Hi everyone,

Years ago (mid 80s - early 90s), I used to be a fairly proficient Pascal programmer using Turbo Pascal under DOS and CP/M (on Apple w/z80 Softcard and Microbee), and have written a number of applications, including a Morse tutor, which was initially written under DOS, but ported to the Microbee with the help of a friend who owned one for the assembly code required to implement sound and timing on that platform.

I haven't written any Pascal for about 25 years, though I did dabble in Java several years ago and am often scripting in BASH. Anyway, I've got a few small projects that could do with some code and after discovering Free Pascal, I figured it would be easier to relearn Pascal than learn something new to me such as C. Things have changed though since those days! :)

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged my memory.


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19 Oct 16 08:34, you wrote to All:

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged
my memory.

what kinds of resources??

)\/(ark

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mark lewis wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged
my memory.

what kinds of resources??

Tutorials, references, etc, suitable for someone with previous (Turbo) Pascal experience. Not so keen on videos though.


... I wrote my own benchmark. My machine is now 500GHz.
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Hi everyone,

Years ago (mid 80s - early 90s), I used to be a fairly proficient Pascal programmer using Turbo Pascal under DOS and CP/M (on Apple w/z80 Softcard and Microbee), and have written a number of applications, including a Morse tutor, which was initially written under DOS, but ported to the Microbee with the help of a friend who owned one for the assembly code required to implement sound and timing on that platform.

I haven't written any Pascal for about 25 years, though I did dabble in Java several years ago and am often scripting in BASH. Anyway, I've got a few small projects that could do with some code and after discovering Free Pascal, I figured it would be easier to relearn Pascal than learn something new to me such as C. Things have changed though since those days! :)

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged my memory.


... My hard disk is full! Maybe I'll try this message section thing.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
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19 Oct 16 08:34, you wrote to All:

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged
my memory.

what kinds of resources??

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
... Metaphors be with you...
---
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mark lewis wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged
my memory.

what kinds of resources??

Tutorials, references, etc, suitable for someone with previous (Turbo) Pascal experience. Not so keen on videos though.


... I wrote my own benchmark. My machine is now 500GHz.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
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20 Oct 16 13:49, you wrote to me:

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already
found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged
my memory.

what kinds of resources??

Tutorials, references, etc, suitable for someone with previous (Turbo) Pascal experience. Not so keen on videos though.

yeah, screw videos... ummm... the FPC guys will say that most Delphi related books are ok... some few things might be different but for the most part, they're ""the same""... also, one of the guys on either the FPC or Lazarus teams wrote a book which is available but i don't know where or for how much...
i pull the three FPC and Lazarus related mailing lists... there's also a forum but i can't stand its interface... the mailing list works great for me and that's where i get most of my help when i need it...

Lazarus is a RAD environment but it is also a good editor environment, too... help is available from within the editor just like in the TP/BP days... i still
do a lot of procedural coding with some little bits of OOP stuffs... i haven't done anything at all with Lazarus' RAD capabilities other than a few experimental things from some document or other i found...


as an aside, i'm looking for mark may's mksrcmsg libraries converted to FPC... i'm not looking very hard but i do have several projects that would really benefit from being recompiled with the updated code and being 32bit or 64bit instead of 16bit... if you don't remember mark's code, it is the OOP library for accessing JAM, MSG, SQUish, HMB and old EZYcom message bases... i think there's also some QWK stuff available but that's probably in the sources he released of his Mythical Kingdom BBS package...

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
... People should marry for life, like pigeons and Catholics.
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mark lewis wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

yeah, screw videos... ummm... the FPC guys will say that most Delphi related books are ok... some few things might be different but for the most part, they're ""the same""... also, one of the guys on either the
FPC or Lazarus teams wrote a book which is available but i don't know where or for how much... i pull the three FPC and Lazarus related
mailing lists... there's also a forum but i can't stand its
interface... the mailing list works great for me and that's where i get most of my help when i need it...

Ahh, OK. Seems we work in similar ways. Mailing lists are good. Yeah, forums suck, and mostly due to interface and network lag issues. A real retrograde step in my opinion - BBSs do standalone messaging systems so much more efficiently. I'll have to check out the lists.

