Compiler - TruePascal IDE

The TruePascal Compiler

tpc writes every byte of your program - no linker, no toolchain, nothing to install.

One compiler, seven targets

The same source and the same front end. Only the last step differs.

Target

Switch

Output

Windows

-Twin64

PE32+ .exe

Linux

-Tlinux

static ELF64

FreeBSD

-Tfreebsd

static ELF64

The browser

-Twasm

.wasm module

ARM64 / Android

-Taarch64

ARMv8-A 64-bit

Raspberry Pi Pico

-Tpico

.uf2 (RP2040)

Raspberry Pi Pico 2

-Tpico2

.uf2 (RP2350)

Linux and FreeBSD also build a static-PIE image (-Tlinux-pie, -Tfreebsd-pie) for hardened systems that randomise load addresses; on ARM64 every binary is position independent already.

Linux and FreeBSD binaries are static and reach the kernel directly - no libc and no interpreter, so there is nothing to install on the machine that runs them.

What is inside tpc

It is one program, and everything it needs it carries.

No linker

tpc emits machine code and then writes the container around it - a PE image, an ELF, a .wasm module, a .uf2. Every byte of the output file is placed by tpc.

One invocation

One source file. tpc follows the uses clauses itself. No unit paths to configure, no project file, no separate compilation step.

Its own runtime

The runtime and the standard library travel inside the compiler rather than as libraries to link, so nothing ships beside your program.

Both dialects

Object Pascal in {$MODE DELPHI} and {$MODE OBJFPC} spellings, {$H+} long strings, and the {$Q+}, {$R+} and {$I+} check switches.

Real debugging

Built with -gl a runtime error reports the file and the line, not just an address. tpc writes its own DWARF and ships a debugger.

Self-hosting

tpc compiles its own source - about 178,000 lines of Pascal across 111 files. That is the primary test: the compiler is its own hardest program.

How we know it works

Measured, not asserted.

131

gates, run on every version

401

corpus programs, compared byte for byte

12%

faster than dcc64 on identical work

A ninety-seven version optimisation series took the self-compile from 14,521 ms to 1,393 ms - 10.4 times faster - with every gate green.

Built with TruePascal IDE