Virtual Pascal
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| Virtual Pascal | |
|---|---|
| Design by | Allan Mertner |
| Developed by | Vitaly Miryanov |
| Latest release | 2.1.279 / 2004-05-13 |
| Written in | Object Pascal and Assmbler |
| OS | Microsoft Windows, OS/2, Linux |
| Development status | unmaintained |
| Genre | Integrated Development Environment |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | vpascal.com (archived) |
Virtual Pascal is a free 32-bit Pascal compiler, IDE and debugger for OS/2 and Microsoft Windows, with some limited Linux support. Although it had a wide user base in the late nineties, VP has not evolved significantly for several years, and the owner declared in 2005 that development had ceased[1]. Virtual Pascal was developed by Allan Mertner.
There has been pressure from some users for the compiler source to be made into open-source software. This has not been done, the main reasons being:
- The compiler source is mostly written in Intel assembly and is complex and hard to maintain
- Part of the run-time library is proprietary to Borland
- Documentation and help is maintained with expensive proprietary tools
The compiler is compatible with Turbo Pascal, Borland Delphi and Free Pascal, 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 Turbo Pascal programs to 32 bits
- Port existing 16-bit OWL programs to 32-bit Windows
- Write console (text-mode) programs for several platforms
- Pascal development using the 32-bit Windows API
- Learn object-oriented programming
Significant features of Virtual Pascal include:
- Text-mode IDE
- Debugger of VP is built directly into the IDE and is reminiscent of Turbo Debugger
- Fast compilation
- Tool-chain written mostly in Intel assembly
