Subject: CLPB Mini FAQ
Archive-name: pascal/borland-minifaq
Posting-Frequency: Every week
Last-modified: 2006-02-04
Version: 1.68
This document is (in general) posted every week as an aid to new
readers of these Newsgroups. It provides background knowledge of the
group, answers to the most frequently asked questions, a listing of
Pascal resources and netiquette in posting to the groups. Please do
take the time to read through this information.
Changes to the FAQ, giving a new version number will have a # in the
first column for the life of the version.
**********************************************************************
This is the comp.lang.pascal.borland Mini-FAQ, created by Tom Wheeley.
It was maintained by Chris Mathews until Feb 1998 and by Pedt Scragg
until February 2003. It's currently maintained by Robert AH Prins
<mailto:clpbfaq at prino dot net>.
You can avoid seeing this Mini-FAQ again by killfiling on
'[FAQ] mini-FAQ V1.' _and_
'- essential reading for those new to the newsgroup'
**********************************************************************
Contents:
1 What is comp.lang.pascal.borland?
1.1 History of the Group
1.2 Posting Guidelines
2 Where can I find {more?} Information - Pascal FAQ's?
2.1 FTP sites
2.2 Notable sources of information
2.3 Uploading your masterpieces to an FTP site
3 Very Frequently Asked Questions.
3.1 Pointers to info for assorted questions
3.2 Request for answers
4 Compiler and unit downloads
4.1 Borland compilers for download
4.2 Replacement units for download
4.2.1 Replacement SYSTEM units available for download
4.2.2 Replacement CRT units available for download
4.2.3 Replacement OVERLAY unit for download
4.2.4 Emulator sources for download
APPENDIX A - FTP site mirrors
APPENDIX B - Credits
**********************************************************************
1. What is comp.lang.pascal.borland?
**********************************************************************
This is the Usenet newsgroup for discussion on Borland Pascal, Turbo
Pascal and Turbo Pascal for Windows systems. All users are welcome
and this group is not moderated. In order to keep Usenet confusion
down, we request that you post only questions or discussions
concerning Pascal on the Borland Pascal compilers.
You might also be interested in "what are the differences between
Borland/Delphi/Kylix languages and ISO 7185 standard Pascal", at:
http://www.moorecad.com/standardpascal/ansiiso.faq
Please note that Delphi does not belong in this group. There are
many groups for Delphi discussion. Until the beginning of March
2005, Prof. Timo Salmi used to post a weekly FAQ regarding the
newsgroup reorganization of comp.lang.pascal.*. The contents of this
FAQ can be found as the answer to Q 76 in
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/link/tsfaqp.zip
Also there is the Turbovision group described as "Borland's text
application libraries." It is C-biased, but Pascal does get a
look-in:
comp.os.msdos.programmer.turbovision
Please do not post to the obsolete groups:
comp.lang.pascal
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components
**********************************************************************
1.1 History of the Group
**********************************************************************
comp.lang.pascal.borland was created by popular vote on
12 June 1995.
Historical information on this and other Usenet Pascal newsgroups
is available from:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/doc-net/pasgroup.zip
**********************************************************************
1.2 Posting Guidelines
**********************************************************************
a) "A problem well stated is a problem half solved" Charles F.
Kettering
b) Put as much information as you can in the subject line.
*Subjects like "help me" or "question about Pascal" are silly.*
Also note that some newsreaders truncate the subject line early.
c) If you have used one of the RTE200 patches. You are unlikely to
get any useful help unless you tell us: whose patch; from where;
BP/TP; Version Number; Real or Protected Mode; DOS/Win3/Win9x/?;
and *exactly* what the symptoms were and what the output was.
d) Usually, it will be sufficient to post to a single one of the
Pascal groups. But if you ever need to post to more than one
group, be sure to use a single cross-posted article rather than
multiple postings.
e) Please do not request the answer to your question solely via
email! Someone else will be interested and it is only polite to
the readers of this newsgroup. Remember also that public replies
are subject to peer review in case corrections and/or additions
are needed.
f) A "Thank you" after an answer that solved your query is a lot
nicer than a TIA. Do you ever give a TIA in real life?
g) We will not do your homework for you! We will, however, give
advice on specific topics and look at code that you have a
problem with. Show us what you have done already and pointers and
fixes will be forthcoming. Don't just post your assignment!
h) Be aware of limits. Try to keep your posting text lines to 72
characters or FEWER. If you use more, your posts may well look
messy when quoted.
i) Please ignore trolls who post or crosspost articles of an
inflammatory nature deliberately to try and cause mischief for
the group. Watch out for Follow-up: headers set to a different
group - your reply then goes to the other group and not
comp.lang.pascal.borland.
j) *Binaries must NOT be posted to this group.* Nor MIME
Attachments. (Especially nasty are those mailers which convert '='
to '=3D', a very bad thing to do to *any* Pascal source code.)
