Recently there was talk here about Pascal, so I thought I would forward
this here.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Lazarus] Live pascal
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:50:31 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org> Reply-To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>, FPC mailing
list <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org>
CC: Michael Van Canneyt <...@freepascal.org>
Hello,
Pascal was designed for teaching. I'm sure everyone knows this.
The chairman of the Free Pascal & Lazarus foundation (and me) take this to heart: we would very much like to reintroduce pascal in schools.
While it is not certain that we will achieve success, we still try to
improve the teaching experience for pascal.
Some languages allow you to test the language on a website. No need to install anything.
We can make the same possible for Pascal.
To this end, I've been working on a project for some time now:
https://live.freepascal.org/
A live editor for pascal, allowing you to run pascal in the browser.
It uses pas2js for 'compiling' and lazarus' JCF (compiled to wasm) for formatting the code. You can also pick files from your local computer.
It features a JIT compiler: if you don't do anything for 3 seconds or more, it will compile in the background and annotate the code in the gutter with errors/warnings etc.
You can embed the editor in an existing page and control it from the enveloping page:
https://live.freepascal.org/test-embed.html
The idea is to enable a self-paced tutorial:
https://live.freepascal.org/tutorial-sample.html
But also to have specific assignments:
http://live.freepascal.org/?assignment=assignments/hello-world.json
The latter would be useful for a teacher.
The page tries to verify the results, and gives hints (all pre- configurable).
I know that some people are trying to put together a tutorial.
It is my hope that they will consider integrating this in their tutorial.
On the server, it is just a set of static files, so no heavy load.
Unzip, and you are ready to go.
I will be committing the code for this in a repo once I've cleaned up a
bit.
Some embryonal ideas for improvements: - Step-by-step tutorial mode with manifest - Tutorial progress persistence - Submit results to teacher endpoint (will need server support)
- Multi-file tabbed editor - Read-only code regions for scaffolded
exercises - Inline hover annotations / code docs-a (AKA: code insight,
the pascal LSP compiled to wasm should enable this)
- Welcome overlay - Contextual "what next?" guidance - Quick-insert code snippets - Unit catalog grouped by domain - Resizable split panes
(draggable divider) - Separate console panel from DOM output - Resizable output iframe + presets - Use FPC itself to output wasm.
Other suggestions for improvements are welcome. Contributions as well, obviously.
The page is an initial version, so be kind in your judgment :-)
Michael.
On 2/24/26 13:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Recently there was talk here about Pascal, so I thought I would
forward this here.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Lazarus] Live pascal
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:50:31 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
Reply-To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>, FPC mailing
list <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org>
CC: Michael Van Canneyt <...@freepascal.org>
Hello,
Pascal was designed for teaching. I'm sure everyone knows this.
The chairman of the Free Pascal & Lazarus foundation (and me) take
this to
heart: we would very much like to reintroduce pascal in schools.
While it is not certain that we will achieve success, we still try to
improve the teaching experience for pascal.
Some languages allow you to test the language on a website. No need to
install anything.
We can make the same possible for Pascal.
To this end, I've been working on a project for some time now:
https://live.freepascal.org/
A live editor for pascal, allowing you to run pascal in the browser.
It uses pas2js for 'compiling' and lazarus' JCF (compiled to wasm) for
formatting the code. You can also pick files from your local computer.
It features a JIT compiler: if you don't do anything for 3 seconds or
more,
it will compile in the background and annotate the code in the gutter
with
errors/warnings etc.
You can embed the editor in an existing page and control it from the
enveloping page:
https://live.freepascal.org/test-embed.html
The idea is to enable a self-paced tutorial:
https://live.freepascal.org/tutorial-sample.html
But also to have specific assignments:
http://live.freepascal.org/?assignment=assignments/hello-world.json
The latter would be useful for a teacher.
The page tries to verify the results, and gives hints (all pre-
configurable).
I know that some people are trying to put together a tutorial.
It is my hope that they will consider integrating this in their tutorial.
On the server, it is just a set of static files, so no heavy load.
Unzip, and you are ready to go.
I will be committing the code for this in a repo once I've cleaned up
a bit.
Some embryonal ideas for improvements: - Step-by-step tutorial mode
with manifest - Tutorial progress persistence - Submit results to
teacher endpoint (will need server support)
- Multi-file tabbed editor - Read-only code regions for scaffolded
exercises - Inline hover annotations / code docs-a (AKA: code insight,
the pascal LSP compiled to wasm should enable this)
- Welcome overlay - Contextual "what next?" guidance - Quick-insert
code snippets - Unit catalog grouped by domain - Resizable split panes
(draggable divider) - Separate console panel from DOM output -
Resizable output iframe + presets - Use FPC itself to output wasm.
