LabHub

Blog

Modern Pascal & Delphi 2026 Deep Dive - RAD Studio 12, FreePascal 3.2, Lazarus 3, Castle Game Engine, Oxygene, pas2js

2026-05-16 · 25 min read · #pascal#delphi#rad-studio#freepascal#lazarus#castle-game-engine#oxygene#pas2js#object-pascal#english

한국어English日本語

Prologue — Who Still Writes Pascal in 2026

"Pascal? Is that not the language schools used to teach?"

In May 2026 I still get this question. The answer is the opposite of what most assume. Pascal is alive — and doing well.

And in November 2025, Embarcadero released RAD Studio 12 Athens, combining Delphi 12 and C++Builder 12 in one IDE with AI Code Insight, Skia integration, a refreshed FireMonkey FMX, and full targeting of macOS Tahoe and iOS 19. The Free Pascal team shipped 3.2.4 as a stabilization release and stabilized the 3.3.x trunk in the same month; Lazarus 3.10 followed.

This article walks the entire Pascal ecosystem in one breath — from RAD Studio 12 down through FPC, Lazarus, Castle Game Engine, Oxygene, and TMS WEB Core/pas2js — and ends with an honest answer to "why do people still write Pascal."

1. A Short History of Pascal — 1970 to 2026

One thing first: the Pascal of 2026 is not the Turbo Pascal of 1985.

The point: Pascal did not stop at Delphi 1995. Generics (Delphi 2009), anonymous methods (2009), attributes (2010), inline variables (Delphi 10.3), managed records (Delphi 10.4) — almost every feature of a modern language is in Object Pascal too.

2. Embarcadero RAD Studio 12 Athens — The Mothership Today

RAD Studio bundles Delphi and C++Builder in one IDE. As of the 12.3 update in November 2025, the core features are:

Pricing (as of May 2026):

EditionPerpetualAnnual subscription
Community (personal, revenue under 5000 USD)FreeFree
ProfessionalAbout 1,899 USDAbout 829 USD per year
EnterpriseAbout 3,499 USDAbout 1,599 USD per year
ArchitectAbout 5,499 USDAbout 2,499 USD per year

Honest assessment:

Strengths — VCL is still the most mature GUI framework on Windows. Compilation is extremely fast (medium and large projects compile in tens of seconds). Single-EXE deployment. Deterministic memory and resource management.

Weaknesses — License pricing is steep for hobbyists. Mac, Linux, and iOS targeting works but is not as smooth as Windows. Mobile UI feels a bit dated compared to Flutter and React Native.

3. FreePascal 3.2 and 3.3 — The Free Open-Source Compiler

The Free Pascal Compiler (FPC), started in 1993, is the open-source Pascal compiler. As of May 2026, the stable line is 3.2.4 and the trunk is 3.3.x.

Supported platforms (2026):

This matrix rivals GCC and LLVM. And compile speed is among the very fastest of any compiler — a million-line project compiles in seconds, not minutes.

Delphi compatibility — With mode Delphi, FPC compiles Delphi 7 to XE code nearly unchanged. Some Delphi 12 features (parts of managed records, etc.) are not yet supported, but over 90 percent of Delphi code compiles in FPC.

Object Pascal mode — mode ObjFPC is FPC's native mode with stricter syntax but a more modern feel. Explicit Self, @ before method pointers, and so on.

4. Lazarus 3.x — The RAD IDE for Free Pascal

FPC is the compiler; Lazarus is the IDE plus RAD library on top of it. As of Lazarus 3.10 in November 2025:

Why Lazarus is attractive:

  1. Completely free — GPL and LGPL, commercial use allowed.
  2. One codebase for Win, Mac, Linux, and BSD — An API close to VCL.
  3. Legacy Delphi migration — Usually 80 to 95 percent compiles unchanged.
  4. Fast compile and small executables — No external runtime dependency.

