I used to have a MacIntosh and would like to go back to programming in pascal. Can I do this on the Macbook.

Is it recommended ?

Thanks
grs

I'd say yes. Free Pascal works very well with Mac OS X. Here are instructions to install it:

http://www.freepascal.org/fpcmac.var

After installing Free Pascal, I'd recommend you to download the latest subversion Lazarus and then build the Carbon native Lazarus IDE. It's a native Mac IDE, and works very well. Instructions here:

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Carbon_Interface#Getting_a_.22carbonproof.22_Lazarus

There are also some snapshots available if you don't wish to build it yourself. Lazarus requires installing the fpc source, which is available in the Lazarus downloads page:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=89339

Note: I recommend installing only fpcsrc (and maybe fpc if not already installed) from the website above. Lazarus 0.9.24 for Mac OS X was released before the Carbon interface improved, and it's not native. With the current development of the Carbon interface I recommend that it be used instead.

Information about what is Lazarus and how it can be used can be found here:

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Overview_of_Free_Pascal_and_Lazarus

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Tutorial

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Documentation

Do you have a Intel or PowerPC machine? And what kind of software do you wish to develop?

If you wish to build software directly using the Mac OS X APIs instead of via Lazarus, it's also possible. Carbon interfaces are available and Cocoa bindings are being developed.

thanks,

If you haven't been around the Mac much lately, you might also like to know that there is another compiler, GNU Pascal, or GPC. Free Pascal is like Delphi and GPC is more compatible with ISO standards, but each accommodates several dialects. Also, there is an alternate IDE under development for the Mac called Lightweght Pascal, or LWP. I believe that it also uses Free Pascal and possibly also works with GPC. Finally, both FPC and GCP have plug-ins for Apple's IDE which is called Xcode.

Sign up for the Pascal Central list at http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/ listinfo/mac-pascal.

Jerry

Felipe,

Thank you for your reply.

Do you have a Intel or PowerPC machine? And what kind of software do you wish to develop?

I have not purchased the machine yet, looking at the MacBook with 4 meg of memory. I do not want to buy a laptop that runs Microsoft, trying to get away from them.

I am a developer and have two Solaris boxes and two windows boxes, this machine is just for my own enjoyment. I would like to program "personal" stuff while watching TV.

Just want to make sure I can use Java or Pascal (prefer Pascal) before I spend the 2,000 plus dollars.

Thanks again and anything else you wish to add I do appreciate it.

George

George R Smith wrote

I have not purchased the machine yet, looking at the MacBook with 4 meg of memory. I do not want to buy a laptop that runs Microsoft, trying to get away from them.

I presume you mean 4 GIGAbyte, otherwise you'll have a hard time enjoying it.

Just want to make sure I can use Java or Pascal (prefer Pascal) before I spend the 2,000 plus dollars.

I have PowerBook G4 (and since yesterday a new MacBook Pro), and program on it under Mac OS X in Pascal (mostly fpc), Python, and Java (and ocaasionally some other languages like Eiffel, ...).

For Pascal, you can also consider LWP (Light-Weight Pascal) at

<http://www.pascal-central.com/lwp/lightweight.html>

Have fun,

Tom

For java, this should be familiar to you :
http://developer.apple.com/java/

For Pascal, it seems that the terminal is already a closed friend and fpc works very well under Darwin.
Vim/Emacs are enough to make programs using fpc.
If you need an IDE, Lazarus (with the Carbon Interface) for OS X becomes to be good for working with it (and native Cocoa bindings are on the way)
Moreover, with a MacBook, you can use VMWare for emulating a Linux, SunOS (x86) or even Windows.

It is a delight for Cross-platform programs.

Tom Verhoeff wrote

For Pascal, you can also consider LWP (Light-Weight Pascal) at <http://www.pascal-central.com/lwp/lightweight.html>

Thanks! The link to the real home page is, however:

http://www.ragnemalm.se/lightweight

Richard Ward wrote

>Just want to make sure I can use Java or Pascal (prefer Pascal)

before I spend the 2,000 plus dollars.

Just to follow up a bit more. The Mac IDE from Ingemar will run on Core Duo and PPC processors. There were some issues other people had on OS 10.5 (Leopard) but he released a fix or work around for that.

It works fairly well, but the Tiger-only version is so far a bit more stable.
The problem might go away in some Leopard update (because the problem is simply a bug in Leopard).

Although the main information page at the site link I provided says it has limited support for JAVA, later updates have stated that it has full support.

No, not full Java support yet. No error parsing or application bundle building
for Java like it has for Pascal and C. Not yet, that is. Today, you can build
and run Java command-line applications and that's all. I personally consider GPC or Ada support more interesting than Java. There are more Java users but I
prefer spending my time on languages that I like and consider using.

It appears to have good support for C as well.

Yes, the C/C++/ObjC support is as complete as for Pascal.

if you decide to use x-code or LW - IDE, you should be able to use Free Pascal or GPC without much problem (besides the complexity of using x-code itself). Basically, Apple bundles x-code and their Cocoa and Carbon development libraries for free with the OS.

GPC is not yet tested with Lightweight IDE. I can't imagine that the FPC and GPC compilers are so close that they can share the same error parser and compilation lines. So there are a few details that I expect to fix for GPC, not much, but a few things.

/Ingemar