

                        Welcome to GNU Pascal 2.0,

                   the 32-bit FreeWare Pascal compiler.


        All parts of the compiler are copyrighted (C) 1987, 89, 92,
        93, 94, 95, 1996 by the Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF).


        GNU Pascal is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
        modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
        published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or
        (at your option) any later version.

        The GNU Pascal run time system is a free library; you can
        redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
        Library General Public license as published by the Free Software
        Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
        version.

        GNU Pascal is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
        but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
        MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
        GNU General Public License (the file `COPYING' in this
        directory) for more details.


        The GNU Pascal Compiler (GPC) is part of the GNU compiler
        family, GNU CC or GCC.  Version 2.0 of GPC corresponds to
        GCC version 2.7.2.1.


        Road map for the impatient
        ==========================

        .        source code distribution
        binary   binary distributions for some platforms
        djgpp    source and binaries for DOS with DJGPP
        emx      source and binaries for DOS or OS/2 with EMX
        contrib  independent contributions to GNU Pascal
        misc     other useful and/or interesting stuff

        Beta and alpha stuff can be found at
        ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/gnu-pascal/.

        You also need the GCC source to compile GPC, plus perhaps
        additional development tools like the DJGPP system or the
        GNU assembler.
       

        Files in this directory
        =======================

        This directory contains the source code distribution of GNU
        Pascal version 2.0 as a `tar.gz' as well as a `zip' archive.  We
        prefer this form of distributing GNU Pascal because it gives you
        the possibility to customize, improve, and maintain the compiler
        by yourself (or to hire a programmer to do it for you).  However
        we provide binary distributions for some platforms in the
        subdirectory `binary'.

        In order to compile GPC, you also need - at least - the source
        of the GNU C compiler (GCC) version 2.7.2.1 (no other version).

        `COPYING' and `COPYING.LIB' are the GNU General Public License
        and the GNU Library General Public License which tell you about
        the terms and conditions for using, distributing and modifying
        GNU Pascal and the GNU Pascal run time library.

        The file `FAQ' (Frequently Asked Questions) should answer most
        of the questions you might have about GNU Pascal, for example
        what else you should download and where, and where to get more
        information.

        See the file `INSTALL' for installation instructions.

        `NEWS' contains a list of changes with respect to the last
        official release, version 1.1 (corresponding to GCC 2.6.3).

        The file `FPKvsGNU' contains a comparision between GNU Pascal
        and FPK Pascal, another 32-bit FreeWare Pascal compiler.  It was
        written by authors of both compilers in cooperation, so you can
        easier decide which one fits your needs better.

        If you succeed compiling GNU Pascal for a platform not yet in
        the subdirectory `binary', please type `make bindist' and
        create a binary distribution we can publish here.


        Other directories
        =================

        The subdirectory `binary' contains archives named

            gpc-2.0.target-platform.archive-extension

        where `archive-extension' is either `tar.gz' or `zip' and
        `target-platform' is something like `mips-sgi-irix5.3' or
        `i586-gnu-linux'.  They expand into subdirectories `usr/bin'
        etc., so they should install properly when you expand them
        from the root directory.  See `INSTALL' for details.

        There are two special platforms, DJGPP (for DOS) and EMX (for
        DOS and OS/2).  The subdirectories `djgpp' and `emx' contain
        both the source and binaries in a form convenient for those
        distributions.

        For EMX users:  Please note that you should expand `gpcsrc.zip'
        from `\emx', *not* from the root directory like `gccsrc*.zip'.

        The `contrib' directory contains libraries and programs which
        have been created for GNU Pascal but are not part of GNU Pascal.
        See the individual packages for licenses and documentation.
        If you have written an interesting program for this directory,
        please let us know!

        The subdirectory `old' contains old, obsolete versions of GNU
        Pascal in source code only.

        In `misc' you can find other useful and/or interesting things,
        for example an archive containing the GNU Pascal WWW home page,
        http://home.pages.de/~GNU-Pascal/, so you can download it and
        read it offline and/or set up a mirror (please inform us if you
        do this.)

        The most recent experimental versions of GNU Pascal (source
        only) are at ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/gnu-pascal/.

        
        Please send comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNU
        Pascal mailing list, gpc@hut.fi.  See the FAQ for details.

        Enjoy,

          The GNU Pascal Development Team

                                                           Jukka Virtanen
                                                          Peter Gerwinski
                                                 Jan Jaap van der Heijden