Weaknesses:

5. The Object Pascal Language — What It Actually Is in 2026

The "Pascal is an old language" stereotype belongs to someone who stopped looking in 1990. In 2026, Object Pascal has all of the following:

Here is a slice of modern Object Pascal. Inline variables, managed records, and generic methods are all present.

program ModernPascalDemo;

{$mode Delphi}{$H+}

uses
  System.SysUtils, System.Generics.Collections;

type
  TUser = record
    Id: Integer;
    Name: string;
    class operator Initialize(out U: TUser);
    class operator Finalize(var U: TUser);
  end;

class operator TUser.Initialize(out U: TUser);
begin
  U.Id := 0;
  U.Name := '';
end;

class operator TUser.Finalize(var U: TUser);
begin
  WriteLn('User ', U.Name, ' is gone');
end;

function FindByName<T>(const Items: TArray<T>; const Pred: TFunc<T, Boolean>): T;
begin
  for var Item in Items do
    if Pred(Item) then Exit(Item);
  Result := Default(T);
end;

var
  Users: TArray<TUser>;
begin
  SetLength(Users, 2);
  Users[0].Id := 1; Users[0].Name := 'Alice';
  Users[1].Id := 2; Users[1].Name := 'Bob';

  var Found := FindByName<TUser>(Users,
    function(U: TUser): Boolean begin Result := U.Name = 'Bob'; end);

  WriteLn('Found: ', Found.Name);
end.

Still feels like an "old language"? Read it once and judge again.

6. Modern Object Pascal Introduction — Michalis Kamburelis's Free Book

Michalis Kamburelis is the maintainer of Castle Game Engine and a pillar of the Object Pascal community. His "Modern Object Pascal Introduction for Programmers" (about 80 pages) is the shortest path from another language into Pascal.

The structure:

  1. Type system — Integer, string, array, record, class, interface
  2. Memory management — New and Dispose, ARC, managed types
  3. Object orientation — class, visibility, inheritance, interfaces, virtual and override
  4. Generics — TList<T> and writing your own
  5. Control flow — anonymous methods, for-in, the with statement (not recommended)
  6. Modules — unit, uses, interface and implementation sections
  7. Build systems — fpmake, lazbuild, Delphi MSBuild

The book is free and downloadable as a single file from the Castle Game Engine site. It is equally useful to a first-time Pascal reader and someone who stopped at Delphi 7.

7. Castle Game Engine — A 3D Engine Written in Object Pascal

Castle Game Engine started in 2001 and is an open-source 3D engine. As of December 2025, the stable line is 7.0-alpha.3; the 7.0 release is imminent in May 2026.

Core features:

Why pick Castle Game Engine:

  1. Compilation is fast — Unity takes minutes, Unreal longer. Castle takes seconds.
  2. Single executable — no external runtime.
  3. Deterministic memory — no GC pauses.
  4. Free and open source — Apache 2.0.
  5. Both 2D and 3D — Spine, Tiled, Cocos2d assets import directly.

Weaknesses — Smaller community than Unity or Unreal, the visual editor is still maturing, no visual-script equivalent of Unreal Blueprint.

8. TMS Software — A Specialist Delphi Component Vendor

TMS Software is a Belgian Delphi and C++Builder component vendor. As of May 2026, the core products are:

TMS All-Access subscription — All TMS products together for roughly 1,500 EUR per year (May 2026). The most common bundle at mid-sized Delphi shops.

9. DevExpress VCL — The Standard for Windows Enterprise UI

DevExpress is a US-based (originally Ukrainian) UI vendor strong across .NET, JS, and Delphi. On the Delphi side the key products are:

Perpetual licenses start around 1,500 USD. More than half of Korean financial and government Delphi projects ship DevExpress VCL.

10. Skia for Delphi — A Modern Graphics Stack

Skia is Google's 2D graphics library, the one behind Chrome, Flutter, and Android. Skia4Delphi is an open-source binding bringing Skia to Delphi and Lazarus, and since 2025 it has been the default graphics backend for FMX and VCL in RAD Studio 12.

What you get:

The Delphi 12 standard components TSkLabel, TSkAnimatedImage, and TSkSVG are built on this. It outperforms the GDI+ based Canvas of the 2010s in every dimension.

11. Spring4D — Modern Delphi DI and Collections

Spring4D is a Delphi library inspired by Spring in .NET and Spring in Java. As of May 2026, the stable line is 2.0.

Components:

Example DI usage:

uses Spring.Container, Spring.Container.Common;

type
  [Inject]
  IUserService = interface
    function FindByEmail(const Email: string): IUser;
  end;

  TUserController = class
  private
    [Inject]
    FUserService: IUserService;
  public
    procedure HandleRequest;
  end;

var
  Container: TContainer;
begin
  Container := TContainer.Create;
  Container.RegisterType<TUserService>.Implements<IUserService>;
  Container.RegisterType<TUserController>;
  Container.Build;

  var Controller := Container.Resolve<TUserController>;
  Controller.HandleRequest;
end.

