Getting Free Pascal

You can download Free Pascal from the internet. Go to http://www.us.freepascal.org/download.html, then click on the link to your operating system. Most of you will click on ``Win32'' for most versions of Windows.

Once you are at the Win32 download page, you can right-click on the link to w32???.zip, where ??? is the version number (106 at the time this is written). From the pop-up menu, select ``Save Link As File'' or ``Save Target as File'' (depending on your browser). Pick a place to save the file, I suggest C:\Windows\Temp.

You need a utility program to open a ZIP file. Some of you may have WinZIP or other ZIP utility programs installed already, others may not know what to with a ZIP file at all. Don't worry, just follow these instructions:

• right-click http://www.drtak.org/util/unzip.exe, and select ``Save Link As File''.

  Unless you know how to change environment variables, you need to save this file as unzip.exe in a the Windows folder. It is most likely C:\Windows for most versions of Windows, and C:\Winnt for NT4 and Windows 2000.

• Click the ``Start'' button, then select ``Run...'', in the dialog box, type command and press ENTER.
• Change directory to where you saved the ZIP file. If you followed my instructions, it should be in C:\Temp. Type the following command:

  cd \Windows\Temp
  

• Now unzip the file with the following command (replace ??? with an actual version number):

  unzip w32???.zip
  

• After the ZIP file is uncompressed, type the following command:

  install
  

• Accept all default values in the installation screen, click the ``Continue'' button.

Once Free Pascal is installed, you can invoke it using different methods. For convenience, I suggest you make a shortcut on the desktop. This is rather easy to do.

• Right-click any where on the desktop, click ``New'', then select ``Shortcut''
• Either browse to the folder or simply enter

  C:\pp\bin\win32\fp.exe
  

• Click ``Next'', then enter ``Free Pascal'' as the name.
• Click ``Finish'' and you are done!