Free Pascal (aka FPK Pascal) is a 32 and 64 bit professional Pascal compiler. It is available for different processors: Intel x86, Amd64/x86_64, PowerPC, PowerPC64, Sparc, ARM. The discontinued 1.0 version also supports the Motorola 680x0. The following operating systems are supported: Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X/Darwin, DOS, Win32, Win64, WinCE, OS/2, Netware (libc and classic) and MorphOS.

Features:

· Very clean language Pascal is a very nice language, your programs will be more readable and maintainable than for example in C, and let's even forget about C++. And you don't need to give up the power, the Pascal language is as powerful as you want it.
· No Makefiles Unlike most programming languages, Pascal does not need Makefiles. You can save huge amounts of time, the compiler just figures out itself which files need to be recompiled.
· Pascal compilers are Fast with a big F and Free Pascal is no exception. Yes, you no longer need to grow roots while compiling your programs, just hit the compile key and it's done, even for large programs.
· Each unit has it's own identifiers In Pascal you never need to worry about polluting the namespace, like in C where an identifier needs to be unique accross the entire program. No, in Pascal each unit gets it's own namespace and that's very relaxed.
· Integrated development environment Free Pascal comes with an IDE which work on several platforms, in which you can write, compile and debug your programs. You will save huge amounts of time using the IDE, the best programming friend you have.
· Great integration with assembler Do you think pascal is for wimps who need to learn programming? WRONG! It's excellent for high tech programming and for the supreme nerds among you we have the integrated assemblers. You can easily mix assembler code and Pascal code, in the language you wish?

FPC 2.6.0 has been released! 2.6.0 is a major new version, which adds many post-Delphi 7 language features and adds or improves the support for various platforms.

The new features include, amongst others:

* Objective-Pascal dialect, supported on all Mac OS X and iOS targets
* Delphi compatibility mode improvements
o Nested types, class variables and class local constants
o Advanced records syntax (no constructors yet)
o (for..in) Enumerators in records
o Class and record helpers
o Generic records, arrays and procedural types
o Delphi-compatibility of general generics syntax improved
o Scoped enumerations
o Custom messages for "deprecated" directive
o Ability to use "&" for escaping keywords
* New ARM code generator features
o ARM VFPv2 and VFPv3 floating point unit support
o Thumb-2 support (embedded targets only)
* The rtl and packages also got a lot of attention, see the release manifest.