Turbo Pascal 3.3f for MSX-DOS (English translation)

Archived. This English translation is now archived and no longer updated. The original Dutch version is preserved in the original branch.

Z80 TURBO Pascal compiler, Version 3.3.

Author and copyright

• Author of the MSX-DOS/MSX-2 version (3.3x/3.3f), including the GIOS (graphics I/O system) and the PC cross-development version: Frits Hilderink, also known as MCE.

• Released through the MSX Computer Club Enschede (Netherlands).

• Original copyright banner of the compiler:

  Z80 TURBO Pascal compiler,             Version 3.3
  
  Copyright (C) MSX computer club Enschede, '93-'96
  

  (see document.txt, section 17.1; years 1993–1996)

• The author's name also appears in this archive itself: overlay.pas prints Frits Hilderink in its overlay demo.

What is this?

Borland's Turbo Pascal 3 (1983) was the last version targeting CP/M. Because MSX-DOS is CP/M-compatible, Turbo Pascal 3 runs on MSX, and it became the best-supported Pascal compiler on the platform. Frits Hilderink patched and installed it for the MSX-2: full MSX-DOS/MSX-DOS 2 file support, an MSX-aware runtime, and the GIOS library giving Pascal programs access to MSX graphics, sprites, sound (PSG), memory mapper, clock, joystick/mouse (GetPad/GetPdl), RS-232-independent DOS functions, and more, plus a PC version for cross-compilation.

This directory (turbo33f) is not the official 3.3f distribution — it is only an English translation of it (see About this copy and Repository contents below). The official distribution (turbo33f.zip, hosted with the author's permission) is linked under Sources and further reading.

About this copy

The manual and the example programs were originally written in Dutch. In this copy they have been translated into English (program identifiers converted to valid English Pascal names; GIOS/Turbo Pascal API names such as Actpage, Atrbyt, Logopr, FillBox, SpriteColor kept unchanged; filenames inside programs kept unchanged). The file document.txt was also converted from its original ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) encoding to UTF-8. The .com/.sys/.tsr binaries are untouched.

contents.txt was formerly inhoud.txt (inhoud = "contents" in Dutch).

Repository contents

Manual and documentation

• document.txt — the full Turbo Pascal + GIOS manual, ~13,800 lines, UTF-8 (translated from Dutch; originally ISO-8859-1). Chapters 1–17 cover the Turbo Pascal 3 language; chapter 18 and appendices H–L cover the GIOS additions, DOS 1/2 extensions and error codes.
• contents.txt — table of contents of document.txt (translated).
• README.md — this file.

Compiler and toolchain

• turbo.com — the Z80 Turbo Pascal 3.3 compiler itself. When run without arguments, it displays:

  Z80 TURBO Pascal compiler,             Version 3.3f (DOS 1/2)
  Copyright (C) MSX computer club Enschede, '93-'99
  Syntax: TURBO <filename> [/C|/H] [/Sxxxx] [/Exxxx] [/Fxxxx]
  /C            compiles <filename> to COM-file
  /H            compiles <filename> to CHAIN-file
  /Sxxxx        code start address (hexadecimal), min. 2E9B
  /Exxxx        data end address (hexadecimal), max. CD42
  /Fxxxx        find runtime error at address xxxx (hexadecimal)
  /R<file>      generates this error file with a compiler error
  /R-           generates no error file
  

• tp3.exe — PC (MS-DOS) cross-compiler executable.

• turbopc.bat — PC build script: runs tp3 on the given sources and joins runtime.com with the resulting .chn file into a .com.

• runtime.com — runtime joined to compiled programs on PC builds.

• overlay.pas — overlay demo program (prints Frits Hilderink).

• command.com, command2.com — command shells bundled with the pack.

• msxdos.sys, msxdos2.sys — MSX-DOS 1 / DOS 2 system files.

• compress.com, crunch.com, dos2cash.com — small bundled utilities (exact purpose undocumented in this archive).

• tr.com — TsrLoad: loads a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) program.

• tk.com — TsrKill: unloads a previously loaded TSR program.

• memman.com — memory-manager helper.

• msxdebug.com — debugger helper.

• getrom.bas — MSX-BASIC program dumping the machine ROMs (BIOS, BASIC, Disk-ROM, MSX-2 sub-ROM) for emulator use.

GIOS library

• gios.com — GIOS library, disk version.
• gios.tsr — GIOS library, memory-resident (TSR) version.