It is the de facto standard in enterprise Delphi projects.

12. PascalABC.NET — A Russian Academic .NET Pascal

PascalABC.NET is a .NET-based Pascal developed at Saratov State University in Russia. It is built for education and algorithm practice and is the standard language in algorithm classes across Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Highlights:

Few people outside the classroom use it, but for Russian-speaking students PascalABC.NET is their first Pascal.

13. Oxygene — RemObjects's Multi-Target Pascal

Oxygene is a modern Pascal dialect from RemObjects Software. It runs on the Elements compiler and compiles the same Pascal source to .NET, Java and Android, iOS and macOS (Cocoa), and WebAssembly.

Per-platform targets:

Elements also supports Hydra, Mercury (a modern Visual Basic), Iodine (Java-compatible), Silver (Swift-compatible), and Go (Go-compatible) in the same toolchain.

Oxygene is sold by RemObjects subscription, starting around 999 USD per year (May 2026). The market is small in practice, but teams attracted by "one codebase for .NET, iOS, Android, and Web" choose it.

14. Hydra — Multi-Language Hosting

Also from RemObjects, Hydra is a library that hosts Delphi, .NET, and Java objects in a single process. You can drop a .NET WPF control onto a Delphi VCL form, and embed a Java Swing panel inside that.

Uses:

Honest take: It looks great but is awkward in practice. Memory models, event loops, and exception handling differ across languages. For a real migration, picking one language consistently is usually wiser.

15. mORMot — The REST and ORM Framework for Delphi

mORMot (Synopse mORMot) is an open-source framework by French developer Arnaud Bouchez. As of May 2026, mORMot 2 is stable.

Components:

Why mORMot:

  1. Very fast — The SQLite backend handles tens to hundreds of thousands of transactions per second.
  2. Single executable — Almost no dependencies.
  3. Interface-based SOA — A Pascal interface is exposed as REST directly.
  4. Free and open source — Triple-licensed MPL, GPL, and LGPL.

On the server side of an enterprise Delphi project, mORMot is the de facto standard.

16. DataSnap — Embarcadero's Official RAD Client and Server

DataSnap is Embarcadero's official RAD client and server framework, bundled with RAD Studio Enterprise and above.

Features:

Honest take: DataSnap works, but in performance and flexibility it lags mORMot. For a brand-new project in 2026, far more teams pick mORMot.

17. Indy and ICS — Two Networking Camps in Delphi

When writing TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP, or SMTP in Delphi, you have two choices.

Indy (Internet Direct):

ICS (Internet Component Suite):

When to use which:

Use caseRecommendation
Simple HTTP clientIndy (IdHTTP)
High-performance TCP serverICS
SMTP, POP3, IMAP clientIndy
HTTPS WebSocket serverICS or mORMot

18. REST.Json and System.Net — Delphi Standard Library

Since Delphi XE6, the standard library has a modern REST and JSON stack.

This standard library experimentally supports HTTP/3 (QUIC) in RAD Studio 12 (January 2026 update).

19. TMS WEB Core and pas2js — Pascal to JavaScript

pas2js is the Pascal-to-JavaScript compiler from the Free Pascal team. TMS WEB Core is the commercial product layering RAD tooling on top.

What you get:

TMS WEB Core 2.6 (January 2026) features:

Use cases — A legacy Delphi team that wants to build a web frontend in the same language. For a team starting their first web project from scratch, React or Vue is the more realistic pick.

20. Smart Pascal and Elements — Other Pascal Variants

Beyond the RAD Studio family covered above, several Pascal variants exist.

For a new project in 2026, start with one of three: RAD Studio 12, Lazarus 3, or Castle Game Engine.

21. Real-World 2026 Pascal Use — Five Scenarios

A concrete answer to "who still writes Pascal".

Scenario A — Bank core system maintenance

Poland's PKO BP, Germany's Sparkasse, and parts of Eastern European and Russian banks wrote their cores in Delphi between 1990 and 2010, and they are still maintained in 2026. New features arrive via mORMot and Spring4D; clients remain VCL.

Scenario B — Manufacturing SCADA and MES

A large share of factory HMIs at Siemens, Bosch, and Festo were built in Delphi. Real-time data, serial and Modbus, and OPC UA all run well in Delphi. New SCADA in 2026 trends toward .NET or C++, but existing assets stay.

