Mail Archives: djgpp/1996/12/13/06:09:11
This is the announcement of version 2.0 of
GNU Pascal
corresponding to GCC version 2.7.2.1.
What is GNU Pascal?
===================
GNU Pascal is, as the name says, the Pascal compiler from the
GNU compiler family. This means:
- 32 bit compiler, no limits, highly optimizing,
- runs on all operating systems supported by GCC (including DOS,
Win95/NT, OS/2, Linux, FreeBSD, many other Unix dialects),
- Free Software according to the GNU General Public License,
- compatible to other GNU languages and tools such as
GNU C and the GNU debugger.
The compiler integrates the following language standards:
- ISO 7185 Standard Pascal,
- ISO 10206 Extended Pascal (90% implemented),
- Borland Pascal (80% compatible).
Some highlights:
- From Extended Pascal: complex numbers, initialized variables,
structured function return values, modules,
- from Borland Pascal: inc, dec, shl, shr, absolute variables,
units, objects,
- GNU extensions: min, max,
(PXSC-style) user-definable operators.
Disadvantages:
- Pascal support in integrated development environments (RHIDE
for DOS/DJGPP, (X)WPE for Unix) is still beta,
- the GNU debugger (gdb) does not yet understand Pascal syntax
and types,
- few standard libraries (can use C standard libraries instead),
- longer compilation times than with e.g. Borland Pascal.
New features in version 2.0
===========================
- Borland extensions are integrated into the
main distribution line.
- Easier to compile.
- Texinfo online documentation (available as HTML, too).
- Precompiled Module/Unit interfaces.
- Automatic `make' facility.
- Some bugs fixed. "Export foo = all" extension.
Machine attributes. Etc.
Where to obtain GNU Pascal
==========================
The master ftp site for GNU Pascal is kampi.hut.fi. The source of
the compiler, binary distributions for certain platforms and other
GNU Pascal related files can be found in
ftp://kampi.hut.fi/jtv/gnu-pascal/ .
This site is mirrored on
ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/gnu/pascal/ .
Other sources of information
============================
More about GNU Pascal can be found in our WWW home page,
http://home.pages.de/~GNU-Pascal/ .
If you have problems to access this, try
http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~gnu-pascal/ .
That page contains the GNU Pascal FAQ list and an online version
of the complete documentation.
If you have questions or want to discuss about GNU Pascal, please
join the GNU Pascal mailing list by writing to
gpc-request AT hut DOT fi .
The address of the list itself is
gpc AT hut DOT fi .
--------
Follow-ups will be directed to comp.lang.pascal.misc.
Enjoy,
The GNU Pascal Development Team
Jukka Virtanen
Peter Gerwinski
Jan-Jaap van der Heijden
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