Editing Virtual Pascal

{{Short description|Free 32-bit Pascal compiler, IDE, and debugger for OS/2 and Microsoft Windows}}
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{{Notability|Products|date=April 2021}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2012}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2012}}
{{infobox software
| logo = 
| screenshot = 
| caption = 
| author = Vitaly Miryanov
| developer = Allan Mertner
| released = {{Start date and age|1995}}<ref name=vpdeath>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051229123611/http://www.vpascal.com/news.php Virtual Pascal: News] Mon Apr 4, 2005 – 01:21:43 – "Virtual Pascal has died" I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I am sad to report that Virtual Pascal has died a quiet death. It was born in 1995, and died in 2005 at the ripe old age (for software) of 10 years."</ref>
| latest release version = 2.1.279
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2004|05|13}}
| programming language = [[Object Pascal]], [[assembly language]]
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[OS/2]], [[Linux]]
| platform = [[IA-32]]
| genre = [[Compiler]], [[integrated development environment]]
| license = [[Freeware]] (Windows, OS/2 2.0 or later, Linux)
| website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20060612225238/http://www.vpascal.com/ vpascal.com (archived)], [http://vpascal.ning.com/ Online community]
}}
'''Virtual Pascal''' is a [[freeware]] [[32-bit computing|32-bit]] [[Pascal (programming language)|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.

==Features==
The compiler is compatible with [[Turbo Pascal]], [[Borland]] [[Delphi (software)|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:
* Easily port existing 16-bit [[Turbo Pascal]] programs to 32 bits 
* Port existing [[16-bit computing|16-bit]] [[Object Windows Library]] (OWL) programs to 32-bit Windows (in theory)
* Write console (text-mode) programs for several platforms
* Pascal development using the 32-bit [[Windows API]] (the classic development, no COM)
* Learn [[object-oriented programming]]

Significant features of Virtual Pascal include:
* Text-mode IDE
* Debugger is integrated directly into the IDE and is reminiscent of [[Turbo Debugger]]
* Fast compiling
* Tool-chain written mostly in [[x86 assembly language]]

==History==
===Microsoft Windows, OS/2===
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 (programming language)|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:
* The compiler [[source code]] is mostly written in [[x86 assembly language]] which is hard to change and maintain.
* Part of the [[run-time library]] is proprietary to [[Borland]] (The Free Pascal run-time library was ported to VirtualPascal by Noah Silva, however newer versions of the Free Pascal RTL use features of the Free Pascal compiler which are unsupported by VirtualPascal, and so cannot be ported). 
* The patch/diff tool to work around the above (provide changes to proprietary without distributing parts of the original) was proprietary and (Windows) 16-bit only.
* Documentation and help are maintained with expensive (and sometimes no longer available) proprietary tools
* There is nobody who fully understands the code. Allan said that some of the deeper areas were no-touch for him (original code by Vitaly)

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.<ref name=vpdeath/>

On 4&nbsp;Apr 2005, Virtual Pascal was announced 'dead' on the official site. The last released version (2.1 Build&nbsp;279) was announced on 13&nbsp;May 2004.<ref name=vpdeath/>

===Linux===
An initial version was released on 4&nbsp;July 1999, with the last known version released on 26&nbsp;September 1999. This version was maintained by Jörg Pleumann. Run-Time Library to 32-bit DPMI.

== See also ==
*[[Free Pascal]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*fPrint (UK) Ltd page: [https://web.archive.org/web/19990202113826/http://www.fprint.co.uk/products/virtual_pascal/ OS/2, Windows 95/98/NT]
*Jörg Pleumann page: [https://web.archive.org/web/20030202233413/http://www.trantor.de/joerg.pleumann/ Virtual Pascal for Linux]
*[http://vpascal.ning.com/ Community set up by the author of Virtual Pascal]
*[http://softpedia.com/get/Programming/Coding-languages-Compilers/Virtual-Pascal.shtml Download site that has the last version]

{{Pascal programming language family}}

[[Category:Pascal (programming language) compilers]]
[[Category:Freeware]]
[[Category:Assembly language software]]
[[Category:Pascal (programming language) software]]
[[Category:1995 software]]
[[Category:Products and services discontinued in 2005]]
[[Category:Linux integrated development environments]]