If you are wondering *why* binaries are banned, read this:
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/nobin.html
The rest of that very useful FAQ is worth a read also. You can
find it here:
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html
If you want to distribute binaries or large source files then you
could upload it to your own web site or to one of the FTP sites.
See the section
'Uploading your masterpieces to an FTP site'.
k) Do not post material that is not already in the public domain,
unless you have permission from the owner. If in doubt, quote
part of it and provide a link to the original.
l) Expressly forbidden is posting of any commercial material, for
example Turbo Pascal 7, or even just GRAPH.TPU. *This is illegal*
Do not even ask for these. Contact Borland if you have a problem.
Borland have released TP V1, V3.02 and V.5.5 for download. See
http://community.borland.com/museum/
- you may have to register.
m) Please, when replying to an article, only quote *as much as
needed* to show the context of your answer.
n) Post your comments or answer *below* the previous poster's text
as this is both basic Netiquette and a valuable aid to keep track
of the thread.
o) When posting problem code, please keep to the problem areas and
their context *and* show Var and Type declarations that are
involved.
p) Please indent your code, it may make postings a fraction bigger,
but it will increase the readability by an order of magnitude!
One indenter can be found on John Stockton's site,
http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/clean-tp.pas
John's program only changes indentation, nothing else!
Other fuller featured pretty-printers are available on Garbo:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/goldies/bp7sb101.zip
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/bp7sb104.zip
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/epb256.zip
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/tpbeaut.zip
For on-the-fly beautification of your Pascal programs and use of
higher resolutions than those offered as standard (up to 132x60),
you may want to have a look at Alexander Petrosyan's "Borland
Pascal Autocorrector". It's here: http://paf.design.ru/bpr.html
q) Do *NOT* post in HTML format. Make sure you post only plain text.
r) Do *NOT* add source code using an attachment - merge your source
into the text of the article you are posting.
s) Please do not post source code that runs into many hundreds or
thousands of lines of code, the place for such code is on the Web
or at an FTP site.
t) Please note some articles are cross-posted to
borland.public.turbopascal
The Borland newsgroups are _not_ part of Usenet and do not accept
postings from outside the borland.* hierarchy. If your ISP
provides access to Borland newgroups, consider it read-only and
only reply through the official Borland news server!
More info about Borland newsgroups can be found at
http://www.borland.com/newsgroups/guide.html
u) If you want to post a follow-up via groups.google.com, don't use
the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
"show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
"Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson
**********************************************************************
2. Where can I find more information?
**********************************************************************
Pascal FAQs:
- The infamous, ubiquitous, mandatory and downright useful Timo
Salmi's 'Common Turbo Pascal Questions and Timo's answers' is
available at ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/link/tsfaqp.zip
Note that this runs to over 150 questions and answers and a list
of Question Titles is posted monthly to comp.lang.pascal.borland
Be aware that it was last updated way back in January 2000...
- Jon Shemitz' original comp.lang.pascal FAQ
http://www.midnightbeach.com/jon/pubs/clp-faq.htm
- Pascal Turbo Vision FAQ
http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/pasfhome.html
(see WWW section)
A copy of this (not-updated-since-1995) FAQ can be found on the
pages of Dr John Stockton
http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/oldpfaqs/pastvfaq.txt
Learning Pascal
- If you are beginning Pascal, or want to learn some new
techniques, you could do far worse than take a look at Glenn
Grotzinger's TP Tutorial, in section 2.2
**********************************************************************
2.1 FTP sites: See Appendix A for *some* mirrors
**********************************************************************
'Garbo' The primary Turbo Pascal source/unit site.
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/ {turbopa* directories}
http://garbo.uwasa.fi/
'Oulu' Lots of files related to game (and demo?) programming.
ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/
'Simtel' Enormous MS-DOS archive
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet
http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/
'Borland' Borland's Web site
ftp://ftp.borland.com/
http://www.borland.com/index.html
TV site Turbovision source/applications ?
The old Turbo Vision site is gone, try Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22turbo-vision%22
These may be referred to by the name in the left hand column, both in
this FAQ and on the newsgroup. For Simtel and Garbo at least, the
contents of the primary site are mirrored in a number of locations
throughout the world. Please use a mirror site close to you if
possible both to save load on the primary site and to keep the
distance between you and the download site as short as possible. Info
on Garbo and Simtel mirrors is in Appendix A.
