Public

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The modifier public:

• is part of the programming of subroutines;
• makes a subroutine public within the unit;
• makes sense if the subroutine is not used outside the unit.

As long as the subroutine has not been declared in the interface section of the unit, it is not visible to other units.
However, it will be possible to access the function subTest at the assembly-language level, by using its mangled name.

function subTest : string; Public;
  begin
    subTest := 'abc';
  end;

In the old syntax, the modifier Public was surrounded by square brackets: [Public], but the upcoming atrributes syntax uses square brackets as well, so better not to use them for this modifier.\

The public modifier can also be followed by a name directive to specify the assembler name, as follows:

function subTest : string; Public name 'subtest';
  begin
    subTest := 'abc';
  end;

The assembler symbol as specified by the ’public name’ directive will be ’subtest’, in all lowercase letters.

From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Public", as it stood on 2022-08-06 after a change by Kai Burghardt, 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.