FreePascal

[Dan Kegel]

On 3/14/06, Matthew R. Dempsky <mrd at alkemio.org> wrote:
> A poster further up the stated that because Ubuntu builds packages from
> source and building Free Pascal requires an already working Free Pascal
> package, Ubuntu cannot provide binary Free Pascal packages.
>
> By the same logic, Ubuntu should not have a gcc package because to build
> the gcc package, Ubuntu uses the existing gcc compiler.  Yet Ubuntu does
> have a gcc package, so the argument doesn't hold.

Currently, Ubuntu assumes the presence of gcc binaries when building.
It would be nice if it didn't, but that's the way it is.
Adding a requirement of Free Pascal binaries is not a good idea.
However, the dilemma might be easy to resolve -
in the source package that builds Free Pascal, add a build
dependency on gpc, and use that to bootstrap Free Pascal.
Voila, no need to rely on Free Pascal to build Free Pascal anymore.
No idea how easy or hard that would be, but it's worth trying.
- Dan

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