**********************************************************************
2.2 WWW sites
**********************************************************************
If you have a Web site concentrating on Pascal (esp. Borland), then
why not get it added to the list in the FAQ? Just send the URL and
# a short description to me, <mailto:clpbfaq at prino dot net>.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pascal Central
http://pascal-central.com/
The intent of Pascal Central is to provide the Pascal community one
place to obtain Pascal technical information, Pascal source code and
Pascal-related internet links. Mainly Pascal for the MAC.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Franz Glaser's TP Links
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2926/tp.html
Franz Glaser has a very large number of resources available to Pascal
programmers available from the links page listed. Includes a full set
of resources for the RunError 200 problem, which is a VFAQ in clpb.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* SWAG.
See http://www.gdsoft.com/swag/swag.html
Available from Garbo and Simtel directory turbopas/
get swaga-c.zip...swags-z.zip + swag.zip.
A free archive of Turbo Pascal code, produced by the 'Source Ware
Archival Group'. Note that the download is ~5Mb
Many people would consider SWAG essential before posting here!
The last SWAG Archive update SWAG9711.ZIP contains a new file:
LASTSWAG.TXT. They've decided to cease the current distribution and
move to a web-based library concentrating on Delphi.
The whole archive is now available on-line in HTML format at
http://www.bsdg.org/swag/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coders Knowledge Base
http://www.netalive.org/forums/programming
Aims to be the successor to SWAG but information quality is quite
variable at the present time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralf Brown's Interrupt List (Also known as RBIL)
The man himself:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/ralf/pub/WWW/files.html
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/inter61a.zip
inter61a.zip x86/MS-DOS Interrupt List, 1/4, Ralf Brown, impressive
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/inter61b.zip
inter61b.zip x86/MS-DOS Interrupt List, 2/4, Ralf Brown, impressive
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/inter61c.zip
inter61c.zip x86/MS-DOS Interrupt List, 3/4, Ralf Brown, impressive
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/inter61d.zip
inter61d.zip x86/MS-DOS Interrupt List, 4/4, Ralf Brown, impressive
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/inter61e.zip
inter61e.zip Utility programs/source code for interrupt list, R.Brown
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/inter61f.zip
inter61f.zip WinHelp conversion programs for interrupt list, R.Brown
An on-line fully-indexed HTML version can be found here:
http://www.ctyme.com/rbrown.htm
284031 Apr 15 1991 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/helppc21.zip
helppc21.zip Advanced Programmer's Quick Reference Utility (good)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The PCGPE 'PC Games Programmers Encyclopaedia'
ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/gpe/pcgpe10.zip
ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/gpe/00index.htmll
Version 1 contains lots of information on interfacing with games
related hardware - Mouse, joystick, Sound Cards, VGA specs.
Useful software techniques include BSP trees, 3d algorithms, a
starfield sim and fire effects. gfx file formats included too.
Includes Assembly and VGA tutorials by Asphyxia and VLA.
Thankfully, the author is a Pascal aficionado and so most of the
code is in Pascal or Pascal-style pseudocode. It also focusses on
techniques, rather than doling out code or units, aiding
understanding.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn Grotzinger's Turbo Pascal Tutor
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/tptutr11.zip
This tutor was written and posted to the comp.lang.pascal.borland
newsgroup. It contains tutorials, exercises and answers for all the
major areas in Turbo Pascal and most of the niches too.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
About.Com Pascal Programming Guide, Amit Chattopadhyay
http://search.about.com/fullsearch.htm?terms=pascal&IAM=URL_pascal
A fairly comprehensive portal site to popular Pascal source code,
documents, tutorials and programming resources. Features weekly
articles, chat area and discussion forum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pascal.Sources.Ru, Valery Votintsev
http://pascal.sources.ru/
A big _RUSSIAN_ language site with a very large amount of Pascal
material, including a Russian version of SWAG, which contains a
substantial number of snippets that are not in SWAG.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Lists
Believe it or not, your favourite Borland products are not 100%
perfect.
Turbo Pascal 6
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa6/tp6bugs7.zip
Borland Pascal 7
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbspec/bp7bugs2.zip
TurboVision (possibly newer versions of Brad Williams's TV bug list)
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbovis/tvbugs31.zip
**********************************************************************
2.3 Uploading your masterpieces to an FTP site
**********************************************************************
If you upload your splendid TPU, program or source code, then it
doesn't clutter up the newsgroup and will be publicly available for
longer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Garbo
Make sure you get these files:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/UPLOAD.TXT (Info on uploading)
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/UPTEXT.TXT (Questionnaire to fill in)
And remember to send an e-mailed announcement!