Scenario C — Game engine development

Indie 3D games built with Castle Game Engine. Pascal's compile speed and deterministic memory map well to a game loop. VR and Switch targets are reachable.

Scenario D — Windows desktop LOB apps

ERP, CRM, inventory, and POS for mid-sized companies — memory footprint is one-tenth of Tauri or Electron, executable size is one-fifth. VCL and LCL grids and charts remain strong.

Scenario E — Education and algorithms

The Polish IOI team and the Russian IOI team use Pascal (alongside C++). PascalABC.NET and FPC are common school IDEs.

22. Migration Paths — If You Leave

"If we move our Delphi code to another language, where do we go?"

Option 1 — Stay on Delphi but modernize

Option 2 — Delphi to Lazarus

Option 3 — Delphi to C# (.NET)

Option 4 — Delphi to Rust plus Tauri

Option 5 — Delphi to Go

Most teams pick option 1 or 2. The larger the codebase, the truer this becomes.

23. Famous Software Written in Delphi

Evidence that Delphi was widely used in practice.

All of these still ship in the tens of millions of downloads.

24. The Delphi Communities in Korea, Japan, and Eastern Europe

Korea — The Delphi User Group (DelphiKorea) was founded in 1996 and remains active in 2026. Regular seminars, the KFD (Korea Free Delphi) group, and around 8,000 members on the Naver cafe. Financial and government SI projects still hire Delphi engineers.

Japan — Delphi User Group and Embarcadero Tech Days Japan (once a year). Regular meetups in Tokyo and Osaka. Some large Japanese game studios use Delphi for client tooling.

Poland, Russia, Ukraine — The largest Delphi community. Pascal is one of the standard languages for algorithms in school. SpaceCRM, Roxen, and some Kaspersky tools are in Delphi.

Germany — The most mature enterprise Delphi market. The EKON conference runs every year.

Brazil — The largest Delphi market in Latin America. EmbarcaderoBR is very active.

25. Why People Still Write Pascal — An Honest Answer

The central question of this article. Five answers.

  1. Compile speed — A million-line project compiles in seconds, not minutes. CI gets faster and the inner loop tightens.
  2. Native single EXE — No JVM, no runtime, no interpreter. Deployment is simple.
  3. Deterministic resource management — No GC pauses. A fit for embedded and industrial control.
  4. VCL, FMX, and LCL component assets — 25 years of components still work.
  5. Sentiment and inertia — Developers who picked up Delphi 1 in 1995 are in their 50s now. They built companies, and those companies' code is Delphi.

The fifth answer is the most honest and the most powerful motive. People work with the tools they know well.

26. Compared to Modern Alternatives

If you did the same job in another language?

ComparisonDelphi or PascalC# or .NETRustGoKotlin
Compile speedVery fastFastSlowFastModerate
GUI framework maturityVCL strongWPF, MAUIWeakWeakCompose Multiplatform
Memory safetyManual or partialGCCompile-timeGCGC
Cross-platformFMX, LCLMAUI, Avaloniaegui, icedgiouiKMP
Ecosystem sizeSmallVery largeMedium (growing)LargeLarge
Learning curveEasyModerateSteepVery easyModerate
License costRAD Studio expensive, Lazarus freeFreeFreeFreeFree
Community energyStable, shrinkingVery activeVery activeActiveActive

Summary — The strengths of Pascal and Delphi are "native Windows GUI plus fast compile plus deterministic memory". Unless those three are core requirements, a new 2026 project usually goes to another language.

27. Recommended Learning Path — From Zero to One

If you are picking up Pascal for the first time, or returning to it:

  1. Language basics — "Modern Object Pascal Introduction" by Michalis Kamburelis (free PDF, 80 pages)
  2. Get the IDE in hand — Install Lazarus 3 and build a simple calculator app with the form designer
  3. Components and events — TButton.OnClick, TEdit.OnChange, TStringGrid
  4. First mini-project — A TODO app (SQLite backend) using Spring4D collections
  5. REST client — Call a public API with System.Net.HttpClient
  6. First game — Follow the Castle Game Engine tutorial and roll a 3D cube
  7. Books — "Object Pascal Handbook" or "Mastering Delphi" by Marco Cantù
  8. Community — DelphiKorea, the r/delphi and r/fpc subreddits, the Lazarus forum

Three months is enough to be comfortable. Pascal's BEGIN and END are a bit verbose, but that is the only catch.

