The
Borland Delphi Object Pascal compiler is exceedingly fast as compared to typical C++ compilers. For instance, I have a program of about 40 556 lines of code as reported by the compiler. A complete build and link takes about 2-3 seconds on my machine - an AMD K62 750 with 256 Mb of Ram.
This is not only due to technical brilliance at Borland, but also because a typical line of Delphi code is easier for the compiler to read than an equivalent in C++ - there are no operator overloads, implicit cast operators, implicit copy constructors #defines, templates, Assign statements used as rvalues etc.
The code that is output is as fast, in some cases is said to be slightly faster then the equivalent program compiled in Borland C++. This is again because of the simpler code – the compiler has more opportunity for optimisation.
Of interest is that the complier version on the command line compiler – dcc32.exe, is incremented up from Turbo Pascal compilers. Here is a list of Complier versions. Note that Delphi 1 comes after Turbo Pascal 7
Ver80 (8.0) - Delphi 1
Ver90 (9.0) - Delphi 2
Ver93 (9.3) - used in Borland C++ Builder 1
Ver100 (10.0) - Delphi 3
Ver110 (11.0) - used in Borland C++ Builder 3
Ver120 (12.0) - Delphi 4
Ver125 (12.5) - used in Borland C++ Builder 4
Ver130 (13.0) - Delphi 5 and Borland C++ Builder 5
Ver140 (14.0) - Delphi 6
Ver150 (15.0) - Delphi 7