Cover image for Pascal Programming

Bek Brace

One small confession before we begin.

The first programming language I ever used was not Pascal. It was the built-in BASIC on the Atari 800XL home computer. At the time, in Egypt, that was what was available to many of us—mostly home computers imported from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, including the famous SAKHR Arabic computers.

Surprisingly, I wasn't introduced to Pascal until I was 39 years old.

Perhaps it was my own ignorance, or perhaps my attention had been captured by newer systems programming languages like Rust, Zig, and Odin. Whatever the reason, I now feel I discovered Pascal far later than I should have.

The more I write in Pascal, the more I appreciate its elegance. Its syntax is remarkably clean, easy to read, and easy to learn. In many ways, it almost reads like plain English—you feel as though you're simply having a conversation with the computer. That clarity is one of the reasons Pascal has remained a beloved teaching language for decades.

After spending some time reading about the language and its history, I found that the modern Pascal ecosystem can be summarized as follows:

1. Free Pascal Compiler (FPC)

This is the compiler I currently use. It is free, open source, and actively maintained. FPC supports Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, ARM, and many other platforms, making it one of the most versatile Pascal compilers available today.

2. Lazarus

Lazarus is the most popular free IDE for Free Pascal.

Think of it as the Pascal equivalent of Visual Studio for C# or Code::Blocks for C (although I'm not sure how many people still use Code::Blocks in 2026!). It provides a modern editor, debugger, project manager, visual form designer, and everything you need to build Pascal applications.

3. Delphi (Object Pascal)

Delphi is the commercial branch of Pascal and the direct successor to the legendary Turbo Pascal. It includes both an IDE and a compiler and is still widely used for developing professional desktop and business applications.

4. Turbo Pascal

The classic Borland compiler that introduced an entire generation to programming.

If you programmed during the DOS era, chances are you've seen its iconic blue IDE. It was famous for its incredibly fast compiler and became one of the most influential development environments of the 1980s and 1990s.

                    Pascal
                       │
        ┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
        │                             │
 Classic Pascal                 Object Pascal
        │                             │
        │                        Delphi
        │                           │
        │                           ├── VCL
        │                           └── FireMonkey
        │
        └─────────────┐
                      │
             Free Pascal (FPC)
                      │
          ┌───────────┴───────────┐
          │                       │
      Lazarus IDE          Castle Game Engine

Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

If you've ever been curious about Pascal, I've put together a short introductory video covering its history, the different Pascal ecosystems, and how to get started with Free Pascal and Lazarus.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and watch the video.

I'd also love to hear about your own experience. Did you learn Pascal at school or university? Was it your first programming language, or did you discover it later in your career? Share your memories in the comments!