# Blaise Pascal compiler

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Blaise Pascal compiler and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A quick, self-hosting Pascal compiler that drops old Pascal cruft and targets QBE. Caveat: it is young and lacks the with statement.

## Why people recommend it

- Pascal without legacy baggage (4 comments): "Blaise could be a neat Pascal compiler with a great deal of old cruft cleaned out and is quite quick." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48378217)) "does aim to address some of the annoying warts in Pascal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48059173)) "All of the good parts of Pascal and non of the baggage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185587))
- Pure Pascal, consistent design (2 comments): "I'm actually really happy to see a fresh "just Pascal", and one that is aiming for a slim bootstrap at that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48069342)) "here at least Blaise is consistent. It’s not mixing models." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48060714))
- Promising early project (2 comments): "So, this project seems to start on good grounds!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48062777)) "Congratulations on your projects, Graeme!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48113223))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [GCC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gcc.md): 138 recommend
- [Clang](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clang.md): 74 recommend
- [Free Pascal compiler](https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-pascal.md): 38 recommend
- [GraalVM Native Image](https://hackerapproved.com/p/graalvm-native-image.md): 31 recommend
- [.NET Native AOT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/net-native-aot.md): 26 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Blaise Pascal compiler", https://hackerapproved.com/p/blaise/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).