If you upload a unit, then you *must* also send a small
demonstration source program which uses your unit. You do not have
to send the actual source to your unit if you do not wish to.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Simtel
Can authors of ShareWare, FreeWare and Public Domain programs upload
their programs to Simtel?
Yes. For details send e-mail to listserv@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
with this
command in the body of the message: get upload.info
----------------------------------------------------------------------
More could well follow. There are {nearly!} always helpful pointers
at other ftp sites saying what you should do. If in doubt, there
may be a .message in an incoming directory or you could politely
mail the site.
**********************************************************************
3. Very Frequently Asked Questions.
**********************************************************************
Why do fast CPUs (Celeron, Pentium II and >200MHz) give problems
with Crt.Delay?
A problem may occur with a PP-200 (or better) CPU in that Runtime
Error 200 is generated in the start-up code of the CRT unit. This is
caused by division of a large number by 55 whose result won't fit
into a 16 bit register; the CPU generates an 'overflow' exception/
interrupt which is interpreted by the system library as "divide by
zero" exception/interrupt.
See Timo Salmi's FAQ #124 for details.
See Section 4.2 for replacement CRT units available for download.
Frank Heckenbach's remedy, for TP/BP 7.00/7.01, is
available at
http://fjf.gnu.de/bp-progs.html#NewDelay
Or Roger Donais's remedy : Those without source, compiling DOS real
mode programs may find RDELAY.ZIP useful
ftp://ftp.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/rdelay10.zip
It contains source for a Turbo 4.0 through 7.0 compatible unit
designed to prevent the "Divide by 0" error encountered on fast
machines.
Osmo Ronkanen has produced a Loader program for those programs that
cannot be patched. His newsgroup posting is available from
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa7/tfix.zip
There was a related problem in earlier TP version when the
initialisation code calibrated the delay to be too short without
generating an error. Frank Heckenbach's page has a fix and also see
Timo Salmi's FAQ, article #67. The replacement CRT units from Pedt
Scragg and Robert Prins also address the problems with the
incorrect delay on processors >200MHz for TP V5.0, V5.5 and V6.
Franz Glaser has collected a large number of patches for this and
they can be found via
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2926/tp.html
Andreas Bauer has produced a patch for an executable program.
Available from
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa7/tppatch.zip
This program can be installed as a tool in the Pascal IDE:
~B~auer's TPPATCH / TPPATCH / $EXENAME
You can check by compiling to disk and running a program using Alt-R
R that uses a non-fixed CRT unit. After the RTE200, use Alt-T B then
run the program again - the error will be fixed.
Further discussions of timing and delays can be found in Prof.
Salmi's TurboPascal FAQ, in Kris Heidenstrom's Timing FAQ,
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/pctim003.zip
in the newsgroup comp.lang.pascal.borland - *read previous posts
first*, and at http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/pas-wait.htm#Delay
There has been a tentative suggestion that >450MHz CPU's could give
problems with *some* of the fixes available. This seems to be, at
the time of writing, affecting the programs that have used c't
magazine fix and related ones which patched the code to set the
divisor to 126 instead of 55. C't have now released a new patch that
will work above 450MHz. Obtainable from
ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/ctbppat.zip
If you do use a fix for this error which does not work then please
post *which* fix with the file datestamp and place obtained, your
CPU / OS / Error Message returned.
Frank Heckenbach's fix is provided with the French TP7.01 free
download.
The same problem occurs with the TurboPower OpCrt & TpCrt units. The
patches that used to be available on their late ftp site have been
put onto SourceForge. The URL is
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tpopro/
and you need to look for bug #955482. (At this moment it is the only
bug report) The patches are in a (Win)RAR archive.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Can I use Long File Names in Turbo Pascal?
Yes. There are units and source code available for dealing with long
file names in Turbo Pascal when the program is running in a Win95/98
DOS box. A full implementation is at
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbspec/dos70p20.zip
# Also look at the drop-in replacement by Andreas Killer at
# ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa7/lfn110.zip
One caveat: be wary of mixing LFN files and 8.3 filename.ext - three
files called "pascal source" "pascal file" and "pascal text" would
be rendered as "pascal~1" "pascal~2" and "pascal~3". If you delete
"pascal file/pascal~2" and then copy the directory then "pascal
text" would have a new short name of "pascal~2" NOT "pascal~3" and
you program may be referring to "pascal~3"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How do I make EXE files with Turbo Pascal?
In Turbo Pascal, in the compile menu, make sure that the COMPILE TO
option is set to COMPILE TO DISK. When you compile, make or build
your program then you will create the file XXX.EXE, where XXX is the
name of your .PAS file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Will Delphi V2/3/4/5/6/7/.net/D2005 do DOS programs as well as
Windows?
