Happy birthday Turbo Pascal! Some marketing and Borland Conference videos
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/11/20
Some of you might remember [WayBack] Borland – Wikipedia, that today in 1983 shipped the first version of Turbo Pascal [Wikipedia].
It was of great influence, leading to other Turbo languages, Delphi, and – through it’s creator Anders Hejlsberg – eventually C#, .NET and TypeScript.
From the mid 1990s until the early 2000s, the Borland organised conferences (having various names, like Borland Language Conference, Borland Conference, Borland Developers Conference, Inprise Conference) had famous opening videos, and product marketing videos.
Some of them are below the signature.
Edit 20231202:
I scheduled this post back in Winter 2019/2020 in between radiation therapy and surgery.
By now, more information on the anniversary has appeared online.
For more Turbo Pascal history, including – in reverse chronological order – old screenshorts and the first advertisements (and how quickly they changed from the pink on white to full colour ones), see my 2021 blog post Much Turbo Pascal history (via What is a Delphi DCU file? – Stack Overflow). It had many screenshots including a Turbo Pascal 1.0 screenshot, which I have added it here to the right. By now Turbo Pascal – Wikipedia and Borland Graphics Interface – Wikipedia are quite complete history of Turbo Pascal.
Note there used to be a Borland/Codegear/Embarcadero museum page where really old versions of the products could be downloaded. Some call these products abandonware and some companies make these available through the Internet Archive.The museum product downloads on the ancient (and vanished but partially archived at web.archive.org/web//http://altd.embarcadero.com/download/museum/) altd server are on the above blog post.
Oh: Turbo Pascal version 1 available for free download was first announced at the now defunct Codegear page [Wayback/Archive] Antique Software: Turbo Pascal v1.0 that later got moved to the Embarcadero pag [Wayback/Archive] Antique Software: Turbo Pascal v1.0 and now has vanished from the official Embarcadero sites for good.
And before I forget, watch [Wayback/Archive] Anders Hejlsberg spoke on trends in programming languages in tech days 2010 – YouTube.
Finally some blog posts of (former) Embarcadero employees on Pascal and Turbo Pascal history:
- MarcoC in spring 2021: [Wayback/Archive] 50 Years of Pascal and Delphi is In Power
- DavidI in spring 2023: [Wayback/Archive] 50 years of Pascal and still growing!
- MarcoC in summer 2023: [Wayback/Archive] Niklaus Wirth Prize Acceptance Speech: A Personal View of the History of Pascal and Delphi of which I like this historic list a lot:
- JavaScript first appeared December 4, 1995
- Java first appeared: May 23, 1995
- Python reached version 1.0 in January 1994 (although the first release is dated in 1991)
- PHP was introduced on 8 June 1995
- Ruby first appeared in 1995
- Delphi…, was launched in February 1995
- DavidI in fall 2023: [Wayback/Archive] I first met Philippe Kahn and Turbo Pascal 40 years ago this month
- MarcoC in fall 2023: [Wayback/Archive] Turbo Pascal turns 40
--jeroen
Delphi 12 Easter egg celebrates Turbo Pascal @40 without a proper screenshot
I put the screenshot above because the Delphi 12 Easter egg does not have a proper Turbo Pascal 1 screenshot. See [Wayback/Archive] Bruno Fierens on X: “Very nice Easter egg in the new upcoming Delphi 12 😉 @EmbarcaderoTech @marcocantu @EntwicklerKON”
[Wayback/Archive] F-PWL8BW0AAlUIB (680×510) (click on the image for a large version of it)
Links to past Borland/Codegear/Embarcadero museum pages, abandonware and Internet Archive
The quest started at [Wayback/Archive] borland museum – Google Search.
- Borland wasn’t the only one keeping a museum: [Wayback/Archive] The Borland Museum(s) – Jeff Duntemann’s ContraPositive Diary — LiveJournal
I’ve never been able to part with any of my Borland software (of which I have owned most over the years) and it’s all still there in a box somewhere, even bizarre things like the Sprint word processor, the Reflex database, and the Turbo Pascal Editor Toolbox.
