1.2 About the compiler

• dos
• linux
• Amiga (version 0.99.5 only)
• Windows
• os/2 (optionally using the EMX package, so it also works on DOS/Windows)
• FreeBSD
• BeOS (under development)
• Solaris (under development)
• PalmOS (under development)
• NetBSD
• Netware
• OpenBSD (under development)

Free Pascal is designed to be, as much as possible, source compatible with Turbo Pascal 7.0 and Delphi 7 (although this goal is not yet attained), but it also enhances these languages with elements like operator overloading. And, unlike these ancestors, it supports multiple platforms.

It also diers from them in the sense that you cannot use compiled units from one system for the other, i.e. you cannot use TP compiled units.

Also, at the time of writing, there is a beta version of an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) available for Free Pascal.

Free Pascal consists of several parts :

1. The compiler program itself.
2. The Run-Time Library (RTL).
3. The packages. This is a collection of many utility units, ranging from the whole Windows 32 API, through native ZIP/BZIP le handling to the whole GTK-2 interface.
4. The Free Class Library. This is a set of class-based utility units which give a database framework, image support, web support, XML support and many many more.
5. Utility programs and units.

Of these you only need the rst two, in order to be able to use the compiler. In this document, we describe the use of the compiler. The RTL is described in the Reference guide.