r/pascal

Just wanted to share this tip in case it's helpful for anyone:

(Mainly focused on Linux here, please chime in if you have tips for other OS's)

The fpc compiler package for Free Pascal includes "instantfpc," which allows you to run your Pascal programs as scripts.

This means you can run your Pascal source code files directly as if they were system scripts, without compiling them every time.

You simply type #!/usr/bin/instantfpc at the top of your script, and then add the Pascal code below that.

When it's time to run the script, be sure to mark it as executable with chmod +x your_program_name.pas and you can run it by typing ./your_program_name.pas

Going even further, if you'd like to play with the old Turbo Pascal tutorials or books from the '80s or '90s, you can add this line:

>#!/usr/bin/instantfpc -Mtp

...which invokes instantfpc using the Turbo Pascal compatibility mode.

In the screenshots above, you can see the tutorial program "demo_of_fun_text_manipulation" from 1996. It was pasted into Geany from the original tutorial without modifications.

Next it was run as a script inside a Linux terminal (Konsole in OpenSUSE Tumbleweed).

The program invokes the "crt" unit and works just fine.

You can find the tutorial here (scroll down): https://jnz.dk/swag/TUTOR/0017.PAS.html

The other tutorials are here: https://jnz.dk/swag/TUTOR/index.html

Silver Pascal Coder has also posted a great video on instantfpc here: https://youtu.be/kVKXEU3kr5k

Just posting in case it's fun or interesting - or if anyone has other tips to share.

(Screenshots: Code in Geany; Script running in Konsole)

Get the source code here: https://gitlab.com/lebao3105/sma11

sma11 is a library made for many (but not all, for now?) things a programmer would do in their programming life:

* Iterate a directory

* Use regular expression to match strings

* Ask the user for input

* And more

This uses some RTL and FCL units, if you ask. And sma11 is NOT be a replacement for both, just a better way to access them.

Take a look at it! Feel free to tell me your thoughts, issues, and feature requests.

Turbo Pascal is where it all started for me - school, 2003, programming olympiads, staring at that blue screen until midnight.

https://turbopascal.online

100% client-side in the browser tab.

You can also share your code as a link (File -> Share link...) - it gives you a short URL that loads your program straight into the IDE. Links live for 30 days.

I'm really excited to show you the progress in tools and demo of the tile engine i'm working on.

Tiles (and Sprites) Editor is somewhat complete for my needs.
Map Editor is lacking some tools to make it better but it works.

Demo now has the following progress:

Done:
- Tile System
- Big Maps (up to 1000 16x16 pixels tiles wide)
- Horizontal Scrolling
- Vertical Scrolling (Not shown in the demo)
- Sprites & Sprite Animations
- Collisions
- Sound and SFX
- Tile Editor (maybe ~80% done)
- Map Editor (~60% done)

To Do:
- Enemies
- "Projectiles"
- More levels

Thank you all for your support, any comments and suggestions are very welcome as always.

Original Post: Return to the MS-DOS Pascal : r/pascal
Update 1: Return to the MS-DOS Pascal, June 30th 2026 Update : r/pascal
Update 2: Return to the MS-DOS Pascal, July 2nd Update : r/pascal