Trinity in Trouble

Note

Based on Free Pascal branch "fixes 3.0"

Feel free to add delete or change status.

Our trinity consist of Amiga, AROS and MorphOS.

Unfortunately, there are (still) some incompatibilities and/or some lack of consistency here and there. The idea is to have a list here that mentions them all. Layout may change, i simply had to start somewhere.

NOTE: I thought there is no use to mention the Tag, Tags, Taglist, etc. inconsistency and additional incompatibilities that this causes. We are all aware of those and will hopefully get some unity in the future

List of issues

• function: DoMethod()

Amiga version seems missing completely.

Implemented versions for AROS and MorphOS don't follow autodocs 100% and are inconsistent.

• function: ASLRequestTags()

AROS implementation seems missing.

Amiga implements it in utility unit systemvartags (see also unit: systemvartags)

MorphOS implements it in unit ASL

• structure: Hook

AROS version, entries are not IPTR rather APTR.

• function: GetAttr() fixed in trunk [1]

MorphOS uses a var for parameter Return-Value while Amiga + AROS uses a pointer. Autodocs states it to be a pointer.

• function: SetAttrs()

Amiga + MorphOS implementations seems missing

• unit: Workbench

MorphOS version seems missing

• unit: systemvartags

This utility unit is Amiga specific and implements most if not all vartags versions of library-calls rendering it incompatible with AROS and MorphOS

• function: AllocMem() (high priority) Fixed in trunk [2]

MorphOS implemented it as ExecAllocMem

Amiga + AROS version have this function declared as AllocMem(), which is ambiguous with Free Pascal's AllocMem function.

• function: Info() fixed in trunk [3]

AutoDocs: BOOL = Info( BPTR, struct InfoData * )

Amiga declaration: FUNCTION Info(lock : LONGINT location 'd1'; parameterBlock : pInfoData location 'd2') : LongBool; syscall _DOSBase 114;

AROS declaration: function Info(Lock: BPTR; ParameterBlock: PInfoData): LongInt; syscall AOS_DOSBase 19;

MorphOS declaration: function Info(lock : LongInt location 'd1'; parameterBlock: PInfoData location 'd2'): LongInt; SysCall MOS_DOSBase 114;

• function: VFPrintf()

AutoDocs: LONG = VFPrintf(BPTR, STRPTR, LONG *)

Amiga declaration: FUNCTION VFPrintf(fh : LONGINT location 'd1';const format : pCHAR location 'd2';const argarray : POINTER location 'd3') : LONGINT; syscall _DOSBase 354;

AROS declaration: function VFPrintf(Fh: BPTR; const format: STRPTR; const ArgArray: PLongInt): LongInt; syscall AOS_DOSBase 59;

MorphOS declaration: function VFPrintf(fh : LongInt location 'd1'; format: PChar location 'd2'; argarray: Pointer location 'd3'): LongInt; SysCall MOS_DOSBase 354;

NOTE: the generic pointer declaration prevents using "VFPrintf(nil/0, 'text', vargs );" where vargs = array of long.

Remark: AFAIK for AROS it is theoretically possible to pass 64-bit formatted values.

• function: AslRequest()

autodocs: BOOL AslRequest( APTR,struct TagItem * );

Amiga: FUNCTION AslRequest(requester : POINTER location 'a0'; tagList : pTagItem location 'a1') : LongInt; syscall AslBase 060;

AROS: function AslRequest(Requester: Pointer; const Tags: array of const): LongBool;

MorphOS: function AslRequest(requester: Pointer location 'a0'; tagList : pTagItem location 'a1'): LongBool; SysCall AslBase 060;

• function: SetGadgetAttrs()

MorphOS version seems missing

• Constants: MUIX_R, MUIX_C, MUIX_L, MUIX_N, MUIX_B, MUIX_I, MUIX_U, MUIX_PT and MUIX_PH fixed in trunk [4]

AMIGA + AROS: these MUI constants uses c-language escape code characters, which won't work for Free Pascal.

MorphOS: declared them as they should.

• function: NextTagItem() fixed in trunk [5]

autodocs: struct TagItem *NextTagItem(struct TagItem **);

Amiga: function NextTagItem(Item : ppTagItem location 'a0') : pTagItem; syscall _UtilityBase 048;

AROS: function NextTagItem(var Item: PTagItem): PTagItem; syscall AOS_UtilityBase 8;

MorphOS: function NextTagItem(tagListPtr: pPTagItem location 'a0'): PTagItem; SysCall MOS_UtilityBase 048;

• function: WriteStr()

On MorphOS this function seems declared as Amiga-function, which clashes with Free Pascal build-in function WriteStr. Strange as WriteStr seems only declared as dos/stdio.h macro.

• function: CoerceMethod()

MorphOS version seems missing completely (including CoerceMethodA().

Amiga version has CoerceMethodA() implemented but no CoerceMethod()

Implemented versions for AROS and Amiga don't follow autodocs 100% and are inconsistent.

• type: Tag

Autodocs: "typedef ULONG Tag;"

Amiga: "Type Tag = LongInt;"

• record field: ti_Data of record tTagItem

Autodocs: "ULONG ti_Data;"

Amiga: "ti_Data : LongInt;"

• type: PPObject_

Missing for Amiga and MorphOS

• macros: All MUI macros fixed in trunk [6]

Amiga: The OBJ_xxx() macros are not implemented as macro's at all, rather as a cast to a particular structure in order to obtain information -> that is totally completely wickedly wrong.

MorphOS: See Amiga.

• function: TextLength()

MorphOS: types the string parameter as pShortInt. Autodocs/Amiga/AROS uses type STRPTR.

amigalib specifics:

• function: CreatePort()

Missing for AROS and MorphOS

• function: DeletePort()

Missing for AROS and MorphOS

• function: CreateExtIO()

Missing for AROS and MorphOS

• function: DeleteExtIO()

Missing for AROS and MorphOS

Some of your finest

• AslRequest()

 {$IFDEF AMIGA}
 if (AslRequest(fr, nil) <> 0) then
 {$ENDIF}
 {$IFDEF AROS}
 if (AslRequestA(fr, nil)) then
 {$ENDIF}
 {$IFDEF MORPHOS}
 if (AslRequest(fr, nil)) then
 {$ENDIF}
 begin
  // Could we now please check what the requester returned ?
 end;

Hardening trinity

In order to circumvent some of the inconsistencies and incompatibilities, there was need for a solution without tempering with the RTL and/or default support units.

That's were unit trinity comes into play, which solves some of the encountered issues (the unit itself is a work in progress). It provides the user with a way to solve things and let sources compile without too much hassle/workarounds.

The latest version of unit trinity is kindly provided by Magorium and can be found here.