Turbo Pascal & Delphi Source code

[newora]

I hope that I am asking this question in the correct forum!!

A client of mine has managed to get hold of come source code for a product that they want modifying.
The source code dates back to 1994 and from looking at it, was developed in Turbo Pascal and targetting an MS-DOS environment.

The first thing that I want to do is try to get the sysem compiled clean so that I can be sure I have all of the required source modules etc., however I do not have a copy of Turbo Pascal. I do have a copy of Borland Delphi (version 1 and also Delphi 2 developer edition - never even used it!!).

My basic question is can anu of the above 2 versions of Delphi produce DOS based applications and will then be able to compile up the Turbo Pascal source code without too many modifications - or maybe I can get hold of a version of Turbo Pascal from somewhere!!

Thank you for your help.

 

[footpad]

Newora,

I'm sorry, No. Delphi doesn't not provide an MS-DOS target in the way you're thinking. Instead, you create Console applications that run under Windows without a GUI.

However, Borland has posted older (and free) versions of Turbo Pascal in the Museum section of their Community website. See

http://community.borland.com/museum/

for full details. (I believe you need to register on their site to download from it.)

That may help, though you're probably going to run into headaches getting the configuration straightened out. Also, you may run into problems if this application used third-party components.

All may not be lost if it does, however. TurboPower, the most popular (arguable) provided of Turbo Pascal add-ins, recently chose to enter a different line of business. Fortunately for us, they also chose to open-source many of their products, including their Turbo Pascal add-ins. Thus, you may be able to find some necessary third-party components by going to

http://sourceforge.net/search/

and searching for TurboPower. The results include a number of Delphi add-ins as well, so this is a great resource for all developers using Pascal compilers developed by Borland.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[towerbase]

I understand from a friend that it is possible to download Turbo Pascal free (and legally) from the Internet. I don't know which version this is. Do you want me to find out more?

Andrew

 

[footpad]

Andrew,

Thanks for the offer, but the best place (imho) to obtain free copies of Turbo Pascal would be from the Museum section of Borland's Community site (see my earlier reply in this thread for the URL).

That way, you know the files are clean and free from "complications."

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[newora]

Thanks for the info guys - I did look at the Borland museum site and downloaded TP 5, but from looking at the source, it has been developed under TP 7 and when I try to load some of the source files into TP5 I get errors saying the file is too large.

I have just found a site that has a free compiler available that they say is compatible with most TP versions - just a big download so I will let it run overnight

Thanks again

 

[Griffyn]

Also - keep in mind that you may run into issues with TP7. There was a bug in the compiler that caused a Divide By Zero error when running any program on a machine that was faster than 200Mhz (or thereabouts). This was caused by the Crt (or System, can't remember) unit's initialisation routine that tried to establish the speed of the computer, and failed because the Pascal compiler developers failed to anticipate such enormous speeds

If you happen to run into such problems, I have a patched Crt unit that I can give you, and also a stand-alone program that will patch any TP7 compiled program to fix the bug.

 

[newora]

Hi again buys - thanks for you help and advise.

I managed to find a french version of Turbo Pascal 7 which also included the bug fix for fast computers.

All compiled up and working now.

Thanks again.