Blaise Pascal™ - Think in Pascal. Compile to C++.

🎩 Why Blaise Pascal?

Named after the 17th-century French polymath Blaise Pascal—mathematician, physicist, and inventor of one of the first mechanical calculators—and the programming language that bears his name. Like its namesakes, Blaise Pascal™ embodies clarity, elegance, and the marriage of theoretical beauty with practical innovation. We honor Pascal's legacy by keeping the Pascal language alive and thriving in the modern age.

🎯

Pascal Dialect

A modern Pascal dialect compatible with Delphi where possible. Transpiles fundamental Pascal syntax with clean, predictable C++ output. Best thought of as its own flavor of Pascal optimized for C++ compilation.

⚡

Modern C++23

Generates clean C++23 code with modern LLVM backend. Leverages spaceship operator, std::format, and std::println for optimal performance.

🏗️

Smart Architecture

Dumb transpiler, smart runtime. Simple token mapping keeps the transpiler maintainable while a sophisticated runtime preserves exact Pascal semantics.

📦

Self-Contained

Everything included - Blaise transpiler, Zig compiler, and complete runtime library. Just unzip and go, no additional downloads needed.

🌍

Cross-Platform

Compile for Windows, Linux, and macOS from any platform using bundled Zig build system with consistent behavior everywhere.

🔒

Zero Conflicts

All runtime code in bp namespace with fully-qualified names. Perfect isolation from external libraries like raylib, SDL, OpenGL.

The Architecture

Simple design, powerful results

THE LAW

Wrap everything that can be wrapped in the C++ runtime

Make the transpiler DUMB.
Make the runtime SMART.

All runtime lives in namespace bp { ... }
ALWAYS use fully-qualified names: bp::Integer, bp::WriteLn
NEVER use 'using namespace bp;'

Pascal

.pas files

→

DelphiAST

Parse

→

Transpiler

Token map

→

C++23

Generate

→

Zig/LLVM

Compile

→

Binary

Execute

See It In Action

Write Pascal, get optimized C++

                    Pascal
                    Source Code
                

                    program Hello;
var
  name: String;
  age: Integer;
begin
  name := 'World';
  age := 42;
  
  WriteLn('Hello, ', name, '!');
  WriteLn('Age: ', age);
end.
                

                    C++23
                    Generated Code
                

                    #include "runtime.h"

void ProgramMain() {
    bp::String name;
    bp::Integer age;
    
    name = "World";
    age = 42;
    
    bp::WriteLn("Hello, ", name, "!");
    bp::WriteLn("Age: ", age);
}

int main() {
    ProgramMain();
    return 0;
}
                

Language Coverage

Comprehensive Pascal language support

Core Types

Integer, Cardinal, Int64
Boolean, Char
String (UTF-16, 1-based)
Single, Double, Extended
Records, Enumerations
Arrays (static & dynamic)
Sets, Pointers

Control Flow

if..then..else
while..do
repeat..until
for..to..do
for..downto..do
case..of..else
break, continue, exit

Operators

Arithmetic: +, -, *, /, div, mod
Comparison: =, <>, <, >
Logical: and, or, not, xor
Bitwise: shl, shr
Set operations: in
Pointers: @, ^

Procedures & Functions

Declarations & parameters
const, var, out modifiers
Forward declarations
External functions
Result variable
Overloading support

Exception Handling

try..except..end
try..finally..end
Exception types
Raise exceptions
Exception messages

Program Types

Programs (executables)
Units (modules)
Libraries (DLLs)
Uses clause
Exports clause
Initialization/Finalization

I/O Functions

WriteLn, Write
ReadLn, Read
File I/O operations
Text files
Binary files
Directory operations

Runtime Library

String functions
Type conversions
Math operations
Memory management
System functions
And much more...

Getting Started

Self-contained distribution - just unzip and go!

1. Download & Extract

Blaise Pascal is completely self-contained. No external dependencies needed!

# Download Blaise Pascal package from GitHub
# Extract to any directory
# Everything included:
#   - Blaise.exe (transpiler)
#   - Zig 0.15.2 compiler (in bin/res/zig/)
#   - Complete runtime library (in bin/res/runtime/)

2. Create a New Project

Initialize a new Blaise Pascal project

# Create a new program project
bin\Blaise.exe init MyProgram

# Or create a library project
bin\Blaise.exe init MyLib --template library

3. Write Your Pascal Code

Edit the generated source file in src/main.pas

program MyProgram;
begin
  WriteLn('Hello from Blaise Pascal!');
end.

4. Build & Run

Use simple commands to build and execute your program

# Navigate to your project directory
cd MyProgram

# Build the project (transpile + compile)
..\bin\Blaise.exe build

# Run the compiled executable
..\bin\Blaise.exe run

5. Cross-Platform Compilation

Use the {$TARGET} compiler directive to target different platforms

// Target Linux 64-bit
{$TARGET x86_64-linux}
program MyProgram;
begin
  WriteLn('Cross-platform!');
end.

// Other target examples:
// {$TARGET x86_64-windows}  - Windows 64-bit
// {$TARGET aarch64-macos}   - macOS ARM64
// {$TARGET x86_64-linux}    - Linux 64-bit
// {$TARGET native}          - Current platform (default)

6. Additional Compiler Directives

Control build settings with compiler directives

// Optimization levels
{$OPTIMIZATION Debug}        // Debug build (default)
{$OPTIMIZATION ReleaseFast}  // Fast optimized build

// Application type (Windows)
{$APPTYPE GUI}              // No console window
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}          // Console application (default)

// Link external libraries
{$LINK raylib.lib}
{$LIBRARY_PATH .\lib}