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 Vitaly Miryanov and later maintained 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, adapt and stabilize after change.
* Part of the run-time library is proprietary to Borland
* Documentation and help is maintained with expensive proprietary tools
* There is nobody who fully understands the code. Alan said that some of the deeper areas were no-touch for him (original code by Vitaly)
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
See also: Delphi,
Free Pascal,
Lazarus,
Turbo Pascal
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