28. Common Pitfalls and Answers

"Is Pascal not a dead language?" That impression stalled in the 1990s. RAD Studio 12, FPC 3.3, and Lazarus 3.10 ship regularly in 2026. Modern libraries like mORMot, Castle, and Spring4D are active.

"BEGIN and END are too long." At first, yes. A month is enough to get used to. And BEGIN and END produce clearer diagnostics than a one-character brace.

"VCL components look dated." With Skia4Delphi and Material libraries, modern designs are reachable. The default components look 1990s only if you choose to leave them alone.

"There are few libraries." Compared to NPM or PyPI, yes. But GetIt (the RAD Studio package manager), DelphiNES, the JEDI Code Library, and the mORMot ecosystem cover most everyday needs.

"The job market is small." Small but well paid. Senior Delphi salaries in Poland, Germany, and Japan are equal to or slightly above those of comparable Java or C# seniors. Supply is short.

"Lazarus is free but has no commercial support." Lazarus itself is GPL and LGPL. Buy commercial support by moving to Embarcadero RAD Studio or by buying from vendors like TMS, DevExpress, and SDL Components. Lazarus alone is enough for plenty of commercial projects.

29. Books and Resources

Worthwhile books (as of 2026):

English material dominates. In Korean, look at the DelphiKorea forum; in Japanese, "Hachi Obu Jima" and "Programming Delphi" carry the torch.

30. Conclusion — A Stable Giant on the Shoulders of Giants

Pascal was designed by Niklaus Wirth in 1970 as an educational language. Fifty-six years later, in 2026, Pascal is alive and very much working.

The thirty chapters above compress to one sentence.

Pascal survived "where it was needed". It is not the new trend, but there is no better tool for running old code well.

Pascal users do not chase trends. They chase making working code keep working. In 2026, that value still holds.

References

  1. Embarcadero — RAD Studio 12 Athens: https://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio
  2. Embarcadero — Delphi 12 What's New: https://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Athens/en/What%27s_New
  3. Free Pascal Compiler: https://www.freepascal.org/
  4. FPC 3.2.4 Release Notes: https://wiki.freepascal.org/FPC_New_Features_3.2.4
  5. Lazarus IDE: https://www.lazarus-ide.org/
  6. Castle Game Engine: https://castle-engine.io/
  7. Modern Object Pascal Introduction (Michalis Kamburelis): https://castle-engine.io/modern_pascal
  8. Marco Cantu blog: https://blog.marcocantu.com/
  9. Object Pascal Handbook (Marco Cantu): https://www.marcocantu.com/objectpascalhandbook/
  10. TMS Software: https://www.tmssoftware.com/
  11. TMS WEB Core: https://www.tmssoftware.com/site/tmswebcore.asp
  12. DevExpress VCL: https://www.devexpress.com/products/vcl/
  13. Skia4Delphi: https://skia4delphi.org/
  14. Spring4D: https://www.spring4d.org/
  15. mORMot: https://github.com/synopse/mORMot2
  16. PascalABC.NET: https://pascalabc.net/
  17. RemObjects Oxygene: https://www.elementscompiler.com/elements/oxygene/
  18. RemObjects Hydra: https://www.remobjects.com/hydra/
  19. Indy Project: https://www.indyproject.org/
  20. ICS (Internet Component Suite): https://www.overbyte.eu/
  21. pas2js: https://wiki.freepascal.org/pas2js
  22. JEDI Code Library: https://www.delphi-jedi.org/
  23. DelphiKorea (Delphi User Group): https://cafe.naver.com/delmadang
  24. Lazarus Forum: https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/
  25. Embarcadero Community: https://community.idera.com/developer-tools/
  26. Delphi Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/delphi/
  27. Free Pascal Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/fpc/
  28. EKON Conference: https://entwickler-konferenz.de/ekon/
  29. Embarcadero Tech Days Japan: https://www.embarcadero.com/jp/
  30. Nick Hodges blog: https://www.nickhodges.com/

Read the original: https://www.youngju.dev/blog/culture/2026-05-16-modern-pascal-delphi-2026-rad-studio-12-freepascal-3-2-lazarus-3-castle-game-engine-oxygene-deep-dive.en

Comments

No comments yet.

Sign in to leave a comment