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Mailing lists / fpc-pascal / 2019-05

Bootstrapping the compiler...

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Kevin Lyda

Is the current (3.0.4) fpc compiler required to build the compiler or is there a way to bootstrap a compiler?

Kevin

Kevin Lyda Galway, Ireland

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Jonas Maebe
to Kevin Lyda
Kevin Lyda wrote
Is the current (3.0.4) fpc compiler required to build the compiler or is there a way to bootstrap a compiler?

An FPC release can always be built by the previously released FPC version, and FPC trunk can always be built by the current release.

While very old FPC versions could be compiled by Turbo Pascal (and at some point also by Delphi, I think), current FPC versions can only be compiled by FPC itself.

Jonas

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Kevin Lyda
to Jonas Maebe

So there's no minimal C version of the compiler? Interesting. So to build trunk I need the new compiler installed first. I thought there might be a trick to avoid that.

And by Turbo Pascal, I assume you don't mean 3.01a!

Kevin

PM Jonas Maebe wrote 17 lines
On 18/05/2019 15:09, Kevin Lyda wrote: > Is the current (3.0.4) fpc compiler required to build the compiler or > is there a way to bootstrap a compiler? An FPC release can always be built by the previously released FPC version, and FPC trunk can always be built by the current release. While very old FPC versions could be compiled by Turbo Pascal (and at some point also by Delphi, I think), current FPC versions can only be compiled by FPC itself. Jonas _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - http://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
Kevin Lyda Galway, Ireland

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Jonas Maebe
to Kevin Lyda
Kevin Lyda wrote
So there's no minimal C version of the compiler?

No, since the initial version of the compiler was already written in Pascal. The compiler can be easily cross-compiled if necessary (it does not depend on any system libraries), so a (minimal or not) C version of the compiler would mainly result in a lot of extra maintenance work with few benefits.

And by Turbo Pascal, I assume you don't mean 3.01a!

It was indeed Turbo Pascal 7. And soon even Borland Pascal 7, because DOS real mode did not provide enough memory.

Jonas

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