…
But rejoice: Even if your floppies have rotted, you can now download the following Borland products for free from the Borland Museum:
- Turbo Pascal 1.0
- Turbo Pascal 3.02
- Turbo Pascal 5.5 (Plus, my OOP Guide is downloadable here.)
- Turbo C++ 1.01
- Turbo C++ 2.01
(There are posted promises of more to come.)
…
The guide isn’t available there any more, but is on the Wayback link at [Wayback/Archive] community.borland.com/article/images/20803/TP_55_OOP_Guide.pdf (the other two links just for historical reference).
Imagine you could do all these nice OO already in 1989, almost 35 years ago!
- I think this list of Museum domains over time is more or less correct:
- [Wayback/Archive] Borland Developer Network Museum was the start as part of the [Wayback/Archive] Borland Community site (hello BeOS, JavaOS and InfoSeek memories!) with the [Wayback/Archive] Borland History: Will The Real Frank Borland Please Stand Up? (hello SideKick
memories!) by the still alive[Wayback/Archive] David I and soon after [Wayback/Archive] Borland History: Why the name “Delphi?” by the late Danny Thorpe.
The first archival of the Borland Museum page was in 2003 as before that the Borland Museum was only accessible after logging in to the Borland Community. Making it truly public was a bold move, as was making the bug-tracking database qc.borland.com which later got deleted and some of the content cowardly moved behind the non-public quality.embarcadero.com domain.
1999 was really a very important year for David I, hence the 99 in the [Wayback/Archive] David Intersimone (@davidi99) / Twitter handle. - [Wayback/Archive] Borland Developer Network Museum in 2003 after it became publicly accessible
- [Wayback/Archive] CodeGear Developer Network Home Page – Museum in 2006
- [Wayback/Archive] Museum at the Embarcadero domain with HTTP in 2009
- [Wayback/Archive] Museum at the Embarcadero domain with HTTPS in 2009
Of course the Borland/Codegear server had occasional hiccups like [Wayback/Archive] SQL Server does not exist or access denied., but all in all John Kaster and his team maintained it pretty well. Only after the sales to Embarcadero, the Museum site and other sites started to suffer.
- [Wayback/Archive] Borland Developer Network Museum was the start as part of the [Wayback/Archive] Borland Community site (hello BeOS, JavaOS and InfoSeek memories!) with the [Wayback/Archive] Borland History: Will The Real Frank Borland Please Stand Up? (hello SideKick
- The demise of the Borland Museum did not go unnoticed: [Wayback/Archive] There used to be a Borland Museum that had free copies of Turbo Pascal and Turbo C… | Hacker News
- Very abandoned software of historic importance (but also of pain) are C# Builder and Delphi 8. Neither are available for free Download form Embarcadero. Delphi 8 is mentioned on the (now defunct) [Wayback/Archive] Turbo Pascal version 1.0 – The Turbo Pascal release dates – Community Blogs – Embarcadero Community page, but the former is totally missing.
- Abandonware – Wikipedia mentions the outdated (but archived at [Wayback/Archive]) Embarcadero Museum link which moved to a page that ended mid 2019 with the [Wayback/Archive] Museum state of februari 2005
DATE TITLE AUTHOR TYPE 15 Feb 2005 Historical Documents: Delphi 1 launch demos source code, launch script, and marketing video Anders Hejlsberg provided the original launch script and projects used in the Delphi 1 launch on February 14, 1995.John Kaster Article 14 Feb 2005 Historical Document: Visual Component Library First Draft – May 24, 1993 The first draft document for the Visual Component Library (VCL) description, dated May 13, 1993. This document describes components, properties, events, forms, and more.David Intersimone Article 14 Feb 2005 Historical Document: Delphi Product Definition 3rd Draft – May 13, 1993 Zack Urlocker, Delphi Product Manager, wrote the product definition for Delphi version 1.0. This is the HTML version of the 3rd draft, dated May 13, 1993. Notable items include the original target dates and technical terms like “lotsa”.David Intersimone Article before it got silently replaced mid 2019 by [Wayback/Archive] Embarcadero Developer Network Home Page Museum
This Embarcadero Developer Network (EDN) is deprecated and available here only for reference. We are working to clean up some formatting issues still, but plan to keep the content around.
