Experimental i386 Bootloader/Kernel Written in Pascal Demonstrates Low-Level Systems Programming
By
peter_d_sherman
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Summary
Jacqueline is an experimental bootloader/kernel written in Pascal for the i386 architecture, created as a personal project to demonstrate that low-level systems programming is possible with the Free Pascal dialect. The developer notes that unlike their other project NativeOS, they have no plans for further development once the system compiles and runs in an emulator. The article explains that while Pascal wasn't designed for low-level programming, Free Pascal supports features found in languages like C, C++, and Rust's unsafe mode, making it suitable for this type of systems programming.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledJacqueline is an experimental bootloader written in Pascal (Free Pascal dialect) written for the i386 architecture, just because.
Note that, unlike NativeOS, I have no plans to further develop Jacqueline once the system compiles and I'm able to start the image using an emulator.
Even while Pascal wasn't written with low-level programming in mind, it is nonetheless possible to do low-level systems programming with the Free Pascal dialect.
Free Pascal is able to support features that are present in other low-level languages such as C, C++ or even Rust in unsafe mode.
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