fpc/api

1. What is this?
----------------

This is the first public release of our system independent routine collection
for Pascal. This package includes routines in four major areas:

- file handling (FileCtrl, FileSys)
- keyboard handling (Keyboard)
- mouse handling (Mouse)
- full-screen video handling (Video)

2. Where to find documentation?
-------------------------------

Documentation is not available yet. However it is planned. If you need help
feel free to ask on our public mailing lists.

There are two mailing lists, one for users. To subscribe send a message to
majordomo@tohotom.vein.hu containing one single line:

subscribe fpk-pascal

The other mailing list is for developers. To subscribe to this list, send a 
message to majordomo@mail.tolna.hungary.net, containing:

subscribe fpc-devel

3. FTP sites
-------------

This unit collection is available at the following FTP site:

ftp://ftp.uni-freiburg.de/pub/pc/msdos/fpk-pascal/develop/


4. Installation
---------------

  * With FPK:
     compile the unit with FPK-Pascal using your favourite switches.

       ppc386 buildapi.pas

     will do the trick. After this, copy the resulting .ppu and .o files to
     your ppc lib directory. By default this is

     /usr/lib/ppc/<version-you-are-using>/linuxunits

     under Linux. Under DOS units are in \PP\LIB\

  * With BP
     compile the unit with Borland Pascal using the command:

       bpc /cd buildapi.pas            for real target
       bpc /cp buildapi.pas            for DPMI target
       bpc /cw buildapi.pas            for Windows target

     you may want to rename filectrl.pp to filectrl.pas if you want BP to
     be able to access your source file more easily. Copy the resulting
     .TPU, .TPP, .TPW files to your \BP\UNITS directory. (or to a directory
     you created for add-on units, make sure that this directory is listed
     in the Unit directories dialog)

  * With Virtual Pascal/2
  * With Speed Pascal/2
     similar to the above ones, but since I don't have OS/2 installed right
     now, I don't know.

5. Copyright
------------

This library is under the terms and conditions of the LGPL. See the enclosed
file COPYING.LIB for details. The library is not available as a shared lib (yet)
so it may cause licensing problems if you want to use it in a commercial project.
This will change as soon as the lib becomes available as a shared library.

6. Troubleshooting
------------------

Due to the bugs in the FPK compiler you may run into problems while compiling
the API. For example when I try to compile a unit which lists SysCalls in the
uses clause (in the implementation) part, the compiler always wants to compile
SysCalls (even if I have it in the lib directory.) copying the units to your 
working directory helps. (you'll also need errno.inc and sysnr.inc)