Glossary

Compiler and build terms

Term Meaning
PXX The project name for the compiler and language toolchain.
pascal26 The current compiler executable name under compiler/.
pxx The wrapper created by install.sh; it calls the pinned compiler with library roots.
Pinned compiler The stable compiler selected by stable_linux_amd64/default/pinned.
Self-hosting The compiler is written in its own Pascal dialect and can compile itself.
Fixedpoint A self-build reaches byte-identical output across rebuild stages.
Direct ELF PXX writes ELF output itself instead of invoking an external assembler or linker.
RTL Runtime library units under lib/rtl.
PCL Component/UI library units under lib/pcl.

Language terms

Term Meaning
Managed string Reference-counted string storage with automatic retain/release.
Dynamic array Heap-backed array sized with SetLength and queried with Length.
RTTI Runtime type information, used by reflection and component streaming work.
Unit Reusable Pascal module imported with uses.
-Fu Command-line option adding a Pascal unit search root.
-I Command-line option adding a C include path and Pascal unit search root.
PXX symbol Conditional-compilation symbol defined by PXX for Pascal input.
FPC symbol Conditional-compilation symbol reserved for real Free Pascal builds.

Target terms

Term Meaning
Host target The CPU architecture where the compiler binary runs.
Output target The CPU architecture selected with --target= for emitted code.
Cross-compilation Building output for an architecture different from the host.
QEMU user-mode Emulator used to run Linux cross-target binaries during tests.
ESP profile Embedded platform profile selected by --esp-profile=bare.
Object output Relocatable .o output selected by --emit-obj or a .o output name.

Eliah IDE terms

apps/ide/ names its components with a Hebrew scheme; see Examples → Apps for the full table.

Term Meaning
garin Render-agnostic IDE core (editor buffer, project model, form document, builder).
eliah GTK face of the IDE.
ilja ANSI/TUI face of the IDE.
bochan Headless test driver that exercises garin with no GUI/TUI face linked.
eduth Assertion/verdict library bochan reports results to.

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