libc unit]] for more information | |
| 154 | + | ||
| 155 | + | ### GO32v2 specific units | |
| 156 | + | ||
| 157 | + | Go32, Emu387, DpmiExcp, DxeType, DxeLoad | |
| 158 | + | ||
| 159 | + | ### Classic Mac OS specific units | |
| 160 | + | ||
| 161 | + | MacOS, MacUtils | |
| 162 | + | ||
| 163 | + | ### MorphOS specific units | |
| 164 | + | ||
| 165 | + | Exec, Timer, DosLib, Utility, Hardware, InputEvent, Graphics, Layers, Intuition, Clipboard, ASL, AHI and Get9 | |
| 166 | + | ||
| 167 | + | ### Netware specific units | |
| 168 | + | ||
| 169 | + | Netware, NWCalls, NWNit, NWPre, NWProt, NWServ, NWSNUt | |
| 170 | + | ||
| 171 | + | ### OS/2 specific units | |
| 172 | + | ||
| 173 | + | OS2Def | |
| 174 | + | Definition of common types and constants | |
| 175 | + | ||
| 176 | + | DosCalls | |
| 177 | + | So-called "Control Program functions" - execution control (including running of other programs, threading, exceptions and error management, critical sections and semaphores), memory management, system and environment information (including environment variables, program and system parameters and national language support), disk I/O, date/time handling, inter-process communication (pipes), low-level system functions (IOCTL and communication with device drivers) | |
| 178 | + | ||
| 179 | + | KbdCalls | |
| 180 | + | Low-level access to keyboard (primarily for non-PM applications) | |
| 181 | + | ||
| 182 | + | MouCalls | |
| 183 | + | Low-level mouse support (primarily for non-PM applications) | |
| 184 | + | ||
| 185 | + | VioCalls | |
| 186 | + | Low-level video (screen) functions (non-PM) | |
| 187 | + | ||
| 188 | + | MonCalls | |
| 189 | + | Support for character device monitors (non-PM applications) | |
| 190 | + | ||
| 191 | + | PMWin | |
| 192 | + | Primary interface for GUI windowing functions provided by Presentation Manager (PM) environment | |
| 193 | + | ||
| 194 | + | PMGpi | |
| 195 | + | Support for graphical operations (PM) | |
| 196 | + | ||
| 197 | + | PMStdDlg | |
| 198 | + | Standard dialogs plus drag and drop support (PM) | |
| 199 | + | ||
| 200 | + | PMBitmap | |
| 201 | + | Bitmap picture operations (PM) | |
| 202 | + | ||
| 203 | + | PMBidi | |
| 204 | + | Support for bidirection text output (PM) | |
| 205 | + | ||
| 206 | + | PMHelp | |
| 207 | + | Interface unit for help feature (PM) | |
| 208 | + | ||
| 209 | + | PMSpl | |
| 210 | + | Access to printer spooler (PM) | |
| 211 | + | ||
| 212 | + | PMShl | |
| 213 | + | Operations with desktop including access to system ini files (PM) | |
| 214 | + | ||
| 215 | + | PMWP | |
| 216 | + | Operations with WorkPlace Shell classes (PM) | |
| 217 | + | ||
| 218 | + | PMWSock | |
| 219 | + | Support for OS/2 socket library with interface modelled after Winsock 1.1 | |
| 220 | + | ||
| 221 | + | PMDev | |
| 222 | + | Support for different output devices and their capabilities (PM) | |
| 223 | + | ||
| 224 | + | (plus package OS2Units provided outside of RTL in "Packages") | |
| 225 | + | ||
| 226 | + | ### (Free)BSD specific units | |
| 227 | + | ||
| 228 | + | Some of these may apply to other BSDs too. | |
| 229 | + | ||
| 230 | + | Console | |
| 231 | + | general "syscons" header. | |
| 232 | + | ||
| 233 | + | sysctl | |
| 234 | + | general sysctl header. Note that many other unices support sysctl, but the MIB names will probably be different on the detail level. (darwin also supports this one) | |
| 235 | + | ||
| 236 | + | --- | |
| 237 | + | *From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Unit categorization", as it stood on 2018-08-23 after a change by Marcov, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's [[Licensing]] page. If you have concerns about this material, [message the admin](/wiki-contact).* | |
| 238 | + | Category: RTL |