Lazarus is a RAD environment but it is also a good editor environment, too... help is available from within the editor just like in the TP/BP days... i still do a lot of procedural coding with some little bits of
OOP stuffs... i haven't done anything at all with Lazarus' RAD capabilities other than a few experimental things from some document or other i found...

Dabbling with Lazarus, it felt a bit TP like, brought back some old memories. :) Looks like it's worth a bit of time playing. I've dabbled in a little OOP, mostly Java several years ago, when I was working on a project that used Java libraries, otherwise my coding has been procedural too.

as an aside, i'm looking for mark may's mksrcmsg libraries converted to FPC... i'm not looking very hard but i do have several projects that
would really benefit from being recompiled with the updated code and
being 32bit or 64bit instead of 16bit... if you don't remember mark's code, it is the OOP library for accessing JAM, MSG, SQUish, HMB and old EZYcom message bases... i think there's also some QWK stuff available
but that's probably in the sources he released of his Mythical Kingdom
BBS package...

Not familiar with those, but they sound rather interesting. I saw very little source in the heyday of my BBSing, unfortunately. :( My BBSing days were also not long after the point in time when I decided to stay away from programming, other than for uni assignments and the occasional small project. One of my last of those small projects was a Morse code tutor (because in those days, I had no other way to obtain one!), which I later ported to run on the Microbee (an Australian Z80 CP/M machine). All of the code, excepr for the timing and sound routines ported fine into TP on CP/M. I had to work with a friend to write custom functions to replace the inbuilt ones in the DOS version of TP. Those functions were written in assembler, and getting the timing loops right was an interesting exercise. :)


... Buy only cured hams, the sick ones are not good for you.
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On 10/19/16, Tony Langdon said the following...

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged my memory.

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due to the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to make it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

|08 .|05·|13∙|15Dr|07e|08am Ma|07st|15er|13∙|05·|08.
|08 °∙|05·|13∙° |13°∙|05·|08∙°
|11 DoRE|03!|11ACiDiC|03!|11Demonic |08[|15dreamland|09.|15darktech|09.|15org|08]

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* Origin: --[!dreamland BBS dreamland.darktech.org (1:218/530)

Tony Master wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due to the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to make
it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

I've never used VP, but used to be very familiar with TP. Unfortunately, it's been decades and most of my Pascal code is loat at this stage.


... What?! I'm missing Star Tre$#%$^ NO CARRIER
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On 10/21/16, Tony Langdon said the following...

Tony Master wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to mak it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

I've never used VP, but used to be very familiar with TP.
Unfortunately, it's been decades and most of my Pascal code is loat at this stage.

VP and TP are quite similar in a lot of aspects.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
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On 10/21/16, Tony Langdon said the following...

Tony Master wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to mak it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

I've never used VP, but used to be very familiar with TP.
Unfortunately, it's been decades and most of my Pascal code is loat at this stage.

VP and TP are quite similar in a lot of aspects.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: Neptune's Lair (1:116/18)

On 10/21/16, Tony Langdon said the following...

I've never used VP, but used to be very familiar with TP.
Unfortunately, it's been decades and most of my Pascal code is loat at this stage.

just a regular integer is not a long integer and other things. jezebel is compile in vp with d32 from g00r00 and the last version is 2.5 if i could
port it to fpc that would take time that i dont have right now sadly im doing my first rpg in mpl

|08 .|05·|13∙|15Dr|07e|08am Ma|07st|15er|13∙|05·|08.
|08 °∙|05·|13∙° |13°∙|05·|08∙°
|11 DoRE|03!|11ACiDiC|03!|11Demonic |08[|15dreamland|09.|15darktech|09.|15org|08]

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: --[!dreamland BBS dreamland.darktech.org (1:218/530)

Robert Wolfe wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

VP and TP are quite similar in a lot of aspects.

Ahh OK, thanks for the info. :)


... An experiment in Artificial Stupidity.
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Tony Master wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

just a regular integer is not a long integer and other things. jezebel
is compile in vp with d32 from g00r00 and the last version is 2.5 if i could port it to fpc that would take time that i dont have right now
sadly im doing my first rpg in mpl

Well, I'll see what happens when I start writing code again. :)


... Fear is no great respecter of reason.
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On 2016-10-20 05:49 AM, Tony Langdon wrote:

mark lewis wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged
my memory.

what kinds of resources??

