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FreePascal v1.0 Released
A huge number of people wrote in to say that FreePascal, the BP 7.0 and Delphi compatible compiler finally has an official release. Check it out at http://www.freepascal.org to get version 1.0.
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Anyone who does project management on large projects will find out that C and C++ requires more qualified programmers and up to three times as many programming hours than Inprise Delphi.
.exe file (on Windows), that doesn't need special DLL's to be installed.
I have used Pascal since Compas Pascal, which was the successor to Nascom Pascal (was it 4KByte?), and predecessor to PolyPascal, Turbo Pascal, Borland Pascal and then Delphi.
Having done several projects in C, C++, several assemblers, Visual Basic etc., there is no doubt, that Pascal makes quality control in large projects much easier, and the fact, that the linker is not technology from the 1970's really improves productivity and encapsulation.
I guess that I write approx. 20-40.000 lines of code a year, which would compare to the double in C++ lines. FPC makes me able to do open-source development using this fabulous language, even before Inprise puts out Delphi for Linux.
The traditional problem with Pascal is, that it tends not to be cross-platform. The good thing is, that you can make the same program three times with the same efforts as it would take to do it in C++ - and that alone justifies its use.
Delphi is the full-blown compiler, with which you can write a 10-table database GUI program in one day, where the final program will only be one
With a name like FreePascal, couldn't the "release" have waited until Bastille Day?
We are indeed no (L)GPL specialists, but the modification to the LGPL we've done is that we allow static linking under Dos (because, afaik, you normally are forced to dynamically link against LGPL libraries dso the user can upgrade the libraries seperately from the program). Dynamical linking under Dos is even supported yet afaik...
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Knowing this was going to come down soon, I decided to head down to my local computer book store to pick up some guidance. My discovery? No pascal books. However I did find the following:
1. "C++ for C programmers"
2. "Java for C++ programmers"
3. "Visual Basic for the Java Savvy"
4. "From BASIC to VisualBASIC in 43 Days!"
5. "Oh No, Pascal! A guide to Pascal for BASIC programmers" (discount bin)
$250 later, I'm all set! Who says you can't leverage your skills in C in the modern programming paradigm?
2 1337 4 u!
FWIW, you'll find that the optimizer in 1.0 is probably not much better than in the previous version you tried. If you want to try the new optimizer, get an optcomplinux.tar.gz snapshot (from the development section of the website) and use that in conjunction with -OG3p3 or -OG3p3r)
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There are four reasons I use Delphi and FreePascal over C++.(some only apply to FreePascal depending on switches)
1. No object instance variables. This means all objects are by referance which means you know when you are creating destroying and copying objects.
I wrote a base object in C++ once that reported when it was created and destroyed. I was horrified when I found out how many objects were created and destroyed automaticly doing relativly trivial operations. I resolved to only use pointers to objects in future in C++.
2. Properties, Delphi properties rock.
3. Published properties, There is no better way to support end-user visible properties of objects than in published properties.
4. 10 seconds for a complete rebuild of a major project.
Of course there are other minor things as well. virtual constructors, sets, nice string support, units instead of header files...
-- That which does not kill us has made its last mistake.
As far as I can tell the LGPL is fine for their purposes and poses no problem to commercial projects (which they seem to be a bit confused about in one of their README files).
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.