Mode-Delphi generics syntax: TFoo<T> = class, inline TFoo<LongInt>

• Type: feature (Pascal frontend, dialect)
• Track: P (shared lexer.inc/parser.inc — A-gated, sole-A confirmation before edit)
• Status: done classdecls (any mode),TFoo<Concrete>uses desugared to mintedspecializealiases,procedure TFoo<T>.M` impls stripped to the buffered objfpc path. test/test_delphi_generics.pas covers it. What the FPC conformance cluster still needs (class var/nested types in generics, generic functions/records, constraints, management operators) is separate features — rainy-day per user call 2026-07-11.
• Was: working ([[feature-pascal-corpus-fpc-testsuite]]).
• Owner: opus-a

Symptom

pxx only parses objfpc-style generic TFoo<T> = class + specialize TFoo<LongInt>. {$mode delphi} code declares TTest<T> = class ... end; and uses TTest<LongInt> inline with neither keyword. Errors in the cluster: Expected: begin, but got: TTest, Expected: :, but got: class/private.

Related smaller clusters (same area, roll in or split as work reveals):

• inline specialize in expression/return-type position (3 tests: error: undefined variable (specialize), base type not found: specialize)
• generic functions tgenfunc* (mode-Delphi generic methods/functions)

Impact

93 of 294 curated failures (tgeneric*, tgenfunc*, tdefault*, tgenconstraint* mode-delphi halves). Skip-list reason: parser: mode-Delphi generics TFoo<T> syntax.

Fix sketch

In mode delphi, on IDENT < at a type-declaration or type-reference position, enter the generic parse path (the < vs less-than ambiguity needs the usual lookahead: only in type context, or expression context followed by type-list + > + (/.). Reuse the existing generic/specialize machinery — this is a surface-syntax alias, not a new semantics engine.

Gate

make test + self-host byte-identical; burn the 93 skip-list entries.

Log

• 2026-07-11 — resolved, commit 3d71edcf.