Advise on FreePascal on Amiga & other Native Amiga Pascal versions

[MoRetro]

Hi Guys,

I want to start programming in Pascal for/on the Amiga.
I know that FreePascal can be used for that. Does anyone have experience with FreePascal and is willing to share how he did manage to set it up on PC (crosscompile) and Amiga?

Any other Pascal version that can be advised to me?

All the best,

[Samurai_Crow]

FreePascal is the newest version of the language and implements its own runtime library for cross platform compatibility once the library is fully ported. AROS 68k is better supported by FreePascal than AmigaOS 3, though.

PCQ is ancient as are all the rest for the Amiga but they will work on AmigaOS in a non-portable way.

[MoRetro]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

FreePascal is the newest version of the language and implements its own runtime library for cross platform compatibility once the library is fully ported. AROS 68k is better supported by FreePascal than AmigaOS 3, though.

PCQ is ancient as are all the rest for the Amiga but they will work on AmigaOS in a non-portable way.

Thanks Samuarai Crow, have you experience with both of them or any other Pascal for Amiga?
Have you setup Freepascal voor Aros68K or Amiga?
Have you used PCQ? Is better than the other Amiga Pascal iterations ?

All the best,

[Samurai_Crow]

PCQ does not implement Pascal 80 fully while Free Pascal implements Object Pascal like Delphi. Both come with AROS Vision's development distribution.

[MoRetro]

Thanks Samurai_Crow
I have usedDelphi in the past from version 1 upto 6. A couple of years back I started using FreePascal on the PC as an alternative to Delphi.

Have you any experience with FreePasacal or PCQ on the Amiga?

All the best,

[Amiga1992]

I have used Pascal on the Amiga before, I just can't remember which compiler. Kinda feel it was FPC, but I am not sure. Can check this for you.
I didn't crossdev though, I compiled on the Amiga.

I had successfully converted my PC programs to Amiga from back when I was studying Pascal.

[MoRetro]

Thanks Akira, hope you can find it.
I've done some work in C, but i still prefer Object Pascal (Delphi, FreePascal)
Can't remember where i've read it somewhere, that FreePascal or FPC can be installed on a PC to cross compile.
And now there is an 68K version that can run the Amiga itself.

[Amiga1992]

Yeah the way I went through this, was that I was using Borland Pascal on PC, and I had made a bunch of programs for my class, and then I took them to the Amiga and with little modification they basically worked.

They were simple text only programs though, so not much fanciness needed, but they worked pretty much right off the bat which I thought was pretty awesome.

Anyway, I checked, and it seems I used FPC 0.99.5c to compile those files.
http://aminet.net/package/dev/lang/fpc09905c

Seems there are newer versions though:
http://aminet.net/search?query=pascal+fpc

Given the date on my archives, I made this with a bog standard A600. What patience!

Have fun!

[idrougge]

If you like Pascal, you might also like Modula-2, for which there are several competent compilers.

[Samurai_Crow]

https://blog.alb42.de/2016/10/24/back-to-workbench-1-3/ has news about AmigaOS support for FreePascal's latest version! Also, FPC stands for FreePascal Compiler and is an early version of FreePascal.

I compiled some example programs with PCQ back in the day. It doesn't do forward declarations of pointers like normal Pascal requires so I didn't give it any more consideration. It doesn't satisfy the Pascal standard and doesn't support Object Pascal. Don't consider using PCQ for any new code at all.

[ALB42]

Hi,

Amiga 68k support is available the in the latest FreePascal Version 3.0.0+ (Latest Development Version is 3.1.1)
Check out Latest development snapshots
That means all current FreePascal features are directly available on our beloved Amiga (Objects, classes, inheritance, templates, operator overloading, RTTI and and and... )

Personally, I use Cross-compiling from Linux, Check the
Virtual Lazarus for a ready to use Virtual machine, able to write and cross compile applications for all Amiga-style systems.

Freepascal can be used to write console programs, GUI programs with any type of GUI set available on Amiga (MUI, triton, gadtools) or even source compatible GUIs with Windows/Linux using LCL (Lazarus component library)

Please note, current implementation needs AmigaOS3 and a lot of RAM, the precompiled compiler and units need a 68020 processor.

The blog Entry about OS1.3 with 68000 is just a showcase, currently not possible to use.

[MoRetro]

Originally Posted by idrougge

If you like Pascal, you might also like Modula-2, for which there are several competent compilers.

Thanks idrougge,
I will first take Pascal path for now, once i've done that i can look further for Modula. I know that modula is the successor of Pascal and also made by Niklaus Wirth. But i never tried it, so in the future maybe

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

https://blog.alb42.de/2016/10/24/back-to-workbench-1-3/ has news about AmigaOS support for FreePascal's latest version! Also, FPC stands for FreePascal Compiler and is an early version of FreePascal.

I compiled some example programs with PCQ back in the day. It doesn't do forward declarations of pointers like normal Pascal requires so I didn't give it any more consideration. It doesn't satisfy the Pascal standard and doesn't support Object Pascal. Don't consider using PCQ for any new code at all.

