Turbo Pascal was probably the most widely used Pascal compiler of all times. Borland released it in early 1980s and at that time it was available on the CP/M and PC platform. It featured fast compiler, integrated development environment and a very affordable price. Its syntax, known also as Object Pascal, has become standard and the concept of units is still used in all modern implementations. Until recently Pascal programming language was taught in many schools. For many people it was the first step into computer programming. It is a language that is easy to write and easy to read so you need very few comments to understand what the program does.
Turbo Pascal in 1990s evolved into Delphi. This is a rapid application development tool for Windows. It still uses Object Pascal with many additional features. However, because of popularity in early years, there are many projects that were developed with Borland DOS compilers. If you would like to compile such project you would need the original compiler, most likely version 7.0 which was the last released DOS version. Unfortunately, this version is no longer available. Borland has some time ago released old versions of compilers free of charge: 1.0, 3.02 and 5.5. The last version 7.0 is not yet available.
If you would like to compile the old Pascal code you can either try to find the original compiler from one of the illegal sources or you can use the open-source Free Pascal in compatible mode. There is also a third option. You can use the TPC32 command line compiler which is available as part of the demo package of the TPC32 source files and can be downloaded for free. This is not some limited version, it is a fully functional compiler compatible with TPC.EXE command line compiler. It is called demo because the full version includes complete source files which are not available for free.
TPC32 is a successor of the TPC16, a compatible compiler written in Turbo Pascal 7. It is compatible with the original Borland compiler in all aspects. Compiles the same source files and generates binary compatible unit and executable files. TPC32 is still the same compiler, the sources were slightly modified to be compatible with Delphi 7 which doesn't use the old segment-offset memory model. TPC32 still generates 16-bit x86 code. Source code of both compilers is available for purchase. You can use this source code to understand the internal data structures and algorithms of the famous Borland product or to make your own compiler. Both compilers are also available in demo versions which include fully functional compiled executable files. Because TPC16 is a DOS application it has some memory limitations. The TPC32 is a Win32 application and uses flat memory model with very few limitations. Both compilers can be used to compile the old projects created with the original Borland tools.
Pascal programming language is now rarely used in schools, but for some programmers it is still very popular and many old projects are still maintained. TPC32 compiler might be a solution for those who need a cheap and legal solution to compile the old Pascal sources.
I'm a big fan of Pascal programming language. Therefore I have a lot of old projects created with Turbo/Borland Pascal. If you need a free compatible solution to compile the old Pascal projects you can download a demo version of the TPC32, Turbo Pascal compiler written in Delphi, which contains a fully functional command line compiler. You can also get the TPC32 source code. It can be used for your own project or as a great book on compiler design and implementation.
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