Within 4 years it it got replaced in 2013 with [Wayback/Archive] – Page not found
[Wayback/Archive] 287460277-c5f62cb1-b1f7-472c-b825-14feb79f28f1.png (592×239)months before this Turbo Pascal 1.0 40th anniversary. So please Idera and Embarcadero, let this sink in
[Wayback/Archive] Quote by Marcus Garvey: “A people without the knowledge of their past…”“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
― -
Note the Japaneseアバンダンウェア – Wikipedia (translated by Google into Abundance wear) actually lists these:
- Turbo Pascal v1.00A (1983), 16-bit Pascal compiler and IDE for MS-DOS [1] .
- Turbo Pascal v3.02A (1986), 16-bit Pascal compiler and IDE for MS-DOS [2] .
- Turbo C v2.01 (1987),16-bit C compiler and IDE for MS-DOS [3] .
- Turbo Pascal v5.5 (1989), 16-bit Pascal compiler and IDE for MS-DOS [4] .
- Turbo C++ v1.01 (1990), 16-bit C++ compiler and IDE for MS-DOS [5] .
- Delphi 1.0 C/S (1995), a 16-bit Object Pascal compiler and IDE for Windows [6] .
- C++Builder 1.0 C/S (1997),32-bit C++ compiler and IDE for Windows [7] .
At least some links that at the day of writing still work a little bit.
- [Wayback/Archive] Caldera releases original unices under BSD license – Slashdot
- [Wayback/Archive] Download Borland Turbo Pascal 1.0 (DOS) application – Abandonware DOS
- The Internet Archive does have some of the above and a truckload of others in their collection:
- Borland Delphi Windows V1 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (English)
- Borland Delphi für Windows V1.0 : Borland : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (German)
- Borland Fabulous Fonts 1.0 : Borland : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (the fonts used in manuals, advertisements, product boxes, company letters, etc)
- Borland Delphi Developer 2 : Borland : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive the first 32-bit Delphi version
- Borland C# Builder for Microsoft.NET – Trial : Borland : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Find more Borland related abandonware via the query Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine
- [Wayback/Archive] Celebrating a Quarter Century of C++Builder – C++Builder – 25 Years! is another perfect example of the lack of historic awareness. It is pointed to from [Wayback/Archive] Celebrating 25 Years of C++Builder! but the main content [Wayback/Archive] Timeline – C++Builder – 25 Years! is still “Coming Soon!”
[Wayback/Archive] 287463593-4d388df4-6581-4654-a3a4-6d4a55d22943.png (1147×404)
Like the Borland Museum, Code Central is also gone with one simple 2019 announcement that lacks the software heritage point of view someone like David I would have put in: an opportunity for a place – like the Internet Archive – to take over the collection of publicly available downloads.
This was the announcement [Wayback/Archive] The Future of CodeCentral
…
The registered user downloads will be moving to a new customer portal, and we will be moving some of the more popular community items from CodeCentral in the near future. Shortly thereafter CodeCentel will be shut down completely. If you have code, libraries or samples on there that you want to maintain, then you will need to find a new home for them soon.
…
Same as for the Museum, there was no final farewell message for CodeCentral either.
EMSPS has some good history too
EMSPS has history on many Borland products:
- [Wayback/Archive] Borland Pascal, Turbo Pascal Version Information
- [Wayback/Archive] Detailed version information for Borland and Inprise Turbo Assemblers
- [Wayback/Archive] Version information for older Borland/Inprise C Compilers
- [Wayback/Archive] borver: Old Borland®/Inprise® Development Tools Features
- [Wayback/Archive] bordbv: Ashton Tate®/Borland®/Inprise® dBASE® Versions
- [Wayback/Archive] Borland/Inprise Delphi versions information. which shows that in the past, Borland really cared for educational use:
EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY! Current Academic ID required for purchase. This product is being made available to the academic community at special pricing because Borland understands the importance of schools having access to the right tools. This software may be resold to students, faculty and staff of accredited education institutions and may not be resold outside the academic community.
