Archive-name: pascal/borland-minifaq
Posting-Frequency: Every Week
Last-modified: 1997/1/16
Version: 1.0

/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * \
*                                                                        *
*                   =======  WELCOME ALL USERS =======                   *
*                                                                        *
*                      TO comp.lang.pascal.borland!                      *
*                                                                        *
\ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * /

This is the comp.lang.pascal.borland Mini-FAQ, created by Tom Wheeley and
maintained by Chris Mathews <rse...@site33.ping.at>
mailto: rse...@site33.ping.at

What's New?  (New bits are marked with a '|' at the line beginning)

|Pascal Central has moved to a new domain.  The old URL will provide a link
|to the new location, but only as long as I keep my AOL account.  If you
|have any links to Pascal Central, please update your page to incorporate
|the new URL:

|http://www.catambay.com/pascal-central/

***********************************************************************

Contents:

        1  What is comp.lang.pascal.borland?
          1.1  History of the Group
          1.2  Posting Guidelines

        2  Where can I find {more?} Information?
          2.1  FAQs (about Pascal)
          2.2  FTP sites
          2.3  WWW sites
          2.4  Notable sources of information
          2.5  Uploading your masterpieces to an FTP site or SWAG

        3  Frequently Asked Questions (Not for the Pascal language).
           *Including*
           . How do I make EXE files with Turbo Pascal?
           . What is the difference between BP, TP and TP for Windows?
           . Are there any freeware Pascal compilers?

        APPENDIX A - FTP site mirrors
        APPENDIX B - Credits

***********************************************************************
 1.  What is comp.lang.pascal.borland?
*************************************************************************

This is the group for discussion on Borland Pascal, Turbo Pascal and
Pascal for Windows systems.  All users are welcome, and this group is
not moderated.  In order to keep Usenet confusion down, we request that
you post only questions or discussions concerning Pascal on the Borland
Pascal compilers.

Please note that the Delphi does not belong in this group. There are
many groups for Delphi discussion:

comp.lang.pascal.delphi.advocacy Contentious issues related to Delphi.
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce Delphi related announcements. (Moderated)
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.misc General component issues.
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.usage Using pre-written components.
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.writing Writing Delphi components.
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.databases Database aspects of Borland Delphi.
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc General issues with Borland Delphi.
comp.sources.delphi Delphi and ObjectPascal source code. (Moderated)

There are also the following Pascal groups:

comp.lang.pascal.ansi-iso  Pascal according to ANSI and ISO standards.
comp.lang.pascal.mac    Macintosh based Pascals.
comp.lang.pascal.misc   Pascal in general and ungrouped Pascals.
de.comp.lang.pascal     Pascal, inkl. Turbo-.
fido.ger.pascal         Turbo Pascal Programming.
fido.ger.windows.tp     Talking about Turbo-Pascal-WINDOW programming.
maus.lang.tpascal       Turbo-Pascal, selten andere Pascal-Dialekte.
relcom.comp.lang.pascal Using of Pascal programming language.
relcom.comp.lang.pascal.misc Sources and materials, Pascal-like languages.

And the Turbovision group described as "Borland's text application
libraries."  It is C-biased, but Pascal does get a look-in:

comp.os.msdos.programmer.turbovision

Prof. Timo Salmi posts a FAQ regarding the newsgroup reorganization
weekly.  It is also available from garbo (see 'FTP sites')

Please do not post to the obsolete groups:
   alt.comp.lang.borland-delphi
   comp.lang.pascal
   comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components

* History of the Group

This group was created by popular vote on June 12, 1995.
Information on the group is available from:
        ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/doc-net/pasgroup.zip

* Posting Guidelines

  - "A problem well stated is a problem half solved"  Charles F. Kettering

  -  Put as much information as you can early in the subject line.
     *Subjects like "help me" or "question about Pascal" are silly.*
     Also note that some newsreaders truncate the subject line early.

  -  Usually, it will be sufficient to post to a single one of the Pascal
     groups.  But if you ever need to post to more than one group, be sure
     to use a single cross-posted article rather than multiple postings;
     the Newsgroups entry lists the groups, separated by commas.

  -  Please do not request the answer to your question solely via e-mail!
     Someone else will be interested, and it is only polite to the readers

  -  We will not do your homework for you!
     We will, however, give advice on specific topics.