Delphi V2 and later are for Windows 9x and Windows NT/XP. They are
not DOS products. They can create 32-bit console mode apps, but
they will not create DOS apps.
If you want DOS apps from a Delphi Product then Delphi V1 can do
them with some work on the RTL. See
http://www.pedt.demon.co.uk/usenet/
DCC32 -cc program.pas
is worth trying on some BP/TP programs mainly computational in
nature.
There is also wdosx, a winapi emulating dos-extender. Afaik this
also works for 32-bits Delphi's. [MvdV]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there a Borland Pascal Mailing list?
No, there is not.
There is a mailing list for Virtual Pascal (see below) on Yahoo.
Read access is here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vpascal/
The old Topica list is still readable at
http://www.topica.com/lists/virtualpascal/read
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Is it possible to 'decompile' Pascal EXEs or TPUs?
No. Too much information is lost in the compiling process. For a
more detailed explanation see Prof. Timo Salmi's FAQ.
It is possible to get a *reasonable* disassembly to assembly
language only
- try http://www.datarescue.com/idabase/
The FLIRT technology that comes with IDA will identify most routines
of the _original_ Borland RTLs. It will 'miss' interrupt routines,
but due to its interactive nature, these can be added very easily.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What are the Borland Pascal Products?
In essence, Borland Pascal was the 'professional' product, whilst
the Turbo Pascals are 'hobbyist' products.
Current Versions are (excluding fixes):
Turbo Pascal 7 (Dos)
Turbo Pascal for Windows 1.5 (Win)
Discontinued versions
Borland Pascal 7 (DOS, WIN 3.1, Pmode)
Borland Pascal can do everything that both Turbo Pascals can do,
plus:
. Compile for 16 bit DOS Protected mode (less memory constraints)
. Full Run Time Library Source code
. Lots of assorted debugging and programming tools
There was an update to TP and BP to v7.01, but this is no longer
available. V7.01 still has VER70 defined. TP7 is still available
but TPW and BP have been discontinued. You could try
http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/borland.htm
for the possibilities of obtaining a used copy of the various
versions of the Pascal compilers produced by Borland. You may also
find copies of BP7 for sale on Ebay at http://www.ebay.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Are there any freeware Pascal compilers?
- FPC Pascal
# Free Pascal, now (2005-12-08) at version 2.0.2, is a compiler for
# 32-bit and 64-bit CPU architectures such as AMD 32/64 bit, Intel
# 32/64 bit, SPARC, PowerPC (32 bit) and Intel ARM. It is language
# compatible to Turbo Pascal, Delphi (till version 7), and partly
# Metrowerks Pascal. It supports many operating systems: Dos, Linux,
# Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, Novell Netware, Mac OS
# classic, Mac OS X and MorphOS.
It comes with a cross-platform Run-Time Library, many interfaces to
existing libraries, and a large set of non-visual classes in the
Free Component Library. Last but not least, a text-mode IDE exists
on various platforms, and FPC comes with 1800 pages of
documentation.
The compiler is licensed under the GNU General Public License. The
Run-Time code is licensed under a modified version of the Library
General Public License, which allows to use it in a commercial
application.
Comes with full Pascal source and compiles itself.
http://www.freepascal.org/
- GNU Pascal
GNU Pascal is a portable 32/64 bit compiler system. It supports the
language of Borland Pascal V7 as well as ISO Standard Pascal, a
large subset of ISO Extended Pascal and other extensions (see
http://www.gnu-pascal.de/gpc/h-index.html
GNU Pascal is part of the GNU family of compilers, runs on all
platforms supported by GNU C, including DOS, OS/2 and MS-Windows
9x/NT, Linux, *BSD and other Unix-compatible systems and can cross-
compile between these platforms.
Full C source and precompiled binaries for several platforms are
available from:
http://www.gnu-pascal.de/current/
(Sources)
http://www.gnu-pascal.de/binary/
(Binaries)
There is a GNU Pascal mailing list, gpc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe, write
an email with the body "subscribe gpc your@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" to the
list robot, gpc-request@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
TMT Pascal
TMT Pascal, now at Version 5.00, is a 32-bit compiler with Turbo
Pascal syntax and is quite compatible with Turbo Pascal.
TMT Pascal is available from
http://www.tmt.com/
- Virtual Pascal
Virtual Pascal, now at Release V2.1 is free. It fully supports DOS
and Delphi plus Turbo Vision has been ported to 32 bits. There is
incomplete support for (x86 architecture only) Linux.
http://www.vpascal.com/
On 22 August 2003 Allan Mertner made the modified-for-VP sources
of TurboPower's Object Professional libraries available on the VP
site. Legal uncertainties have led to their removal.