- [Wayback/Archive] Borland – Inprise – Corel Paradox Version Information
- [Wayback/Archive] Sidekick Software Museum
- [Wayback/Archive] Used Borland/Inprise Programming Tools for Sale
Notes
- Turbo Pascal – Wikipedia has no Turbo Pascal screenshots nor advertisements, only a Turbo Pascal 3.0 manual image and the correct Turbo Pascal 1.0 release date.
- Even before Delphi, Borland translated their Pascal products to German and French as you can see with this German Turbo Pascal 7 example from [Wayback/Archive] Dirk (hoeppie) At hoeppie bei @hoeppie.bsky.social on X: “@nixcraft Here is my German edition in DosBox. :)”
- Some great Turbo Pascal 7 graphics demos are at [Wayback/Archive] johangardhage/dos-tpdemos: Retro programming in Borland Turbo Pascal 7.
1983-11-20: Turbo Pascal 1.0 got released and offered for USD 49.95
Some Turbo Pascal 1.0 related pages I missed when writing the above blog post are these:
- [Wayback/Archive] Turbo Pascal 1.0 – version of programming language Pascal – Progopedia – Encyclopedia of Programming Languages
- [Wayback/Archive] WinWorld: Borland Turbo Pascal 1.00
Borland Turbo Pascal 1.00 for CPM-80 Z80 [Zenith Z-100] (5.25-DSDD) 1.00 for CPM-80 Z80 [Zenith Z-100] English Z80 85.93KB 2 Borland Turbo Pascal 1.00A for CPM-86 (5.25-160k) 1.00A for CPM-86 English x86 56.63KB 2 Borland Turbo Pascal 1.00a for DOS (1983) (Needs redump 1.00a for DOS English x86 66.58KB 3
A great story which I also missed earlier on is how Philippe Kahn tricked Byte magazine to publish this very first Turbo Pascal advertisement and let Borland only pay for it later in stead of up front. The story is in Spanish (but translates well through Google Translate) at [Wayback/Archive] ▷ Canallitas de Silicon Valley – Parte 2.
A shorter (English) version of that story is in [Wayback/Archive] Software Empires | Fire in the Valley, Third Edition by Michael Swaine, Paul Freiberger | The Pragmatic Programmers.
1995 Oktober Fest Delphi 1 marketing video
Delphi 1 had a cool, but odd, marketing video: oktober fest musicians contemplating on a hard job, needing a good tool: Delphi.
1996 Delphi 2 “Transformer” marketing video
The Turbo Pascal for Windows had a “no speed limit theme” installers. Delphi 2 continued that thought with a Transformers themed video:
1996 Borland C++ 5 marketing video
The Borland C++ 5 marketing video was Tool Time themed, and named Developer Tool Time.
Borland Conference 1996 (Anaheim), BorCon96.
A funny video where, with a Hummer, David I rescues Indiana Jones (Paul Gross) [WayBack].
Borland Conference 1997 (Nashville) BorCon97
Starwars inspired “Software Wars” video during BorCon97.
Inprise Conference 1998 (Denver) ICon98
The Camelot theme (from the early Delphi team name) was back during ICon98 [Wayback].
(Inprise) Borland Conference 1999 (Philadelphia) BorCon99
Innovation was the theme at 1999. It was a relatively dull commercial-like marketing video in the midst of renaming the company from Inprise back to Borland under a new CEO Dale Fuller that had a much better feel with the developer community than former (Inprise) CEO Dale Fuller who was an enterprise guy.
During BorCon99 [Wayback] Delphi 5 was launched, marking a re-focus on Development tools (it was one of the most stable Delphi versions ever).
The conference – despite the dull video – was way more fun than BorCon98 and BorCon97.
2006 Turbo Man revival
2006 marked the return of a free version of Delphi: Turbo Explorer.
Turbo Man got a revival with this marketing video.
Can’t find some of the abandonware? More is at [Wayback/Archive] RAD Studio – Delphi distributives | Страница 7 | DUMPz.ws – старейший компьютерный форум (c) 2004-2023.
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