Turbo Pascal 1.0

Information

  • INFORMATION OS DOS
  • DATE Release xxxx/xx/xx
  • BUG Beta name -unknown-
  • NOTE Compiler Pascal DOS
  • DISK Medium 1 Disk?

Description

The Turbo Pascal compiler was based on the Blue Label Pascal compiler originally produced for the NasSys cassette-based operating system of the Nascom microcomputer in 1981 by Anders Hejlsberg. Borland licensed Hejlsberg's “PolyPascal” compiler core (Poly Data was the name of Hejlsberg's company in Denmark), and added the user interface and editor. Anders Hejlsberg joined the company as an employee and was the architect for all versions of the Turbo Pascal compiler and the first three versions of Borland Delphi.

The compiler was first released as Compas Pascal[citation needed] for CP/M, and then released on November 20, 1983 as Turbo Pascal for MS-DOS, CP/M-86 and CP/M machines (e.g. the DEC Rainbow and Apple II computers fitted with Z-80 SoftCards). On its debut in the United States market, Turbo Pascal retailed for USD$49.99. The integrated Pascal compiler was of very good quality compared to other Pascal products of the time and above all was affordable.

The Turbo name alluded to its compilation speed as well as the speed of the executables it produced. The edit/compile/run cycle was fast compared to other Pascal implementations because everything related to building the program was stored in RAM, and because it was a one-pass compiler, that was written in assembly language. Compilation was very quick compared to that for other languages (even Borland's own later compilers for C), and programmer time was also saved since the program could be compiled and run from the IDE. The speed of these COM executable files was a revelation for developers whose only previous experience programming microcomputers was with interpreted BASIC or UCSD Pascal, which compiled to p-code.

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