On 24 August 2003 Allan Mertner announced that he is looking into
Open Sourcing the compiler. More info and discussion about this
can be found on the Virtual Pascal mailing list, which is archived
on Topica, http://www.topica.com/lists/virtualpascal/read
A direct link to the post that kicked off the discussion is
http://www.topica.com/lists/virtualpascal/read?sort=d&start=2665
On 3 April 2005, Allan Mertner announced the death of Virtual
Pascal. He will continue to run vpascal.com for "a few more years",
but development will cease - the main reason for doing so is the
fact that the compiler is written in assembler and it cannot
realistically be changed to add new features. Due to copyright
restrictions, the source will not be made available.
See Also Section 4 on Borland's release of TP compilers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How should I unsubscribe from the INFO-PASCAL mailing list?
Send the message "unsubscribe INFO-PASCAL" to
mailto:info-pascal-request@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please do not send such requests (or others) to info-Pascal@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
How to use run-time checks?
The Borland compilers can be set up to trap a substantial number of
Run-time errors. In the early stages of program development it is
advisable to enable _ALL_ error-checking options, i.e.
- $I+ to detect I/O errors
- $Q+ to detect overflows (BP/TP7 only)
- $R+ to generate range-checking code
- $S+ to detect stack overflows
- $T+ to enable type-checked pointers
- $V+ to enable strict checking of Var-strings
The $T+ option is a _compile-time_ error-check. It does not carry
any run-time overheads!
Using all of them will in many cases enable you to find problems
without having to resort to the newsgroup.
Once a program runs correctly, even with input no sensible user
would ever enter, you might want to disable all error-checking, with
the possible exception of I/O checking. However, the high clock
frequencies of todays CPUs might make the resulting reduction in
execution time minimal. As an alternative, it might be advantageous
to put fully debugged, well tested and frequently executed code into
a separate unit that is compiled without any error-checking.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How to use Random/Randomize?
The Randomize procedure is used to initialize the seed of the random
number generator (RNG) with a value derived from the system time. It
should only be called once, at the very start of a program. Calling
it more frequently, especially in loops on fast CPUs, may result in
it being re-seeded with the same seed on many iterations, which in
turn results in the Random() function producing the same 'random'
number over and over again!
**********************************************************************
3.1 Pointers to info for assorted questions
**********************************************************************
This section attempts to provide pointers to help and resources for
some of the other VFAQ's. Any assistance to compile a fuller list
will be gratefully received.
Cursor blink problem in Win95 after exiting BPW IDE
ftp://ftp.inprise.com/pub/otherprod/devsupport/misc/tdsvga.zip
Standalone debugger and profiler do not work under Win95
File above and use TDWINTH.DLL instead of TDWIN.DLL
Can I use truetype or other BGI fonts with BP7
http://www.freetype.org/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~remcodek/fontpage.html
Where can I find source code for ZIP files
http://website.lineone.net/~african_chief/
Where can I find a replacement for BGI graphics
http://crossfire-designs.de/showpage.php?lang=en&what=sourcecode
- see GrafX
Where can I find a unit to play through a Soundblaster Card
http://crossfire-designs.de/showpage.php?lang=en&what=sourcecode
- see SoundLib
How can I link C code into my Turbo Pascal Program
http://www.pedt.demon.co.uk/usenet/c-in-tp.htm
My computer has more than 64Mb of memory and BP7 will not work
Add NOVCPI to the DEVICE=EMM386.EXE line in config.sys, config.dos
and config.win files in the root directory of your boot drive.
I'm still using Windows 3.1x and TDW has stopped working
http://www.pedt.demon.co.uk/usenet/ctl.zip
My mouse does not work in the IDE under Windows 2000
Windows 2000 has cut and paste for DOS boxes and this feature is
enabled by default. Right click the top of your DOS Box, look for
the 'Edit Options' and uncheck 'QuickEdit Mode' and 'Insert Mode'
My protected mode Turbo Vision programs crash with Runtime Error 216
Windows NT4, Windows 2000 and Windows XP programs have problems
with 16 bit far callbacks for the mouse handler. Recompile
drivers.pas to use polling instead of being interrupt driven. Copy
of the fixed drivers.pas
http://www.pedt.demon.co.uk/usenet/drivers.zip
The problem is also present in 32-bit land.
**********************************************************************
3.2 Request for answers
**********************************************************************
- There seems to be reliable evidence that running BP on very fast
P4 Windows XP systems causes problems (other than RTE 200). Can
anyone give any clues as to the source of this problem.
