Why does Pascal Script expect another semicolon near my external-function declaration?

Question

I have written a function in C++, making a DLL:

functions.h:

#ifndef FUNCTIONS_H
#define FUNCTIONS_H


int DLLsquare(int x);
#endif  /* FUNCTIONS_H */

functions.cpp:

#include "functions.h"
int DLLsquare(int x){
    return x*x;
}

I compiled this to a DLL. Now I would like to import this into Pascal Script:

program TestDLL;

function Square(x: Integer): Integer;
external 'DLLsquare@libTestDLL.dll';

begin
end. 

Now this doesn't compile. I get:

(7:1): Semicolon (';') expected at line 6
Compiling failed.

Several tutorials on the internet tell me that this is exactly the way to go, so what am I missing here?

Answer 1

Pascal Script will throw a "semicolon expected" error if you declare an external function and don't have a handler assigned to the OnExternalProc event.

You can implement it yourself, or you can use DllExternalProc from the uPSC_dll unit. Consider calling RegisterDll_Compiletime on your compiler component, which assigns the OnExternalProc event and registers two functions for your scripts to call, UnloadDll and DLLGetLastError.

Although it's understandable to raise an error when the host program has provided no means of handling external functions, the specific wording of the error message is nonsense. I encourage you to file an issue with the project to get it improved.