Other suggestions for improvements are welcome. Contributions as well,
obviously.
The page is an initial version, so be kind in your judgment :-)
Michael.
-a Pascal was invented for 'educational purposes' - both
-a for learners and as an example of how compilers can
-a be done.
On 2026-02-25 03:33, c186282 wrote:
On 2/24/26 13:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Recently there was talk here about Pascal, so I thought I would
forward this here.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Lazarus] Live pascal
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:50:31 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
Reply-To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>, FPC mailing
list <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org>
CC: Michael Van Canneyt <...@freepascal.org>
Hello,
Pascal was designed for teaching. I'm sure everyone knows this.
The chairman of the Free Pascal & Lazarus foundation (and me) take
this to
heart: we would very much like to reintroduce pascal in schools.
While it is not certain that we will achieve success, we still try to
improve the teaching experience for pascal.
Some languages allow you to test the language on a website. No need
to install anything.
We can make the same possible for Pascal.
To this end, I've been working on a project for some time now:
https://live.freepascal.org/
A live editor for pascal, allowing you to run pascal in the browser.
It uses pas2js for 'compiling' and lazarus' JCF (compiled to wasm)
for formatting the code. You can also pick files from your local
computer.
It features a JIT compiler: if you don't do anything for 3 seconds or
more,
it will compile in the background and annotate the code in the gutter
with
errors/warnings etc.
You can embed the editor in an existing page and control it from the
enveloping page:
https://live.freepascal.org/test-embed.html
The idea is to enable a self-paced tutorial:
https://live.freepascal.org/tutorial-sample.html
But also to have specific assignments:
http://live.freepascal.org/?assignment=assignments/hello-world.json
The latter would be useful for a teacher.
The page tries to verify the results, and gives hints (all pre-
configurable).
I know that some people are trying to put together a tutorial.
It is my hope that they will consider integrating this in their
tutorial.
On the server, it is just a set of static files, so no heavy load.
Unzip, and you are ready to go.
I will be committing the code for this in a repo once I've cleaned up
a bit.
Some embryonal ideas for improvements: - Step-by-step tutorial mode
with manifest - Tutorial progress persistence - Submit results to
teacher endpoint (will need server support)
- Multi-file tabbed editor - Read-only code regions for scaffolded
exercises - Inline hover annotations / code docs-a (AKA: code insight,
the pascal LSP compiled to wasm should enable this)
- Welcome overlay - Contextual "what next?" guidance - Quick-insert
code snippets - Unit catalog grouped by domain - Resizable split
panes (draggable divider) - Separate console panel from DOM output -
Resizable output iframe + presets - Use FPC itself to output wasm.
Other suggestions for improvements are welcome. Contributions as
well, obviously.
The page is an initial version, so be kind in your judgment :-)
Michael.
-a-a Pascal was invented for 'educational purposes' - both
-a-a for learners and as an example of how compilers can
-a-a be done.
Yes, yes, but the point is that they have created a web page where you
can try to create a program and is compiled and run right there, without having to install anything, to make the introduction far easier to
students and novices.
On 2/25/26 05:22, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-02-25 03:33, c186282 wrote:
On 2/24/26 13:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Recently there was talk here about Pascal, so I thought I would
forward this here.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Lazarus] Live pascal
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:50:31 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
Reply-To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>, FPC
mailing list <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org>
CC: Michael Van Canneyt <...@freepascal.org>
Hello,
Pascal was designed for teaching. I'm sure everyone knows this.
The chairman of the Free Pascal & Lazarus foundation (and me) take
this to
heart: we would very much like to reintroduce pascal in schools.
While it is not certain that we will achieve success, we still try to
improve the teaching experience for pascal.
Some languages allow you to test the language on a website. No need
to install anything.
We can make the same possible for Pascal.
To this end, I've been working on a project for some time now:
https://live.freepascal.org/
A live editor for pascal, allowing you to run pascal in the browser.
It uses pas2js for 'compiling' and lazarus' JCF (compiled to wasm)
for formatting the code. You can also pick files from your local
computer.
It features a JIT compiler: if you don't do anything for 3 seconds
or more,
it will compile in the background and annotate the code in the
gutter with
errors/warnings etc.
You can embed the editor in an existing page and control it from the
enveloping page:
https://live.freepascal.org/test-embed.html
The idea is to enable a self-paced tutorial:
https://live.freepascal.org/tutorial-sample.html
But also to have specific assignments:
http://live.freepascal.org/?assignment=assignments/hello-world.json
The latter would be useful for a teacher.
The page tries to verify the results, and gives hints (all pre-
configurable).