**********************************************************************
4 Compiler and unit downloads
**********************************************************************
4.1 Borland compilers for download
**********************************************************************
Borland has placed three older versions - V1.0, V3.02 and V5.5 of
the Turbo Pascal compilers on the Internet for download at
http://community.borland.com/museum/
Note: you must have 'cookies' enabled in your browser to get past
the Anonymous LogIn. You *may* get directly to the download area by
trying
http://community.borland.com/museum/borland/software/
As regards any licensing issues, Borland have stated
"Since the software is old, you can do whatever you want with it.
You can freely distribute the executable version of programs
that you develop."
You can now also download TP7.01 from the French Inprise site
http://www.inprise.fr/download/compilateurs/
This inprise.fr address appears and disappears so may not be
available.
Note: if you have the English TP7.00 then you can download this
version to get the bug fixes. You can swap the *.tph help files over
from the English version as they will work. The older *.hlp files do
not work with Version 7. Please do not ask for someone to send you
the V7 English help as this is not allowed by Borland.
Brief highlights of the compilers [V3.02 is bug fixed version of
V3.0 and V7.01 is bug fixed version of V7.0]
TP V1.0: produces .com files, 64K maximum for code, data and stack
but you can use the heap for variables.
TP V3.0: produces .com files, 64K each for code, data and stack.
Heap can be used. Implements overlays but careful planning needed to
avoid thrashing the disk. [Hint: Use a RAMdisk]
TP V5.5: produces .exe files, 64K each for code, any unit, data and
stack. Heap can be used. Implements decent overlay manager. First TP
that can use OOP [Object Orientated Programming]. Users of this
version who need the Delay procedure should read the notes about
RTE200 in Section 3.
TP V7.0: OOP plus Turbo Vision and inline assembly language
available. Users of this version should read the notes about RTE200
in Section 3.
**********************************************************************
4.2 Replacement units for download
**********************************************************************
Borland made the source of the Run-Time Library (RTL) of its later
products available to the end user, either for an additional fee or,
in the case of BP7, as a "bonus" disk.
Using the source it was theoretically possible to write improved
units.
**********************************************************************
4.2.1 Replacement SYSTEM units for download
**********************************************************************
At the moment there are FIVE of them available on Garbo. They are:
- for TP 5.5:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa45/syst55c.zip by James LeMay
- for TP6:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa6/sys60a.zip by James LeMay
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa6/tpl60n19.zip by Norbert Juffa
- for TP/BP7:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa7/bpl70n16.zip by Norbert Juffa
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa7/bpl70v20.zip by Robert AH Prins
The units by James LeMay are just faster, Norbert Juffa's units also
have an increased smart-link granularity because he split up most of
the original sources into several parts. However, most notable about
the Norbert Juffa libraries is the greatly improved 6-byte real
arithmetic, which is now as IEEE-754 compliant as possible within
the restrictions of the format. Needlessly to say, Norbert's SYSTEM
units are also substantially faster than Borlands original versions.
The unit by Robert Prins is based upon Norbert Juffa's code, but it
has been enhanced significantly. A few of the major changes are:
- it is based on the BP 7.01 RTL
- it requires a 32-bit CPU and a 387 class FPU if FPU datatypes are
used
- the code has been made Pentium+ friendlier by replacing most of
the slower CICS type instructions by their RISC type equivalents
- the code is even more smart-link friendly
- both the real (TURBO.TPL) and DPMI (TPP.TPL) libraries include a
non-RTE200 smartlink-friendly CRT unit
- both contain a much more smartlink-friendly DOS unit (all original
get/set routines have been broken in two)
- the FPU based Trunc, Int and Round functions were made re-entrant
There is an additional very small "SYSTEM" unit available for BP7,
but it is stripped down to such an extent that, to quote the author
"... you can't use all the features that the standard RTL has."
The name of the archive is BPC-TRTL.ZIP and using Google you should
have no trouble finding a copy.
Here's an incomplete list of removed features:
- All System unit procedures, such as WriteLn
- All runtime error checks (you have to use {$R-,S-,Q-,I-} mode)
- Return codes (ignore the runtime error messages that IDE shows)
- Floating-point data types (you have to use {$N-,E-} mode)
- Heap manager (allocate memory using DOS calls)
- String handling routines (including the + operation)
+ Some of the LongInt operations: *, /, shr, shl (they still work
with Integer)
+ Large variable assignments (that involved a procedure call)
Also, note that you can't compile programs with debug information
for standalone debugging. However, you can use the integrated
debugger, or you can compile your program with the standard RTL for
debugging (and use TinyRTL after the bugs are fixed). Don't forget
to save your program before you compile it! The compiler crashes
with an internal error if you occasionally use some of the removed
features.
