Asking for a friend ;)

[gcarreno]

Hey Jarrod(@jarroddavis68),

This caught my eye for 2 things: Object Pascal and Zig. 😄

I really have to congratulate you on the work done so far!!
Awesome, awesome work!!

While reading the commit message for 0.3.0, I thought:
You know what would be awesome?! TStream and descendants, and probably TStringList if it's not too much.
Or is this now possible to use by just dropping the code somewhere, and have it transpiled?

Another thing would be the possibility to transpile Free Pascal's {$mode objfpc} code.
Why? Welp, all the code from Delphi is behind a paywall. All the code from Free Pascal is not.
Like, having the above mentioned TSTream and TStringList would be awesome if they would not come with strings attached, right?

What are your thoughts on this?

Cheers,
Gus

[jarroddavis68]

This caught my eye for 2 things: Object Pascal and Zig. 😄

I really have to congratulate you on the work done so far!! Awesome, awesome work!!

Many thanks! 🙏 It’s been a lot of work getting to 0.3.0. Version 0.4.0 will be the first to include real-world examples — featuring a statically linked Raylib executable and a micro-benchmark demo. It will also include 55 unit tests for verification, with the full testbed suite serving as the primary validation framework.

While reading the commit message for 0.3.0, I thought:
You know what would be awesome?! TStream and descendants, and probably TStringList if it's not too much.
Or is this now possible to use by just dropping the code somewhere, and have it transpiled?
Phase 1 will be strictly procedural only, so this won’t be possible until class support is added, which is tentatively planned for Phase 2.

Keep in mind that while it may be technically possible to transpile portions of the Delphi or Free Pascal RTL, the associated licensing restrictions still apply. You cannot simply take the Delphi RTL, transpile it, and redistribute it beyond what is expressly permitted under its license.

Another thing would be the possibility to transpile Free Pascal's {$mode objfpc} code.
Why? Welp, all the code from Delphi is behind a paywall. All the code from Free Pascal is not.
Like, having the above mentioned TSTream and TStringList would be awesome is they would not come with strings attached, right?

NitroPascal itself will not include any Delphi or FPC RTL code in its distribution. However, the community is free to create and share their own compatible units (such as SysUtils or Classes) written specifically for NitroPascal. We must remain careful and respectful of existing licenses to ensure full legal compliance.

Also note that while NitroPascal strives to adhere to Delphi semantics as closely as possible, the underlying C++ transpilation process means there will inevitably be differences in behavior and structure. It will never be a 100% drop-in replacement — you won’t be able to take existing Delphi or FPC code and transpile it without some level of modification and care. This is an important point to understand from the start. As much as we would all like it to be that simple, it’s simply not the reality. Considerable effort has gone into maintaining semantic compatibility where feasible, but achieving this balance is a large and complex task.

It’s best to think of NitroPascal not as Delphi or FPC, but as its own system — a modern Pascal dialect designed to transpile Object Pascal code to C++ and leverage all the advantages that come with that approach.

The goal has always been to maintain as much compatibility as possible to encourage broader adoption and make the transition easier for existing Pascal developers. While NitroPascal builds on familiar Pascal principles, it ultimately represents a new path forward — one that combines Pascal’s clarity with the power, portability, and ecosystem of C++.

Overall, I think this is a solid foundation to build upon — and with a unified community effort, we can create something truly great! 😎

[gcarreno]

Hey Jarrod,

I'm now salivating for the Class support!!!

Humm... And yeah, I kinda forgot about licensing issues. Not with Delphi, but with Free Pascal, since I did state it would not be behind a paywall.

In order to clarify this, what's your licensing plans?
How would they interfere with the Free Pascal license for their code?
I'm not that much versed in IP law, so I kinda need a bit of hand holding, here, in order to understand what could be used verbatim, as opposed to: Needs some changes to pass smell test of IP law.

Cheers,
Gus

[jarroddavis68]

Hey Gus,

Good question — and it’s an important one.

Free Pascal is licensed under GPL v2 for the compiler itself, and LGPL v2.1 (with linking exception) for the RTL and FCL. That means you can compile against the RTL to produce your own programs without issue, but you can’t directly copy or redistribute the RTL source code inside another project that isn’t also under a compatible license.

Since NitroPascal is its own compiler and uses a different license (non-GPL), it would not be legal to take the Free Pascal RTL verbatim and transpile or redistribute it — that would effectively create a derivative work under the GPL/LGPL, which would force NitroPascal itself to become GPL-licensed.

That’s why I’m writing an independent, clean-room compatible runtime, inspired by Free Pascal’s semantics, but written from scratch. The idea is to remain source-compatible where practical, but without copying or porting FPC code directly.

Starting with version 0.4.0 (released today), I’ve begun implementing the foundation of that runtime — including Types, StrUtils, SysUtils, and DateUtils — all written from scratch to gradually cover the most commonly used RTL functionality.

So to summarize:

You can’t use FPC RTL source verbatim with NitroPascal.

You can study it and build an independent re-implementation that behaves similarly.

NitroPascal will continue expanding its own runtime so developers can write Object Pascal code freely and safely without any licensing conflicts.

Once class/object support lands, that will really open the door for this layer to mature.

[gcarreno]

Hey Jarrod,

Thank you so very much for the time writing that very good answer!!

Once class/object support lands, that will really open the door for this layer to mature.

OH, absolutely agree !!

Will be waiting in my tippy-toes for that to happen !!

Cheers,
Gus