From: J DOT J DOT vanderHeijden AT student DOT utwente DOT nl (J.J. van der Heijden)
To: djgpp-announce AT delorie DOT com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal.misc,comp.lang.pascal.borland,comp.lang.pascal.ansi-iso,gnu.gcc.announce
Subject: ANNOUNCE: GNU Pascal 2.0 (2.7.2.1)
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 10:25:30 GMT
Keywords: GNU,Pascal,Free Software,FreeWare
Message-Id: <32b12cac.763542@news.student.utwente.nl>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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  This is the announcement of version 2.0 of

      GNU Pascal 

  corresponding to GCC version 2.7.2.1.


  What is GNU Pascal?
  ===================

  GNU Pascal is, as the name says, the Pascal compiler from the
  GNU compiler family.  This means:

   - 32 bit compiler, no limits, highly optimizing,
   - runs on all operating systems supported by GCC (including DOS,
     Win95/NT, OS/2, Linux, FreeBSD, many other Unix dialects),
   - Free Software according to the GNU General Public License,
   - compatible to other GNU languages and tools such as
     GNU C and the GNU debugger.

  The compiler integrates the following language standards:

   - ISO 7185 Standard Pascal,
   - ISO 10206 Extended Pascal    (90% implemented),
   - Borland Pascal               (80% compatible).

  Some highlights:

   - From Extended Pascal: complex numbers, initialized variables,
     structured function return values, modules,
   - from Borland Pascal: inc, dec, shl, shr, absolute variables,
     units, objects,
   - GNU extensions: min, max,
     (PXSC-style) user-definable operators.

  Disadvantages:

   - Pascal support in integrated development environments (RHIDE
     for DOS/DJGPP, (X)WPE for Unix) is still beta,
   - the GNU debugger (gdb) does not yet understand Pascal syntax
     and types,
   - few standard libraries (can use C standard libraries instead),
   - longer compilation times than with e.g. Borland Pascal.


  New features in version 2.0
  ===========================

   - Borland extensions are integrated into the 
     main distribution line.
   - Easier to compile.
   - Texinfo online documentation (available as HTML, too).
   - Precompiled Module/Unit interfaces.
   - Automatic `make' facility.
   - Some bugs fixed.  "Export foo = all" extension.
     Machine attributes.  Etc.


  Where to obtain GNU Pascal
  ==========================

  The master ftp site for GNU Pascal is kampi.hut.fi.  The source of
  the compiler, binary distributions for certain platforms and other
  GNU Pascal related files can be found in

      ftp://kampi.hut.fi/jtv/gnu-pascal/ .

  This site is mirrored on

      ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/gnu/pascal/ .


  Other sources of information
  ============================

  More about GNU Pascal can be found in our WWW home page,

      http://home.pages.de/~GNU-Pascal/ .

  If you have problems to access this, try

      http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~gnu-pascal/ .

  That page contains the GNU Pascal FAQ list and an online version
  of the complete documentation.

  If you have questions or want to discuss about GNU Pascal, please 
  join the GNU Pascal mailing list by writing to

      gpc-request AT hut DOT fi .

  The address of the list itself is

      gpc AT hut DOT fi .

  --------

  Follow-ups will be directed to comp.lang.pascal.misc.

  Enjoy,

     The GNU Pascal Development Team

                                                       Jukka Virtanen
                                                      Peter Gerwinski
                                             Jan-Jaap van der Heijden