C to Pascal
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One of the weaknesses of Pascal compared to the C language, is a lower number of existing libraries. The reason for that is the much greater popularity of the C language compared to Pascal. Rather than rewrite the existing C libraries in Pascal, an easier alternative is to use the C libraries from Pascal.
While Pascal is a high-level language, it's also "low-level" enough to interact with the very basic API functions used by the C language. Thus, using existing C-based libraries in Pascal programs is a common practice. Also, most of the popular operating systems and low-level APIs are written in and designed to be used by the C language.
Each C language library comes with header files and binaries (static and/or dynamic library file(s)). In order to use the library, the header files need to be converted to Pascal and the binaries must be linked with the Pascal program. While usage of the library is resolved by the linker at compile time (static linking) or at runtime by the OS (dynamic linking), the task of converting a C header file to Pascal is the job of the programmer. However, there have been many utilities written in order to automate or semi-automate the task.
Problems and solutions are explained in these good articles:
- Creating bindings for C libraries
- Common problems when converting C header files
- Pascal for C users
- Pitfalls of converting
C to Pascal conversion tools and libraries
Name
Notes
Headers
Source
Precompiler
C++
ObjC
Interface
FPC team official yylex-based tool to convert C-headers to Pascal. Issues could be reported on Mantis.
Yes
No
somewhat
command line or H2Paswizard
Freeware, but closed source solution
Yes
Yes
command line
Rudy's Conversion Helper Package
On the site a lot of useful information can be found.
This tool will convert most of your standard C code. It contains a split view, with C on the left and Delphi on the right. The Delphi code gets updated in real time when you edit the C code. The editors are kept in sync, so you can easily find how a specific piece of code was converted.
Yes
Yes
No
No
GUI
Chet uses the Clang compiler to parse header files, resulting in more accurate translations that require fewer manual adjustments.
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
GUI
The project started as ObjC converter, thus it does understand ObjC notation. Though development is stalled a few years ago
Yes
No
somewhat - no expressions
No
Yes
command line, GUI as Lazarus Plugin
The original author is Hans-Peter Diettrich
The latest one and new implementation by Dr Diettrich
Yes
GUI
Yes
Yes
GUI
Objective Pascal Framework Parser
PHP written tool is used by FPC team for Cocoa and iOS bindings. Was designed to handle ObjC specifically
Yes
No
OSX versions only
No
Yes
command line
Non pascal based solution; aimed at generating bindings for C++
Yes
Yes
Yes
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There might be much more found online (please add them to this list).
From the Free Pascal wiki, page "C to Pascal", as it stood on 2022-04-19 after a change by E-ric, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's Licensing page. If you have concerns about this material, message the admin.
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