Free Pascal Compiler 3.0.0 Is Out; Adds Support For 16-Bit MS-DOS, 64-Bit iOS (freepascal.org)

Halo1 writes: Twenty-three years ago, development started on the first version of the Turbo Pascal and later also Delphi-compatible Free Pascal Compiler, for OS/2 no less. Two decades and change later, the new Free Pascal Compiler 3.0.0 release still supports OS/2, along with a host of older and newer platforms ranging from MS-DOS on an 8086 to the latest Linux and iOS running on AArch64. On the language front, the new features include support for type helpers, codepage-aware strings and a utility to automatically generate JNI bridges for Pascal code. In the mean time, development on the next versions continues, with support for generic functions, an optional LLVM code generator backend and full support for ISO and Extended Pascal progressing well.

Comments

Short FPC history and goals overview

[Halo1]

I thought I added the link to my original summary, but it seems to have gotten lost when I submitted it. In any case, Sourceforge's Project of the Month April 2014 interview with the founder of the Free Pascal Compiler, Florian Klaempfl, contains a good overview of the project's history, goals and development methodology.

Re:Short FPC history and goals overview

[Halo1]

23 years ago? That makes it 1992? I was using Turbo Pascal in 1989!

Yes, Florian started the project when it became clear Borland was not going to create a 32 bit version of TP/BP.

Re:Short FPC history and goals overview

[vux984]

23 years ago? That makes it 1992? I was using Turbo Pascal in 1989!

Re-read the summary.

It says 23 years ago development on the Turbo Pascal compatible project "Free Pascal" was started.

It does NOT say 23 years ago development on Turbo Pascal itself was started.

I remember

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember having to save my allowance to buy Borland Turbo Pascal for around $60. It came in a yellow box. A couple of other things I remember:

1) I am getting old
2) Those days sucked

Thanks to GNU and gcc we will never have to put up with that crap again.

Free Pascal is awesome.

[shihonage]

I wrote a DOS game in 1996 in Turbo Pascal which used $B800:0000 textmode space to display the action. Thanks to Free Pascal I successfully ported it to Windows... of course minus the literal memory addressing and such.
Free Pascal is amazing at how it "just works" with legacy Turbo Pascal syntax where Delphi would present more trouble. Lazarus, the Free Pascal IDE, is also very resemblant of Turbo Pascal IDE, with some modern touches.
Pascal is an underrated language. It may have been designed for education, but it has many advanced features, the executables are nearly as fast as C++ ones, it compiles fast, and the runtime diagnostics are detailed and specific. It "just works".

Re:Free Pascal is awesome.

[MightyMartian]

I loved the Pascal family of languages. I did a lot of work in TurboPascal and Basic-09. The latter was basically Pascal with a bit more BASIC-like syntax. I still prefer Pascal style variable declarations.

Re:Free Pascal is awesome.

[Halo1]

FPC comes with a (mostly) TP-compatible graph unit for Windows (32 and 64 bit). It doesn't use BGI drivers, because it doesn't need to. Your mouse code won't work though, since you can't access the mouse driver under Windows using DOS interrupts. We do have our own cross-platform mouse unit you may want to use instead.

Re:WHY?

[Halo1]

Why the fuck would anyone bother supporting 16-bit MSDOS? Really?

Simply because someone cares. Someone else is also reviving Amiga 68k support, because he cares. Our compiler is generally modular and generic enough so that such support does not result in too much interference with other functionality, or luggage that makes things unmaintainable over time.

Where's the CP/M support for Z80 then?

It'll get added as soon as you provide good quality patches for it :)

Re:WHY?

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Because there's a buttload of legacy embedded apps running it? I know of at least 20 I've had my hands near, including one running on the International Space Station.