  -  Be aware of limits. Many newsreaders have difficulty with subject
     lines over 40 characters (which get chopped up). Try to keep
     your posting text lines to 70 characters or LESS. If you use more,
     your posts will look messy when quoted.

  -  *Binaries should NOT be posted to this group.*  Nor MIME Attachments.
     (Especially {*word*193} are those mailers which convert '=' to '=3D', a very
     bad thing to do to some Pascal source code...)
     If you want to distribute binaries or large source files then you could
     upload it to one of the FTP sites. See the section 'Uploading your
     masterpieces to an FTP site'

     If you are wondering *why* binaries are banned, read this:
        ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/ts/tsfaqn43.zip
      13. *****
       Q: May I just go ahead and post binaries to discussion newsgroups?

     Expressly forbidden is posting of any commercial material, for
     example Turbo Pascal 7, or even just GRAPH.TPU.  *This is illegal*
     Do not even ask for these.  Contact Borland if you have a problem.

*************************************************************************
 2.  Where can I find more information?
*************************************************************************

* Pascal FAQs:
   - The infamous, ubiquitous, mandatory and downright useful
     Timo Salmi's 'Common Turbo Pascal Questions and Timo's answers'
     is available at ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/link/tsfaqp.zip

   - Jon Shemitz' comp.lang.pascal FAQ
     http://www.midnightbeach.com/jon/pubs/clp-faq.htm

   - Pascal Turbo Vision FAQ
     http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/pasfhome.html (see WWW section)

* Learning Pascal

   - If you are beginning Pascal, or want to learn some new techniques,
     you could do far worse than take a look at Glenn Grotzinger's TP
     Tutorial, in section 2.4

*************************************************************************
 2.2   FTP sites: See Appendix A for mirrors
*************************************************************************

'Garbo'   The primary Turbo Pascal source/unit site.
          ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/   {turbopa* directories}
          http://garbo.uwasa.fi

'Oulu'    Lots of files related to game (and demo?) programming.
          ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/
          http://x2ftp.oulu.fi

'Simtel'  Enormous MS-DOS archive
          ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet
          http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/

'Borland' Borland's Web site
          ftp://ftp.borland.com/
          http://www.borland.com/index.html

TV site   Turbovision source/applications ?
          ftp://jam.cog.brown.edu/pub/turbo-vision

These may be referred to by the name in the left hand column, both in
this FAQ, and on the newsgroup.  For Simtel and Garbo at least, please
try to use a closer, faster, mirror site. (In Appendix A)

*************************************************************************
 2.3   WWW sites
*************************************************************************

If you have a Web site concentrating on Pascal (esp. Borland), then why
not get it added to the list in the FAQ?  Just send the URL and a short
description to me, <URL:mailto:rse...@site33.ping.at>.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Turbo Pascal Programmers Page
  http://www.cs.vu.nl/~jprins/tp.html

This page is supposed to give a quick overview of what is available
on the net for programmers in Turbo/Borland Pascal.

The page covers:

   BGI drivers, Book descriptions, Compilers, Delphi, FAQ's,
   FTP sites, Game programming, Genetic programming, Graphics programming,
   Information, Manuals, Newsgroups, Numeric programming, Sources,
   Sound programming, Turbo Vision, Websearching, Windows programming,
   Winsock programming, WWW sites, ZZZ attic

{Jeroen Prins}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Scott's Cool Programming Page
  http://www.vivanet.com/~scotts/pascal

This page is mainly devoted to the cooler aspects of programming
including sound blaster, cd-rom and graphics. I have articles which are
articles I've either found or written on certain topics and I have a file
formats section and a newgroups section (only has one newgroup in it
right now). Its not entirely Pascal, there is some C code in one or two
of the articles but I program in Pascal and my articles all have Pascal
code in it.

{Scott Serven}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
* TVPlus: Home Page
  http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/tvhome.html

This is mainly C-biased, but the Pascal section is accessible from
http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/pasfhome.html

In article <6PbYTk1j...@site33.ping.at> of Sun, 26 Jan 1997 09:55:00 in
comp.lang.pascal.borland, Chris Mathews <rse...@site33.ping.at> wrote:

==

In the section "* What are the Borland Pascal Products", might it be
worth adding something very explicit about BP & TP and all components
being commercial, and that therefore any distribution by unofficial
means is illegal?