
Ask HN: What resources have you used to learn Free Pascal? - jetti
I&#x27;m trying to learn Free Pascal (since Delphi isn&#x27;t available on Linux) but am finding that resources for learning are slim. There is the Free Pascal wiki, which leaves much to be desired and then I found this site: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;castle-engine.io&#x2F;modern_pascal_introduction.html but that is about it. Is it safe to say that anything Delphi is safe to use to learn Free Pascal?
======
doozy
It's been a long time, but Marco Cantu's books are widely considered some of
the best Pascal/Delphi resources available. Essential Pascal is his
introductory book.

~~~
jetti
I've found his stuff while searching for resources but it is Delphi focused.
Is that a big issue? I know there are VCL items that are not in the LCL but
other than that is there a big difference? If I could use Delphi resources
then it would be much easier.

~~~
doozy
For the better or the worse, Delphi has become the defacto standard Pascal
implementation. Free Pascal aims to be compatible with it and Lazarus is
pretty much a clone of Delphi 7. If memory serves right, neither Cantu's
Essential Pascal book, which is a brief introduction to the language, nor his
comprehensive Object Pascal Handbook cover the VCL but focus on the language
itself.

You may want to ask these questions in the Free Pascal community, this stuff
is too uncool for the HN crowd.

~~~
jetti
Thanks for your help. I'll take a look at Cantu's book.

