This file was generated automatically from welcome.texi.
DO NOT CHANGE THIS FILE MANUALLY!

                        Welcome to GNU Pascal,
the free 32/64-bit Pascal compiler of the GNU
Compiler Collection (GNU CC or GCC). It combines a Pascal front-end with
the proven GCC back-end for code generation and optimization.  Other
compilers in the collection currently include compilers for the Ada, C,
C++, Objective C, Chill, FORTRAN, and Java languages. Unlike utilities
such as p2c, this is a true compiler, not just a converter.

This version of GPC corresponds to GCC version 2.8.1, 2.95.x or 3.2.x.

The purpose of the GNU Pascal project is to produce a Pascal compiler
(called GNU Pascal or GPC) which

   * combines the clarity of Pascal with powerful tools suitable for
     real-life programming,

   * supports both the Pascal standard and the Extended Pascal standard
     as defined by ISO, ANSI and IEEE (ISO 7185:1990, ISO/IEC
     10206:1991, ANSI/IEEE 770X3.160-1989),

   * supports other Pascal standards (UCSD Pascal, Borland Pascal,
     parts of Borland Delphi, Mac Pascal and Pascal-SC) in so far as
     this serves the goal of clarity and usability,

   * may be distributed under GNU license conditions, and

   * can generate code for and run on any computer for which the GNU C
     compiler can generate code and run on.

Pascal was originally designed for teaching. GNU Pascal provides a
smooth way to proceed to challenging programming tasks without learning
a completely different language.

The current release implements Standard Pascal (ISO 7185, levels 0 and
1), most of Extended Pascal (ISO 10206, aiming for full compliance), is
highly compatible to Borland Pascal (version 7.0), has some features
for compatibility to other compilers (such as VAX Pascal, Sun Pascal,
Mac Pascal, Borland Delphi and Pascal-SC).

It provides a lot of useful GNU extensions not found in other Pascal
compilers, e.g. to ease the interfacing with C and other languages in a
portable way, and to work with files, directories, dates and more,
mostly independent of the underlying operating system.

Included units provide support for regular expressions, arithmetic with
integer, rational and real numbers of unlimited size,
internationalization, inter-process communication, message digests and
more. Demo programs show the usage of these units and of many compiler
features.

GNU Pascal has a home site in the World Wide Web,
     `http://www.gnu-pascal.de'

GNU Pascal distributions can always be found there.

We prefer distributing GNU Pascal in source form because it gives you
the possibility to customize, improve, and maintain the compiler by
yourself (or to hire a programmer to do so for you). However, we
provide binary distributions for some platforms for your convenience,
in a subdirectory `binary'.

Compilation of GNU Pascal requires the GCC sources, not just an
installed copy of GCC.

Installing GPC (from sources or a binary) will create various files in
subdirectories of `/usr/local/lib', which are used by the compiler. It
will also create `/usr/local/bin/gpc', which is the user-level command
to do a compilation.

Please send comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNU Pascal
mailing list, <gpc@gnu.de>. See the FAQ for details.

The GNU Pascal Manual which contains extensive documentation about GPC
is contained in the files gpc.info* (GNU Info format) in source and
binary distributions. You can read them with any info reader, e.g. by
typing `info -f gpc'. The source of the manual is provided in Texinfo
format in GPC source distributions. From this, you can recreate the
Info version, and you can also create HTML and PostScript versions.
HTML and PostScript versions are also provided on GPC's web pages.

The file `FAQ' contains the GNU Pascal FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
list. It should answer most of the questions you might have about GNU
Pascal.

The file `NEWS' lists changes to GNU Pascal since the last release.

The file `AUTHORS' lists the authors and contributors to GNU Pascal.

The file `COPYING' contains the GNU General Public License under which
GNU Pascal is distributed.

The file `COPYING.LIB' contains the GNU Lesser General Public License
under which certain libraries are distributed (see the individual
licensing notes).

The file `INSTALL' contains installation instructions.

The file `BUGS' describes how to run the GPC test suite and how to
report bugs.

The files mentioned in the following are part of the source code
distributions of GNU Pascal.

The file `ChangeLog' contains an edit history.

The directory `rts' contains the source code of GNU Pascal's Run Time
System. Its interface to Pascal programs is contained in the file
`gpc.pas'.

The directory `script' contains some scripts used by the GPC
maintainers and some scripts used during GPC's build process.

In the directory `doc' you can find the GNU Pascal documentation in GNU
Texinfo format. See `doc/README' for more about that.

The directory `units' contains the GNU Pascal standard units, some of
which being portable replacements for Borland Pascal standard units of
the same name.

The directory `utils' contains some utilites used by or in connection
with GNU Pascal.

The directory `demos' contains demo programs illustrating some of GNU
Pascal's capabilities.

The directory `test' contains programs to test the compiler during its
development and installation.

Everything else belongs to GNU Pascal's source code.

All parts of the compiler are copyrighted (C) 1987-2004 by the Free
Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF).

GNU Pascal is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
later version.

GNU Pascal is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with GNU Pascal; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307, USA.

Enjoy,

The GNU Pascal Development Team