I know that some people are trying to put together a tutorial.
It is my hope that they will consider integrating this in their
tutorial.
On the server, it is just a set of static files, so no heavy load.
Unzip, and you are ready to go.
I will be committing the code for this in a repo once I've cleaned
up a bit.
Some embryonal ideas for improvements: - Step-by-step tutorial mode
with manifest - Tutorial progress persistence - Submit results to
teacher endpoint (will need server support)
- Multi-file tabbed editor - Read-only code regions for scaffolded
exercises - Inline hover annotations / code docs-a (AKA: code
insight, the pascal LSP compiled to wasm should enable this)
- Welcome overlay - Contextual "what next?" guidance - Quick-insert
code snippets - Unit catalog grouped by domain - Resizable split
panes (draggable divider) - Separate console panel from DOM output -
Resizable output iframe + presets - Use FPC itself to output wasm.
Other suggestions for improvements are welcome. Contributions as
well, obviously.
The page is an initial version, so be kind in your judgment :-)
Michael.
-a-a Pascal was invented for 'educational purposes' - both
-a-a for learners and as an example of how compilers can
-a-a be done.
Yes, yes, but the point is that they have created a web page where you
can try to create a program and is compiled and run right there,
without having to install anything, to make the introduction far
easier to students and novices.
-a Ummm ... there were no web pages when Pascal
-a was created.
On 2026-02-25 12:06, c186282 wrote:
On 2/25/26 05:22, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-02-25 03:33, c186282 wrote:
On 2/24/26 13:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Recently there was talk here about Pascal, so I thought I would
forward this here.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Lazarus] Live pascal
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:50:31 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org> >>>>> Reply-To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>, FPC
mailing list <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org>
CC: Michael Van Canneyt <...@freepascal.org>
Hello,
Pascal was designed for teaching. I'm sure everyone knows this.
The chairman of the Free Pascal & Lazarus foundation (and me) take
this to
heart: we would very much like to reintroduce pascal in schools.
While it is not certain that we will achieve success, we still try to >>>>> improve the teaching experience for pascal.
Some languages allow you to test the language on a website. No need >>>>> to install anything.
We can make the same possible for Pascal.
To this end, I've been working on a project for some time now:
https://live.freepascal.org/
A live editor for pascal, allowing you to run pascal in the browser. >>>>> It uses pas2js for 'compiling' and lazarus' JCF (compiled to wasm)
for formatting the code. You can also pick files from your local
computer.
It features a JIT compiler: if you don't do anything for 3 seconds
or more,
it will compile in the background and annotate the code in the
gutter with
errors/warnings etc.
You can embed the editor in an existing page and control it from
the enveloping page:
https://live.freepascal.org/test-embed.html
The idea is to enable a self-paced tutorial:
https://live.freepascal.org/tutorial-sample.html
But also to have specific assignments:
http://live.freepascal.org/?assignment=assignments/hello-world.json
The latter would be useful for a teacher.
The page tries to verify the results, and gives hints (all pre-
configurable).
I know that some people are trying to put together a tutorial.
It is my hope that they will consider integrating this in their
tutorial.
On the server, it is just a set of static files, so no heavy load.
Unzip, and you are ready to go.
I will be committing the code for this in a repo once I've cleaned
up a bit.
Some embryonal ideas for improvements: - Step-by-step tutorial mode >>>>> with manifest - Tutorial progress persistence - Submit results to
teacher endpoint (will need server support)
- Multi-file tabbed editor - Read-only code regions for scaffolded
exercises - Inline hover annotations / code docs-a (AKA: code
insight, the pascal LSP compiled to wasm should enable this)
- Welcome overlay - Contextual "what next?" guidance - Quick-insert >>>>> code snippets - Unit catalog grouped by domain - Resizable split
panes (draggable divider) - Separate console panel from DOM output
- Resizable output iframe + presets - Use FPC itself to output wasm. >>>>>
Other suggestions for improvements are welcome. Contributions as
well, obviously.
The page is an initial version, so be kind in your judgment :-)
Michael.
-a-a Pascal was invented for 'educational purposes' - both
-a-a for learners and as an example of how compilers can
-a-a be done.
Yes, yes, but the point is that they have created a web page where
you can try to create a program and is compiled and run right there,
without having to install anything, to make the introduction far
easier to students and novices.
-a-a Ummm ... there were no web pages when Pascal
-a-a was created.
So? We are talking of an initiative of the freepascal people. Today.
Focus, please.
