November 3, 2025
Pas-caliente flame war
Ask HN: Anyone else use FreePascal as their low level language?
Coder bails on C for Pascal—HN explodes over what “low‑level” even means
TLDR: A dev asked if FreePascal can replace C/C++ for lower-level work and sparked a big debate. Commenters split between “Pascal isn’t low-level—try Ada” and “Pascal is comfy and safer,” while Go and C# fans piled in, turning it into a lively showdown over safety, simplicity, and nostalgia.
One Hacker News poster confessed that after 25 years with C/C++, they kept “shooting myself in the foot,” tried Go and Rust, and landed on FreePascal (a Pascal compiler) because it has classes, exceptions, and memory they can “fit in my head.” Cue the crowd: instant language flame war. The spiciest take? “Pascal is not low level,” declared one veteran, recommending Ada for serious control (yes, the aerospace one). Another warned FreePascal mixed too many Pascal flavors, creating clunky object models and legacy quirks.
Then came the showcase: a retro shooter whose engine is written in Pascal—HROT. Nostalgia points unlocked. On the modern side, a Delphi fan hyped Object Pascal’s sleek cousin, Oxygene, with shiny features like async/await. A Go defender asked what “no classes” really broke, arguing interfaces and methods get you far. Meanwhile, C# rolled in with NativeAOT (compile to native apps!) and someone dropped the line of the day: “Unsafe C# is terrifying.” Another countered that newer C# features mean you often don’t need unsafe at all.
Memes and mood? The OP’s “I’m too dumb for Rust” became the chorus, while Pascal fans cheered “string magic” over C’s pointer pain. Docs got dragged, nostalgia got loud, and the thread turned into a language shopping spree—Nim, Zig, D, Vale—like designer labels for coders. Verdict: no consensus, just vibes and popcorn.
Key Points
- •The author sought a safer alternative to C/C++ for low-level work.
- •They evaluated Go, Rust, and Free Pascal (FPC).
- •Go was rejected due to lack of exceptions and classes.
- •The author chose Free Pascal (FPC) for classes, exceptions, mixed memory management, and cross-platform support.
- •The author finds FPC manageable compared to C++ despite noting clunky syntax.