Running the PC cross-compiler (tp3.exe) in DOSBox

tp3.exe is the PC-hosted cross-compiler: an MS-DOS program that runs on a PC (including under DOSBox) and generates Z80 code for MSX. Its own banner says Z80 TURBO Pascal cross-compiler, Version 3.3f (its binary even carries a Copyright (C) MSX computer club Enschede, '93-'99 string). By contrast, turbo.com / runtime.com and everything tp3.exe produces (*.CHN, linked *.COM) are Z80 machine code — those only run on MSX hardware or an MSX emulator such as openMSX, never in DOSBox.

This directory ships repo-local DOSBox settings, so no global DOSBox configuration is needed:

• dosbox-tp3.conf — mounts this directory as C: (relative path, works because the launcher sets the working directory here).
• run-tp3.sh — launcher: ./run-tp3.sh shows the compiler banner; ./run-tp3.sh hello compiles HELLO.PAS and links HELLO.COM exactly like turbopc.bat does (tp3 → .CHN, then runtime.com + .CHN); ./run-tp3.sh --shell opens an interactive DOS prompt. Outputs land in UPPERCASE 8.3 names (HELLO.CHN, HELLO.COM). Verified with DOSBox Staging 0.82.2: banner, successful compilation (Code: 56 bytes, Data: 263 bytes for the hello-world test) and correct link sizes (HELLO.COM = 11675-byte runtime + .CHN).

Example programs (*.pas, one per GIOS routine, translated to English)

Graphics:

• attr.pas — SpriteAttributeAddress
• c_color.pas — ChangeColor
• circle.pas — Circle
• displayp.pas — DisplayPage
• expand.pas — Expand
• fastbox.pas — FastBox
• fastcopy.pas — FastCopy
• fillbox.pas — FillBox
• fillsha.pas — FillShape
• fillspri.pas — FillSprite
• fwrite.pas — FWrite (fast text output demo)
• gcopy.pas — GCopy
• line.pas — Line
• loadpic.pas — LoadPicture
• paint.pas — Paint
• point.pas — Point
• pset.pas — PSet
• savepict.pas — SavePicture
• screen.pas — Screen
• scronoff.pas — ScreenOn/ScreenOff
• search.pas — Search

Sprites:

• sprcolor.pas — SpriteColor
• sproff.pas — SpritesOff/SpritesOn
• sprsize.pas — SpriteSize

Sound and input:

• sound.pas — Sound (PSG)
• stick.pas — Stick (joystick/cursor keys)
• strig.pas — Strig (trigger buttons)
• getfkey.pas — GetFKey (function keys)
• getpad.pas — GetPad (mouse/tablet)
• getpdl.pas — GetPdl (paddles)

Memory mapper:

• clearmem.pas — ClearMem
• readmem.pas — ReadMem
• writemem.pas — WriteMem
• setchan.pas — SetChannel
• setmem.pas — SetMem

System clock, disk and VDP:

• date.pas / setdate.pas — Date / SetDate
• time.pas / settime.pas — Time / SetTime
• readsect.pas / writesec.pas — ReadSector / WriteSector
• readvdp.pas / writevdp.pas — ReadVDP / WriteVDP
• readpsg.pas — ReadPSG (PSG registers dump)
• vpeek.pas / vpoke.pas — VPeek / VPoke (VRAM access)
• waitvdp.pas — WaitVDP (VDP command completion)

Demo programs:

• gios.asc — Bezier-curve demo for GIOS (©1991 MSX Computer Magazine), Turbo Pascal source using {$IGIOS.INC} (translated to English).

Sources and further reading

• Hans Otten, "Turbo Pascal on CP/M, MSX-DOS and MS-DOS" — http://pascal.hansotten.com/delphi/turbo-pascal-on-cpm-msx-dos-and-ms-dos — hosts the official 3.3f distribution with permission of Frits Hilderink (turbo33f.zip), the MSX-2 installed version (tpmsx2.zip), the Turbo Pascal 3.0 manual, and the MCM 51 article on GIOS.
• MSX Resource Center — https://www.msx.org (software archive, forums).
• MSX-DOS background — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX-DOS; Turbo Pascal background — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal.

Legal notes

• Turbo Pascal is a Borland (now Embarcadero/Micro Focus heritage) product; old versions (1.0, 3.02, 5.5) were released by Borland as freeware for historical interest. The MSX-2 port and GIOS are the work of Frits Hilderink / MSX Computer Club Enschede, (C) 1993–1996, distributed with the author's permission via the site above.
• MSX is a trademark of MSX Licensing Corporation.
• This English translation is provided for preservation/study purposes; the original Dutch texts remain the authoritative reference for the author's intent.