On 3 Mar 2004 at 10:11, Prof. Harley Flanders wrote:

Hello

O/S: Windows XP

I would like to get started with GNU PAscal.

What must I download to have a Pascal compiler, and possibly an IDE?

The download instruction on the GNU site are not too clear. Must I download the source code for the Pascal complier, and then download a C (or other compiler) to compile the Pascal compiler?

Or can I (hopefully) get the latest Pascal compiler ready to run?

There are a few Windows versions of GPC, based on a number of different environments: a. Mingw b. Cygwin c. MSYS

For each one, you will need some gnu tools and libraries, etc. The Mingw compiler produces native Windows applications that require no other runtime dlls. The Cygwin and MSYS compilers produce applications that require either the Cygwin dll or the MSYS dll to run. These dlls provide POSIX emulation under Windows.

If you don't need any POSIX stuff, then you should go for the Mingw- based compiler (check here: http://gnu-pascal.de/contrib/chief/win32/mingw32/). If you want to live at the bleeding edge, I would recommend that you download "gpc-20030830-gcc-3.2.3.i386-pc-mingw32.tar.gz". For this, you will also need the Mingw runtimes and libraries, etc (and gcc 3.2.3 for Mingw), all of which you can get from the Mingw website (www.mingw.org)

If you a compiler which comes packaged with everything you need, you should get this: http://www.gnu-pascal.de/contrib/chief/win32/dev_gnu_pascal-1.9.2.exe

It is an older version of the compiler - but it is the "official" GPC 2.1 release for Mingw. It also comes with a (sort of) functional IDE, and all the necessary runtimes and gcc support files.

Details about the Cygwin and MSYS versions can be found here: http://gnu-pascal.de/contrib/chief/

I would however recommend the Mingw version.

Best regards, The Chief -------- Prof. Abimbola A. Olowofoyeku (The African Chief) web: http://www.bigfoot.com/~african_chief/