**********************************************************************
4.2.2 Replacement CRT units for download
**********************************************************************
Following work on a replacement CRT unit to primarily fix the RTE200
bug in T/BP7, two replacement CRT units are now completed. CRT units
are included for TP V5, 5.5, 6.0 and 7.0x including protected mode
units for BP7.0x. Pedt Scragg's ZIP file also includes precompiled
units for Delphi 1. Robert Prins' unit contains all .OBJ files so
that users of D1 can roll their own. This unit is included in
BPL70V20.ZIP.
The replacement CRT units also include code to allow use of extended
keys such as F11 and F12 with ReadKey and, if using other than 40x25
text mode or 80x25,43,50 text mode should not reset text screen to
80x25.
Be aware that the unit by Robert Prins (rpcrt100.zip) contains 386
instructions. It will not run on 8086/88/286 systems, but does not
test for such systems!
Pedt Scragg's unit:
Information at http://www.pedt.demon.co.uk/crt/
including download
links.
Download directly from:
http://www.signpost-design.co.uk/crt.zip
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/dos/programming/crt.zip
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/crt.zip
Robert Prins' unit:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/rpcrt100.zip
**********************************************************************
4.2.3 Replacement OVERLAY unit for download
**********************************************************************
Available on Garbo is a replacement Overlay unit. The unit comes
with the never-made-available by Borland reconstructed sources of
the original unit. The file containing the replacement unit also
contains an improved version of Wilbert van Leijen's OVERXMS.ASM
source, but not the other files in WvL's original archive!
Both units contain 386 instructions and both are included in
BPL70V20.ZIP.
Download from:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopa7/over-120.zip
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/overxms.zip (WvL's original unit)
**********************************************************************
4.2.4 Emulator sources for download
**********************************************************************
Borland never made the sources of the hard- and software emulator
files available. Reconstructed sources, including those of the
improved version of the hardware emulator by Norbert Juffa, with
instructions on how to add them to the RTL are also available on
Garbo:
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbspec/em8x-110.zip
Newer, further optimized and far better commented, versions can be
found in BPL70V20.ZIP.
**********************************************************************
Appendix A - ftp Mirror sites (Choose the closest to you)
**********************************************************************
Public, authorized Garbo mirror sites:
From Timo Salmi, 2003-03-07:
> Garbo's mirrors are hardly relevant in this day and age. The main
> site in enough.
> Anyway: http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/garbinfo/garbmirr.html
One mirror that is working and up to date, just in case Garbo is
down, is Demon in the UK, ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/garbo
Simtel.Net
Simtel.Net is a worldwide distribution network for Shareware,
Freeware and Public Domain programs for MS-DOS, Windows 3.x and
Windows 95/98.
For a complete Simtel.Net list, send mail to listserv@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
with body:
get mirrors.info
You can also get a list of mirror sites and directory descriptions
from
news:comp.archives.msdos.announce
news:comp.archives.ms-windows.announce
Look for the subjects
List of Simtel.Net MS-DOS dirs w/descriptions
List of Simtel.Net authorized mirror sites
The Simtel mirrors should also be listed at
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/MIRRORS.TXT
**********************************************************************
Appendix B - Credits
**********************************************************************
Scott A. Moore - Original posting guidelines
Dr John Stockton - WWW sites, many corrections/tips
Prof. Timo Salmi - Garbo mirrors, corrections
Anthon Pang - Beta testing WWW sites
Keith Petersen - Simtel.Net information
Marco van de Voort - Additional FPC info
Tom Wheeley - Creator of this FAQ
Chris Mathews - Previous maintainer of this FAQ
Pedt Scragg - Previous maintainer of this FAQ
Not forgetting those not mentioned whose contributions have also
helped to keep the mFAQ up-to-date and useful.
**********************************************************************
Thank you for reading the Mini-FAQ
Copies available from
- ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/doc-net/faqclpb.zip
- http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/clpb-faq.txt
- ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/doc/faq/clpb/faqclpb.zip
Old versions from http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/oldpfaqs/
Comments, additions, alterations and corrections to
# <mailto:clpbfaq at prino dot net>
Please do not be backward about coming forward if you have additions
to the mFAQ. All suggestions, broken or amended links, suggestions
for altering the content of the mFAQ are warmly welcomed.
This mini-FAQ is (C) Copyright Robert AH Prins 2002-2006 on behalf
of the newsgroup comp.lang.pascal.borland. Upon change of
maintainer, the copyright will automatically pass over to the new
maintainer. Except for the name of the maintainer and dates, the new
maintainer is not allowed to change any part of this copyright
notice.
Verbatim copying and redistribution of an up-to-date version this
mini-FAQ or any part of it is permitted and encouraged in any medium
provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved.
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