   Freepascal 2.2.0 is released!
  Hi guys :)I am relaying the message I got from the freepascal elists:Quote:"The Free Pascal Compiler team is pleased to announce the release of FPC2.2.0!An overview of most changes is available below, but some highlights are:* Architectures: PowerPC/64 and ARM support* Platforms: Windows x64, Windows CE, Mac OS X/Intel, Game BoyAdvance, and Game Boy DS support* Linker: fast and lean internal linker for Windows platforms* Debugging: Dwarf support and the ability to automatically fillvariables with several values to more easily detect uninitialised uses* Language: support for interface delegation, bit packed records andarrays and support for COM/OLE variants and dispinterfaces* Infrastructure: better variants support, multiple resource filessupport, widestrings are COM/OLE compatible on Windows, improveddatabase supportDownloads are available at http://www.freepascal.org/download.varEnjoy!The Free Pascal Compiler Team******************************************************************************What's New in 2.2.0******************************************************************************Free Pascal 2.2.0 contains a lot of bug-fixes and new features. The work onFree Pascal 2.2.0 started halfway during the year 2005. A lot has been improvedsince then.Please also see http://wiki.freepascal.org/User_Changes_2.2.0 for a listof changes which may affect the behaviour of previously working code, andhow to cope with these changes.Platforms:* New platform: Win64. FPC is the first open source compiler for 64-bitWindows operating systems.* New processor architecture: 64-bit PowerPC* PowerPC/64 support for Linux* Mac OS X on Intel (i386) is now supported* New platform: Windows CE (Windows Mobile)* New platform: Nintendo Game Boy Advance* New platform: Nintendo DS* Native support for ARM-platform* GO32V2 DOS platform got a long needed updateCompiler:* Internal linker for win32, win64 and wince, resulting in smallerexecutables, less memory used during compilation, and faster compiletimes for programs using large frameworks like for example the LazarusComponent Library.* Generics (experimental)* Bit packed arrays and records* Resourcestrings can now be smartlinked, resulting in smaller executables* Multiple resource files support* pointer[low..high] syntax to pass C-style pointer arrays to proceduresusing open arrays* Interface delegation* Proper safecall implementation* Wide strings are COM/OLE compatible on Windows* Added several speed optimisations, for example:* Compiler can omit stack frames (x86 and ARM)* Compiler can store records in registers* Tail recursion expansion* Register renaming optimizations* Improved optimizer for ARM CPU* Compiler can initialise local variables, function results, and "out"parameters with several values (command line parameters -gt till -gtttt)to help find uses of uninitialised variables* Compiler can now properly deal with paths > 255 characters in all cases* Dwarf debug format support* Reduced memory usage during compilation* Lot of small bugs and compatibility fixesRTL:* Heap uses less memory* Improved variants support* Improved currency support* Exception handling can be used without SysUtils unit* Lot of small bug and compatibility fixesFCL:* Improved database support* The obsolete sqlitedataset, interbase, fpodbc, ddg, mysqldb3 and mysqldb4units are removed* Lot of small bugs and compatibility fixesPackages:* Added a new fppkg package manager* Improved database support* Added Delphi compatible RichEdit unit* Apple universal interfaces updated to r204 of the common FPC/GPC/MWinterfaces* Lot of small bugs and compatibility fixesFree Vision:* Now uses resourcestringsIDE:* Evaluate window* Improved HTML rendering* Improved xterm support* Small bug fixesMisc:* Improved documentation* Better cross compilation supportFor a detailed list of reported bugs that are fixed in this release see thebugtracker report at http://www.freepascal.org/mantis/changelog_page.php_______________________________________________fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.orghttp://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal"   