FPC 2.1.4: Impressions, bugs, questions

Although the new FreePascal beta version 2.1.4 has some
promising features (e.g. faster compiling/linking), there
are some drawbacks.

Especially I would be interesting in a work around or
compiler/environment setting without changing source for
this first

(1) New annoying "feature": An obvious change in the compiler
which is breaking existing code and which is not documented
in the changes. The change is produces "unit not found
errors" and is related to the case of the unit/file names.
Example:

unit HRTimer in hrtimer.pas is found only if either the uses
statement or the file name is changed to HRTIMER. This is in
clear contrast to older versions AND to Ref.Guide 13.1

<quote>
in operating systems where filenames are case sensitive when
looking for a unit, the following mechanism is used:

1. The unit is first looked for in the original case.
2. The unit is looked for in all-lowercase letters.
<quote>


(2): Unit CRT has become more buggy. Not only is the striking
"no wrap"/scroll bug introduced in 2.0.4 still present, which
can be fixed by repairing CrtWrite with 2.0.2 code:

  {*WE removed writestr: buggy for CurrX > WindMaxX (no wrap/scroll)}
  for i:=0 to f.bufpos-1 do WriteChar(f.buffer[i]);

(I wonder how the units are tested before release? An why
was the code change introduced in 2.0.4?)

Now in 2.1.4 there is "scrolling" but often in "random?"
windows, e.g. only the part x>50 is scrolled.


(3): The also very annoying bug that you cannot use the Del
key in the IDE, it produces the alpha/chr($E0) character: It
was reported in this news group at least two times for
2.0.2 and 2.0.4. The fix is easy: in drives.pas mask the $E0
byte:

   if keycode and $FF=$E0 then keycode:=keycode and $FF00;

(4): The "show hint" is virtually useless, as it spoils the
message log with pseudo information, e.g.

var
  f: text;
  n: integer;
begin
  assign(f,'test');  <=
  reset(f);
  readln(n);         <=
  writeln(n);
end.

ex.pas(5,3) Hint: Variable "f" does not seem to be initialized
ex.pas(7,3) Hint: Type size mismatch, possible loss of data / range
check error

(5): If compiling in debug mode {$warning on} becomes "superglobal"
i.e. it is carried to other units (in 2.0.4)

(6): "-dDebug -O3" produces "Fatal: Internal error 200409241"
in at least one unit (new in 2.1.4)

(1) and (3) are observed under Win98, the other under Win98,
Win2000; and (2) via user report with winXP.


With hope for V2.2 
Wolfgang
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