On 6/25/2025 6:33 AM, Jerome Shidel via Freedos-devel wrote:
Not that it really matters at all. Just curious…
Was using leaked code directly or indirectly simply Speculation or proven fact?
This was as mentioned long, long time ago. And without actually being
able to see the source code, there is no real way to call it a fact. It
was back then rather implied, never confirmed nor denied...
Parts of it, like parser is listed in snippets on the web site, but what is
published is not enough to get the working compiler together.
Trust me, if the source code for this would be legally available, I would have
posted about this long time ago…😛
Then there is little hope of getting an open source TP7 compatible compiler.
While FPC is great, it is not even remotely the same thing at all.
Tell me all about it... 😛
Since, Borland/Inprise/Embarcadero won’t even release it as “Free to use”,
I think that they are highly unlikely to ever make TP5.5 or later open source.
It is not like making nearly 40 year old software open source would be a threat
to their business model.
It is very sad. Just one more reason to stop buying, oh I mean, “renting” their
compilers.
I used to use Delphi after starting to do my main development for
Windows rather than DOS +25years ago now. But when the repeatedly
changed name/ownership, I switched completely to FreePascal/Lazarus,
beside the added bonus that I can use the same source code (almost) also
on Linux and macOS.
I think they won't even be able to properly release Borland Pascal as
Open Source after all this time, as all the folks that worked on it are
either gone, moved to Microsoft (like Hejlsberg) and even old time
advocates like David I are now finally retired. Don't think that the
current development folks in Spain even have a copy of that source code
anymore...
But it is basically the same as with other DOS era software, like
WordPerfect, WordStar or Lotus 1-2-3. It just comes also down to the
fact that "open source" wasn't even really a thing at the time of DOS,
so no one was even remotely preparing their code base for that. There
wasn't even an Internet in the way how it is used today with
Github/-lab, SourceForge, etc. This all just came at least a decade
later, and by that time A LOT was lost... :(
Ralf
_______________________________________________
Freedos-devel mailing list
Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
