Download Free Pascal 2.2.0

The developers of The Free Pascal Compiler have released a new version of the open source compiler Free Pascal in the form of 2.2.0. The new version is available from this page can be downloaded for many platforms and is made available under the gpl license. Free Pascal is able to compile patches of code from the development languages ​​(Turbo) Pascal and Delphi. The developers have once again implemented a large laundry list of changes. In addition, the necessary new features have been added, including support for the 64-bit versions of Windows and the GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS. The full changelog can be read below:

Free Pascal 2.2.0 contains a lot of bug fixes and new features. The work on Free Pascal 2.2.0 started halfway during the year 2005. A lot has been improved since then.

Platforms:

• New platform: Win64. FPC is the first open source compiler for 64-bit Windows operating systems.
• New processor architecture: 64-bit PowerPC
  • PowerPC/64 support for Linux
• Mac OS X on Intel (i386) is now supported
• New platform: Windows CE (Windows Mobile)
• New platform: Nintendo Game Boy Advance
• New platform: Nintendo DS
• Native support for ARM platform
• GO32V2 DOS platform got a long needed update

Compiler:

• Internal linker for win32, win64 and wince, resulting in smaller executables, less memory used during compilation, and faster compile times for programs using large frameworks like for example the Lazarus Component Library.
• Generics (experimental)
• Bit-packed arrays and records
• Resourcestrings can now be smartlinked, resulting in smaller executables
• Multiple resource files support
• pointer[low..high] syntax to pass C-style pointer arrays to procedures using open arrays
• Interface delegation
• Proper safe call implementation
• Wide strings are COM/OLE compatible on Windows
• Added several speed optimisations, for example:
  • Compiler can omit stack frames (x86 and ARM)
  • Compiler can store records in registries
  • Tail recursion expansion
  • Register Renaming Optimizations
• Improved optimizer for ARM CPU
• Compiler can initialize local variables, function results, and “out” parameters with several values ​​(command line parameters -gt till -gtttt) to help find uses of uninitialized variables
• Compiler can now properly deal with paths > 255 characters in all cases
• Dwarf debug format support
• Reduced memory usage during compilation
• Lot of small bugs and compatibility fixes

RTL:

• Heap uses less memory
• Improved variant support
• Improved currency support
• Exception handling can be used without SysUtils unit
• Lot of small bug and compatibility fixes

FCL:

• Improved database support
• The obsolete sqlitedataset, interbase, fpodbc, ddg, mysqldb3 and mysqldb4 units are removed
• Lot of small bugs and compatibility fixes

Packages:

• Added a new fppkg package manager
• Improved database support
• Added Delphi compatible RichEdit unit
• Apple universal interfaces updated to r204 of the common FPC/GPC/MW interfaces
• Lot of small bugs and compatibility fixes

FreeVision:

• Now uses resource strings

IDE:

• Evaluate window
• Improved HTML rendering
• Improved xterm support
• Minor bug fixes

Misc:

• Improved documentation
• Better cross compilation support

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