Tutorials, references, etc, suitable for someone with previous (Turbo) Pascal experience. Not so keen on videos though.

... I wrote my own benchmark. My machine is now 500GHz.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
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I feel the same. Videos don't really do it for me. It depends. But for
the most part they do not do it for me.
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On 2016-10-20 05:49 AM, Tony Langdon wrote:

mark lewis wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged
my memory.

what kinds of resources??

Tutorials, references, etc, suitable for someone with previous (Turbo) Pascal experience. Not so keen on videos though.

... I wrote my own benchmark. My machine is now 500GHz.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
* Origin: Freeway BBS - freeway.apana.org.au (3:633/410)

I feel the same. Videos don't really do it for me. It depends. But for
the most part they do not do it for me.
--- SBBSecho 2.33-Linux
* Origin: DarkAges BBS 1:19/25 - darkagesbbs.com Wayne, OK (1:19/25)

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On 2016-10-20 11:28 PM, Tony Master wrote:

On 10/19/16, Tony Langdon said the following...

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged my memory.

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due to the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to make it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

|08 .|05�|13�|15Dr|07e|08am Ma|07st|15er|13�|05�|08.
|08 ��|05�|13�� |13��|05�|08��
|11 DoRE|03!|11ACiDiC|03!|11Demonic |08[|15dreamland|09.|15darktech|09.|15org|08]

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: --[!dreamland BBS dreamland.darktech.org (1:218/530)

What's `vp`?
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On 2016-10-20 11:28 PM, Tony Master wrote:

On 10/19/16, Tony Langdon said the following...

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged my memory.

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due to the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to make it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

|08 .|05�|13�|15Dr|07e|08am Ma|07st|15er|13�|05�|08.
|08 ��|05�|13�� |13��|05�|08��
|11 DoRE|03!|11ACiDiC|03!|11Demonic |08[|15dreamland|09.|15darktech|09.|15org|08]

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: --[!dreamland BBS dreamland.darktech.org (1:218/530)

What's `vp`?
--- SBBSecho 2.33-Linux
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18 Nov 16 10:15, you wrote to Tony Master:

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due to
the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to make
it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

What's `vp`?

virtual pascal...

PS: please trim unnecessary crap from your responses ;)

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
... My opinions are my own; mistakes are the computer's fault.
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On 2016-11-19 04:59 AM, mark lewis wrote:

18 Nov 16 10:15, you wrote to Tony Master:

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due to
the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to make
it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

What's `vp`?

virtual pascal...

PS: please trim unnecessary crap from your responses ;)

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin'

it

wrong...
... My opinions are my own; mistakes are the computer's fault.
---
* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)

Unecessary crap?
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19 Nov 16 11:03, you wrote to me:

On 2016-11-19 04:59 AM, mark lewis wrote:

18 Nov 16 10:15, you wrote to Tony Master:

fpc has taken over where vp has left off. im still playing in vp due

to

the code to some door games is compiled in it and i would like to

make

it fpc but fpc is still greek to me too

What's `vp`?

virtual pascal...

PS: please trim unnecessary crap from your responses ;)

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer
doin' it wrong...
... My opinions are my own; mistakes are the computer's fault.
---
* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)

Unecessary crap?
--- SBBSecho 3.00-Linux
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yeah... quote headers, irrelevent text not being commented on, trailing irrelevent signature blocks, tag lines, tear lines and origin lines, etc... like i've left above to demonstrate...

in other words, please use proper netiquette and trim irrelevent material from quoted material in replies ;)

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
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On 11/19/16, Tristan B. Kildaire said the following...

Unecessary crap?

Everything that doesn't pertain to the discussion at hand. It's easier to
read when all the other stuff (taglines, origins, 90% of the message, etc...

-=>Richard Miles<=-
-=>Captain Obvious<=-
-=>bbs.shadowscope.com<=-

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Hi everyone,

Years ago (mid 80s - early 90s), I used to be a fairly proficient Pascal >programmer using Turbo Pascal under DOS and CP/M (on Apple w/z80 Softcard and >Microbee), and have written a number of applications, including a Morse tutor, >which was initially written under DOS, but ported to the Microbee with the help
of a friend who owned one for the assembly code required to implement sound and
timing on that platform.