Thanks for info Samurai_Crow and for pointing me to ALB42.
For know i will start with FreePascal and Lazarus because as you're mentioning that the other Amiga Pascal iterations like PCQ are not following the standard.

Originally Posted by ALB42

Hi,

Amiga 68k support is available the in the latest FreePascal Version 3.0.0+ (Latest Development Version is 3.1.1)
Check out Latest development snapshots
That means all current FreePascal features are directly available on our beloved Amiga (Objects, classes, inheritance, templates, operator overloading, RTTI and and and... )

Personally, I use Cross-compiling from Linux, Check the
Virtual Lazarus for a ready to use Virtual machine, able to write and cross compile applications for all Amiga-style systems.

Freepascal can be used to write console programs, GUI programs with any type of GUI set available on Amiga (MUI, triton, gadtools) or even source compatible GUIs with Windows/Linux using LCL (Lazarus component library)

Please note, current implementation needs AmigaOS3 and a lot of RAM, the precompiled compiler and units need a 68020 processor.

The blog Entry about OS1.3 with 68000 is just a showcase, currently not possible to use.

Thank you ALB42 for the massive information on Freepascal and Lazarus.
I will certainly try your virtual Lazarus if it runs in Oracle VM VirtualBox.

Later on I will also try to install FreePascal 68k on the Amiga and see what it can. First in WinUAE and than on my A600 Vampire 2.



All the best,

[emufan]

just installed FCP 3.1.1 and compiled the windowtest.pas ( in example folder)
running here kick/wb 3.1 030/882 on rtg p96 screen.
look at the gui, first time i thought i started a dos emulator

*image removed to free some bytes*

[ALB42]

@MoRetro: I would be very interested in the results on the Vampire 2. I never tested on them, I always thought about to buy one to make some tests, but the delivery times are too long atm.
If you have some questions, do not hesitate to ask. ;-)

@emufan: Hehe, yes thats the FP-IDE which is made to look like Borland Pascal back in the DOS era. It's working rather nicely, especially if your are used to the key combinations (there are two different sets included). But nowadays I mostly use the shell fpc compiler ;-) to build my project, or as mentioned already the cross compiler.

Have fun ;-)

[MoRetro]

@emufan: Thanks for sharing your first FreePascal experience.
I hope I can try this also asap

@ALB42: Certainly I will share my findings when I've done the tests on the Vampire 2.
Thanks for offering assistance on the subject.

All the best,

[MoRetro]

Hi ALB42,

I'm trying to use your VMPlayer file in VirtualBox but i'm getting some problems.
Just After the GNU GRUB screen with 2 startup options:
- Trisquel GNU/Linux -> Reboots after a couple of sconds. See Webm screenrecording file in attachment.
- Advanced options for Trisquel GNU/Linux -> asks for a password.

What are the hardware settings of your VM:
- RAM?
- Is the Linux 32 or 64 bit?
- Graphic mem
- network

Thanks in advance,


All the best

[emufan]

@ALB42: i wasnt aware the gui can be pimped to look like this, somewhat unique

btw: i made those addition to my s:user-startup, after extracting fpc-3.1.1.m68k-amiga.20160410.lha to my SYS: partition:

;BEGIN FreePascal
Assign FreePascal: SYS:pp
Assign PP: SYS:pp

If Exists FreePascal:bin/m68k-amiga
  Path ADD FreePascal:bin/m68k-amiga
EndIf
;END FreePascal

i didnt tested the vmware based ide, so i cannot help here.

[MoRetro]

@emufan
Thanks, I used your User-Startup settings.
The windowstest file compile good.

@ALB42
I tried to compile the Mines.lpr but get a compile error: 'Can't find unit interface used by Mines.'
See attachment

All the best,

[emufan]

i now found Mines example and i have no clue what to do, i get the same error message

I have a similiar problem, with Snowflakes example.
it says it cannot find unit systemvartags.pas, so compile failes,
snoopdos lists, it actually found systemvartags.ppu.
in the same folder there is systemvartags.o too, but not systemvartags.pas.
any idea?

[ALB42]

uhh so many thngs going on here, sorry I'm not much around in this Forum so my answers are a little bit delayed.

@MoRetro
hmm no idea about VirtualBox. It's a 32Bit Machine, 1-2 GB Ram should be enough, network and so on I don't know.
Any particuallar reason to not use VMWare? I used VB before and found VMWare much more reliable and compatible, especially because I use Linux as host VirtualBox is REALLY Slow

About the missing "Interface" unit, that means that is a Lazarus/LCL application, not meant to be edited by the FP-Editor (Even possible of course). (That also means the Mines program can be compiled for Windows and Linux also, and look rather the same like: https://blog.alb42.de/2015/12/23/bring-it-together/ )
You need the path to the LCL units.
If you use the command line compiler it should work out of the Box

fpc Mines.lpr

if you also want to use the FP-Editor you have to add the path to LCL units to the searchpath of the Editor. Menu Options -> Directories Tab "Units"
add the two directories:

FreePascal:lcl
FreePascal:lcl/*

@emufan:
hmm that means it's a rather old source, systemvartags is obsolete and not needed anymore. (You could try to just comment it out, but I'm not sure if it will work then, many changes are made since this version)