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Introduction

Overview

Free Pascal (aka FPK Pascal) is a 32 and 64 bit professional Pascal compiler. It is available for different processors: Intel x86, Amd64/x86_64, PowerPC, PowerPC64, Sparc, ARM. The discontinued 1.0 version also supports the Motorola 680x0. The following operating systems are supported: Linux, FreeBSD, Haiku, Mac OS X/Darwin, DOS, Win32, Win64, WinCE, OS/2, Netware (libc and classic) and MorphOS.

Latest News

January 1st, 2012

FPC 2.6.0 has been released! 2.6.0 is a major new version, which adds many post-Delphi 7 language features and adds or improves the support for various platforms.

The new features include, amongst others:

• Objective-Pascal dialect, supported on all Mac OS X and iOS targets
• Delphi compatibility mode improvements
  • Nested types, class variables and class local constants
  • Advanced records syntax (no constructors yet)
  • (for..in) Enumerators in records
  • Class and record helpers
  • Generic records, arrays and procedural types
  • Delphi-compatibility of general generics syntax improved
  • Scoped enumerations
  • Custom messages for "deprecated" directive
  • Ability to use "&" for escaping keywords
• New ARM code generator features
  • ARM VFPv2 and VFPv3 floating point unit support
  • Thumb-2 support (embedded targets only)
• The rtl and packages also got a lot of attention, see the release manifest.

See the changelog for the list of reported bugs that have been fixed in this release.

Downloads are available from the download page (mirrors should follow soon).

A list of changes that may require changes to existing code is also available.

August 20th, 2011

The Free Pascal Compiler now can generate byte code for a Java Virtual Machine.

The codegenerator works and supports most Pascal language constructs. The FPC backend for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) generates Java byte code that conforms to the specifications of the JDK 1.5 (and later). While not all FPC language features work when targeting the JVM, most do and we have done our best to introduce as few differences as possible.

More information about the JVM backend can be found on the wiki.

May 30th, 2011

A book on programming lazarus is available: "Lazarus Complete Guide".

It is the translation of the earlier German edition by C&L and is published by the dutch pascal user group. Several of the Lazarus/Free Pascal developers participated in the creation of this book.

It can be ordered on-line here.

Older news...

Current Version

Version 2.6.0 is the latest stable version the Free Pascal. Hit the download link and select a mirror close to you to download your copy. The development releases have version numbers 2.7.x. See the development page how to obtain the latest sources and support development.

Features

The language syntax has excellent compatibility with TP 7.0 as well as with most versions of Delphi (classes, rtti, exceptions, ansistrings, widestrings, interfaces). A Mac Pascal mode, largely compatible with Think Pascal and MetroWerks Pascal, is also available. Furthermore Free Pascal supports function overloading, operator overloading, global properties and several other extra features.

Requirements

x86 architecture:

For the 80x86 version at least a 386 processor is required, but a 486 is recommended. The Mac OS X version requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later, with the developer tools installed.

PowerPC architecture:

Any PowerPC processor will do. 16 MB of RAM is required. The Mac OS classic version is expected to work System 7.5.3 and later. The Mac OS X version requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later (can compile for 10.2.8 or later), with the developer tools installed. On other operating systems Free Pascal runs on any system that can run the operating system.

ARM architecture

16 MB of RAM is required. Runs on any ARM Linux installation.

Sparc architecture

16 MB of RAM is required. Runs on any Sparc Linux installation (solaris is experimental).

License

The packages and runtime library come under a modified Library GNU Public License to allow the use of static libraries when creating applications. The compiler source itself comes under the GNU General Public License. The sources for both the compiler and runtime library are available; the complete compiler is written in Pascal.