On 2/25/26 07:15, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-02-25 12:06, c186282 wrote:
On 2/25/26 05:22, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-02-25 03:33, c186282 wrote:
On 2/24/26 13:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Recently there was talk here about Pascal, so I thought I would
forward this here.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Lazarus] Live pascal
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:50:31 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org> >>>>>> Reply-To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>
To: Lazarus mailing list <lazarus@lists.lazarus-ide.org>, FPC
mailing list <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org>
CC: Michael Van Canneyt <...@freepascal.org>
Hello,
Pascal was designed for teaching. I'm sure everyone knows this.
The chairman of the Free Pascal & Lazarus foundation (and me) take >>>>>> this to
heart: we would very much like to reintroduce pascal in schools.
While it is not certain that we will achieve success, we still try to >>>>>> improve the teaching experience for pascal.
Some languages allow you to test the language on a website. No
need to install anything.
We can make the same possible for Pascal.
To this end, I've been working on a project for some time now:
https://live.freepascal.org/
A live editor for pascal, allowing you to run pascal in the browser. >>>>>> It uses pas2js for 'compiling' and lazarus' JCF (compiled to wasm) >>>>>> for formatting the code. You can also pick files from your local
computer.
It features a JIT compiler: if you don't do anything for 3 seconds >>>>>> or more,
it will compile in the background and annotate the code in the
gutter with
errors/warnings etc.
You can embed the editor in an existing page and control it from
the enveloping page:
https://live.freepascal.org/test-embed.html
The idea is to enable a self-paced tutorial:
https://live.freepascal.org/tutorial-sample.html
But also to have specific assignments:
http://live.freepascal.org/?assignment=assignments/hello-world.json >>>>>>
The latter would be useful for a teacher.
The page tries to verify the results, and gives hints (all pre-
configurable).
I know that some people are trying to put together a tutorial.
It is my hope that they will consider integrating this in their
tutorial.
On the server, it is just a set of static files, so no heavy load. >>>>>> Unzip, and you are ready to go.
I will be committing the code for this in a repo once I've cleaned >>>>>> up a bit.
Some embryonal ideas for improvements: - Step-by-step tutorial
mode with manifest - Tutorial progress persistence - Submit
results to teacher endpoint (will need server support)
- Multi-file tabbed editor - Read-only code regions for scaffolded >>>>>> exercises - Inline hover annotations / code docs-a (AKA: code
insight, the pascal LSP compiled to wasm should enable this)
- Welcome overlay - Contextual "what next?" guidance - Quick-
insert code snippets - Unit catalog grouped by domain - Resizable >>>>>> split panes (draggable divider) - Separate console panel from DOM >>>>>> output - Resizable output iframe + presets - Use FPC itself to
output wasm.
Other suggestions for improvements are welcome. Contributions as
well, obviously.
The page is an initial version, so be kind in your judgment :-)
Michael.
-a-a Pascal was invented for 'educational purposes' - both
-a-a for learners and as an example of how compilers can
-a-a be done.
Yes, yes, but the point is that they have created a web page where
you can try to create a program and is compiled and run right there,
without having to install anything, to make the introduction far
easier to students and novices.
-a-a Ummm ... there were no web pages when Pascal
-a-a was created.
So? We are talking of an initiative of the freepascal people. Today.
Focus, please.
-a Post was after midnight-a :-)
-a And you mentioned Wirth's "educational" crusade, so
-a mentioning that time period is fair game.
-a Anyway, I'm not pissing on the FreePascal people
-a at all - indeed happy to see any initiative that
-a is using Pascal instead of Rust-a :-)
-a Note also :
-a https://onecompiler.com/pascal-a (not free)
-a One of the odder places I found Pascal was in a big
-a kit for developing on microcontrollers - 'MikroPascal'.
-a They offered a 'C' compiler too. Speed/code-size was
-a about the same for either. The company now goes by
-a 'Mikroe' but the orig, maybe true, parentage is Serbian.
-a They still sell the big fancy all-in-one dev boards,
-a but you've gotta dig just a bit :
-a https://www.mikroe.com/development-boards-v8
-a Fits many chips and accessories, ldc screen
-a onboard, loads of jumpers and potentiometers
-a and pulse generators and such. PRICE has gone
-a WAY up alas. Mikro-C and MikroPascal are still
-a offered, but you'd need to buy a PIC version
-a and AVR version if you wanted to do both.
I didn't know there were efforts to make teaching of Pascal easier,
teach to new people, as a first (programming) language. I don't know if
the initiative will have some success, but it is at least curious.
| Sysop: | Amessyroom |
|---|---|
| Location: | Fayetteville, NC |
| Users: | 59 |
| Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
| Uptime: | 22:33:19 |
| Calls: | 810 |
| Calls today: | 1 |
| Files: | 1,287 |
| D/L today: |
12 files (21,036K bytes) |
| Messages: | 195,759 |