Pascal complier for TeX (was: Re: locations of code that touches dvi)

Thomas Schneider schneidt at mail.nih.gov
Wed Jul 17 03:30:20 CEST 2019


> https://github.com/TeX-Live/texlive-source/blob/trunk/texk/web2c/tex.web#L11308]https://github.com/TeX-Live/texlive-source

So that's the source of TeX!  Cool.  But it is a Pascal program - a
language I use a lot for understanding the underlying theory of
biology.  I have always wondered where the Pascal compiler is for TeX
and whether I could use it for my programs.  The current status of
Pascal is miserable.  I use a translator called p2c - which works but
which happily translates anything to C and allows compilation of bad
code which is then really hard to debug.  The Free Pascal Compiler
doesn't have the original Pascal features and so I can't use it (yet),
but at least it detects bad code.  Finally, the Gnu Pascal compiler is
no longer functional on macOS with little chance of being fixed. 
Apparently it works on Linux.

So if there is a compiler I could use that is the basis of TeX, that
could be a more stable platform.

Where is the TeX Pascal complier?  Is it being robustly maintained?

Tom

  Thomas D. Schneider, Ph.D.
  Senior Investigator
  National Institutes of Health
  National Cancer Institute
  Center for Cancer Research
  RNA Biology Laboratory
  Biological Information Theory Group
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  schneidt at mail.nih.gov
  https://alum.mit.edu/www/toms


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