Virtual Pascal is a freeware 32-bit Pascal programming language compiler, integrated development environment (IDE), and debugger for OS/2 and Microsoft Windows, with some limited Linux support. Virtual Pascal was developed by Vitaly Miryanov and later maintained by Allan Mertner.
Original author(s) | Vitaly Miryanov |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Allan Mertner |
Initial release | 1995[1] |
Stable release | 2.1.279
/ May 13, 2004 |
Written in | Object Pascal, assembly language |
Operating system | Windows, OS/2, Linux |
Platform | IA-32 |
Type | Compiler, integrated development environment |
License | Freeware (Windows, OS/2 2.0 or later, Linux) |
Website | vpascal.com (archived), Online community |
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 mainly used for these purposes:
Significant features of Virtual Pascal include:
The compiler was quite popular in the Bulletin board system (BBS) scene, probably because of its OS/2 port and being one of the few affordable multi-target compilers. Also Turbo Pascal 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 to license Virtual Pascal as open-source software. This has not been done, for these reasons:
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.[1]
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.[1]
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.