I haven't written any Pascal for about 25 years, though I did dabble in Java >several years ago and am often scripting in BASH. Anyway, I've got a few small
projects that could do with some code and after discovering Free Pascal, I >figured it would be easier to relearn Pascal than learn something new to me >such as C. Things have changed though since those days! :)

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found >some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged my memory.

... My hard disk is full! Maybe I'll try this message section thing.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
* Origin: Freeway BBS - freeway.apana.org.au (3:633/410)

Java is nice.
--- SBBSecho 3.00-Linux
* Origin: Electronic Warfare BBS | telnet:\\bbs.ewbbs.net (1:227/201)

Hi everyone,

Years ago (mid 80s - early 90s), I used to be a fairly proficient Pascal >programmer using Turbo Pascal under DOS and CP/M (on Apple w/z80 Softcard and >Microbee), and have written a number of applications, including a Morse tutor, >which was initially written under DOS, but ported to the Microbee with the help
of a friend who owned one for the assembly code required to implement sound and
timing on that platform.

I haven't written any Pascal for about 25 years, though I did dabble in Java >several years ago and am often scripting in BASH. Anyway, I've got a few small
projects that could do with some code and after discovering Free Pascal, I >figured it would be easier to relearn Pascal than learn something new to me >such as C. Things have changed though since those days! :)

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already found >some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged my memory.

... My hard disk is full! Maybe I'll try this message section thing.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
* Origin: Freeway BBS - freeway.apana.org.au (3:633/410)

I'd suggest stick with Pascal then. via fpc.
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20 Oct 16 13:49, you wrote to me:

Any suggestions for resources would be welcome, though I have already TL>> found some good information on the Free Pascal wiki, which has jogged TL>> my memory.

what kinds of resources??

Tutorials, references, etc, suitable for someone with previous (Turbo) Pascal experience. Not so keen on videos though.

yeah, screw videos... ummm... the FPC guys will say that most Delphi related >books are ok... some few things might be different but for the most part, >they're ""the same""... also, one of the guys on either the FPC or Lazarus >teams wrote a book which is available but i don't know where or for how much...
i pull the three FPC and Lazarus related mailing lists... there's also a forum

but i can't stand its interface... the mailing list works great for me and >that's where i get most of my help when i need it...

Lazarus is a RAD environment but it is also a good editor environment, too... >help is available from within the editor just like in the TP/BP days... i still
do a lot of procedural coding with some little bits of OOP stuffs... i haven't

done anything at all with Lazarus' RAD capabilities other than a few >experimental things from some document or other i found...

as an aside, i'm looking for mark may's mksrcmsg libraries converted to FPC...

i'm not looking very hard but i do have several projects that would really >benefit from being recompiled with the updated code and being 32bit or 64bit >instead of 16bit... if you don't remember mark's code, it is the OOP library >for accessing JAM, MSG, SQUish, HMB and old EZYcom message bases... i think >there's also some QWK stuff available but that's probably in the sources he >released of his Mythical Kingdom BBS package...

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it

wrong...
... People should marry for life, like pigeons and Catholics.
---
* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)

Wikibooks has some Pascal stuff. Also, the Free Pascal documentation.
--- SBBSecho 3.00-Linux
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Deavmi wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

Java is nice.

It has its good points. I did find it not too difficult to learn, and was quite powerful. The biggest downside is the JVM still takes a fair bit of RAM.


... Warning: Your tagline is low. Pull up. Pull..
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Deavmi wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

I'd suggest stick with Pascal then. via fpc.

That was my thinking as well. :)


... Monogamy leaves a lot to be desired.
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Deavmi wrote to mark lewis <=-

Wikibooks has some Pascal stuff. Also, the Free Pascal documentation.

Good ideas. Back in the TP days, I got hold of a book on Turbo Pascal, which was a pretty good reference which really helped my coding. Hoping to find something similar for FPC. The FPC documentation I've seen is good, but I need a bit of the glue that ties each piece together. I don't handle piecemeal or fragmented information well.


... Nothing is so smiple that it can't get screwed up.
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On 11/18/16, Tristan B. Kildaire said the following...

What's `vp`?

virtual pascal

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Re: Returning to Pascal
By: Deavmi to Tony Langdon on Mon Nov 21 2016 05:15 am

Java is nice.

...for astonishingly small values of "nice". :)

g.
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