Virtual Pascal is a free 32-bit Pascal compiler, IDE, and

debugger A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program used to test and debug other programs (the "target" program). The main use of a debugger is to run the target program under controlled conditions that permit the programmer to track its executi ...

for

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 r ...

and Microsoft Windows, with some limited

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

support. Virtual Pascal was developed by Vitaly Miryanov and later maintained by Allan Mertner.

Features

The compiler is compatible with

Turbo Pascal Turbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment (IDE) for the Pascal programming language running on CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS. It was originally developed by Anders Hejlsberg at ...

Borland Delphi Delphi is a general-purpose programming language and a software product that uses the Delphi dialect of the Object Pascal programming language and provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid application development of desktop, ...

, and

Free Pascal Free Pascal Compiler (FPC) is a compiler for the closely related programming-language dialects Pascal and Object Pascal. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License, witexception clausesthat allow static linking against its ...

, although language- and RTL-compatibility is limited for features introduced after Delphi v2 and FPC 1.0.x. VP was primarily useful for the following purposes: * Easily port existing 16-bit

programs to 32 bits * Port existing 16-bit

OWL Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

programs to 32-bit Windows (in theory) * Write console (text-mode) programs for several platforms * Pascal development using the 32-bit

Windows API The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

(the classic development, no COM) * Learn

object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...

Significant features of Virtual Pascal include: * Text-mode IDE * Debugger is integrated directly into the IDE and is reminiscent of Turbo Debugger * Fast compilation * Tool-chain written mostly in Intel assembly

History

Microsoft Windows, OS/2

The compiler was quite popular in the

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

scene, probably because of its OS/2 port and being one of the few affordable multi-target compilers. Also

had been popular in the BBS scene too, but its successor, Delphi was suddenly for Windows only. Virtual Pascal provided a migration path for existing codebases. There has been pressure from some users for Virtual Pascal to be made into open-source software. This has not been done, provided the following reasoning: * The compiler source is mostly written in Intel assembly which is hard to change and maintain. * Part of the

run-time library Runtime, run-time, or run time may refer to: Computing *Runtime (program lifecycle phase), the period during which a computer program is executing * Runtime library, a program library designed to implement functions built into a programming langua ...

is proprietary to Borland (The FreePascal run-time library was ported to VirtualPascal by Noah Silva, however newer versions of the FreePascal RTL use features of the FreePascal compiler which are not supported by VirtualPascal, and so can not be ported). * The patch/diff tool to work around the above (provide changes to proprietary without distributing parts of the original) was proprietary and (Windows) 16 bit only. * Documentation and help are maintained with expensive (and sometimes no longer available) proprietary tools * There is nobody who fully understands the code. Allan said that some of the deeper areas were no-touch for him (original code by Vitaly) Although it had a wide user base in the late 1990s, VP has not evolved significantly since 2001, and after a few maintenance-only releases, the owner declared that development had ceased in 2005. On 4 Apr 2005, Virtual Pascal was announced 'dead' on the official site. The last released version (2.1 Build 279) was announced on 13 May 2004.

Linux

An initial version was released on 4 July 1999, with the last known version released on 26 September 1999. This version was maintained by Jörg Pleumann. Run-Time Library to 32 bit DPMI.

References

External links