Release 2.0.0 of the Free Pascal Compiler has been published - the OS/2 version of this TP/BP/Delphi highly compatible compiler can be downloaded from http://www.freepascal.org and mirrors. See below for more information.


What is Free Pascal?
====================

Free Pascal is a compiler for 32-bit and 64-bit CPU architectures such as Intel 32/64 bit, AMD 32/64 bit, SPARC, PowerPC and Intel ARM. It is language compatible to Turbo Pascal, Delphi (till version 7), and partly Metrowerks Pascal. It supports many operating systems: Dos, Linux, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, Novell Netware, Mac OS classic, Mac OS X and MorphOS. It comes with a cross-platform Run-Time Library, many interfaces to existing libraries, and a large set of non-visual classes in the Free Component Library. Last but not least, a text-mode IDE exists on various platforms, and FPC comes with 1800 pages of documentation.

The compiler is licensed under the GNU General Public License. The Run-Time code is licensed under a modified version of the Library General Public License, which allows to use it in closed-source commercial applications.


What is new when compared to version 1.0?
=========================================

- Reworked Run-Time Library for OS/2 directly using OS/2 API instead of going through EMX layer.
- More supported CPUs: AMD64, SPARC, PPC (32 bit), ARM.
- More supported platforms: Mac OS classic, Mac OS X, MorphOS, Novell Netware.
- Improved inlining
- Improved register variables
- Improved 80x86 assembler optimizer
- Threading support.
- Rudimentary variant support.
- Interfaces support.
- WideString support.
- More Delphi compatibility units.
- Greatly improved database access.
- New compiler mode: MACPAS for compatibility with Pascal compilers on Mac OS.
- Complete documentation of RTL units, generated using a new documentation tool, included in the distribution: fpdoc
- Completely rewritten Unix support.
- Completely rewritten compiler, allowing for easier ports to new architectures.
- IDE
- Free Vision text-mode windowing system.
- Many new packages.
- And of course, numerous bugfixes.

The complete list of changes can be found in the whatsnew.txt file included in the distribution.

Where can it be downloaded?
===========================

The main download site is http://www.freepascal.org/download.html.

Here, you can select a mirror close to you. Please select a mirror, as the main server is heavily loaded.

Installation packages are already available for

- Windows (with installer)
- Linux (Intel x86, AMD64, Sparc, PPC, ARM) : tar.gz and .rpm
- FreeBSD (Intel x86)
- OS/2
- Mac OS X (PPC)
- Mac OS Classic (PPC)
- Netware (Intel x86, native and libc)

Others will follow soon.


What is planned for the future?
===============================
- Fix more bugs.
- Support for dynamic libraries and run-time packages.
- Support for DispInterface (OLE binding on Windows).
- Improved optimizations.
- Improved threading.
- Internal assemblers/linker in the compiler.
- More platforms.
- Better Delphi compatibility.
- Even more documentation.

http://www.freepascal.org


Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

OS/2-eCS-ArcaOS General News

More in General  

OS/2-eCS-ArcaOS Software News

More in Software  

Latest Forum Posts

WarpStock and OS/2-eCS-ArcaOS Event News

Site News

More in Site News