Free Pascal Compiler 2.0 released

Hello,


The Free Pascal development team is pleased to announce the
availability of version 2.0.0 of the Free Pascal Compiler. This is the
new stable version of the compiler and is the first stable release of
the development branch of the compiler started back in 2000. OSNews
(http://www.osnews.com) will be publishing an article today that will
describe the new compiler in detail.


Versions numbered 1.0.X and 1.9.Y are now considered obsolete and will no
longer be maintained.


What is Free Pascal ?
=====================


Free Pascal is a compiler for 32-bit and 64-bit CPU architectures such
as Intel 32/64 bit, AMD 32/64 bit, SPARC, PowerPC and Intel ARM. It
is language compatible to Turbo Pascal, Delphi (till version 7), and
partly Metrowerks Pascal. It supports many operating systems: Dos,
Linux, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, Novell Netware, Mac
OS classic, Mac OS X and MorphOS.


It comes with a cross-platform Run-Time Library, many interfaces to
existing libraries, and a large set of non-visual classes in the Free
Component Library. Last but not least, a text-mode IDE exists on
various platforms, and FPC comes with 1800 pages of documentation.


The compiler is licensed under the GNU General Public License. The
Run-Time code is licensed under a modified version of the Library
General Public License, which allows to use it in a commercial
application.


What is new when compared to version 1.0 ?
==========================================


- More supported CPUs:
    AMD64, SPARC, PPC (32 bit), ARM.
- More supported platforms:
    Mac OS classic, Mac OS X, MorphOS, Novell Netware.
- Improved inlining
- Improved register variables
- Improved 80x86 assembler optimizer
- Threading support.
- Rudimentary variant support.
- Interfaces support.
- WideString support.
- More Delphi compatibility units.
- Greatly improved database access.
- New compiler mode:
    MACPAS for compatibility with Pascal compilers on Mac OS.
- Complete documentation of RTL units, generated using a new documentation
    tool, included in the distribution: fpdoc
- Completely rewritten Unix support.
- Completely rewritten compiler, allowing for easier ports to new
    architectures.
- IDE
- Free Vision text-mode windowing system.
- Many new packages.
- And of course, Numerous bugfixes.


The complete list of changes can be found in the whatsnew.txt file included
in the distribution.


Where can it be downloaded ?
============================


The main download site is
http://www.freepascal.org/sdown.html


Here, you can select a mirror close to you. Please select a mirror, as the
main server is heavily loaded, but allow some time for the mirrors to be
up-to-date.


Installation packages are already available for
- Windows (with installer)
- Linux (Intel x86, AMD64, Sparc, PPC, ARM) : tar.gz and .rpm
- FreeBSD (Intel x86)
- OS/2
- Mac OS X (PPC)
- Mac OS Classic (PPC)
- Netware (Intel x86, native and libc)
Others will follow soon.


What is planned for the future ?
================================


- Fix more bugs.
- Support for dynamic libraries and run-time packages.
- Support for DispInterface (OLE binding on Windows).
- Improved optimizations.
- Improved threading.
- Internal assemblers/linker in the compiler.
- More platforms.
- Better Delphi compatibility.
- Even more documentation.


Enjoy !

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