• One language mode. No {$mode} switches; no legacy dialect support.

• One string type. UTF-8 reference-counted string. RawBytes for binary data.

• One memory model. Automatic reference counting applies uniformly to strings, classes, and interfaces. No manual/auto split between TObject and TInterfacedObject; [Weak] breaks cycles. Free is retained as a synonym for immediate release.

• Clean interfaces. No COM GUIDs; interface dispatch via compile-time vtable mapping.

• Reified generics. Monomorphization at compile time — no type erasure.

• Modern build system. PasBuild with project.xml; no makefiles.

• First-class debugger. OPDF is the default debug format; DWARF is not required.

• Self-Hosting: Yes. Blaise currently bootstraps and recompiles itself with byte-for-byte exact matches.

• Testing: 1200+ tests and growing (Test-Driven Development from day one).

• Backends: Currently utilizing a QBE backend, with an LLVM backend in active development.

project.xml                       Root aggregator (packaging=pom)
│
├── compiler/                     The compiler binary (packaging=application)
│   ├── project.xml
│   └── src/
│       ├── main/pascal/          uLexer, uParser, uAST, uCodeGenQBE, ...
│       └── test/pascal/          FPTest test suite for compiler units
│
├── rtl/                          Runtime library (packaging=library)
│   ├── project.xml
│   └── src/
│       ├── main/pascal/          System.pas, SysUtils.pas, Classes.pas, ...
│       └── test/pascal/          FPTest test suite for RTL units
│
├── tools/
│   └── migration-analyser/       FPC/Delphi migration report tool (packaging=application)
│       ├── project.xml           depends on compiler module
│       └── src/
│           ├── main/pascal/
│           └── test/pascal/
│
├── vendor/qbe/                   Vendored QBE backend source (pinned, built from source)
└── docs/                         Design documents and specifications

Prerequisites

Build all modules

pasbuild compile

PasBuild resolves the module dependency order automatically and compiles rtl → compiler → tools/migration-analyser.

Build with a profile

pasbuild compile -p debug      # includes -g -gl -Criot -gh
pasbuild compile -p release    # includes -O2 -CX -XX -Xs

Run tests

pasbuild test

Build a single module

pasbuild compile -m blaise-compiler

Running the compiler

Once built, the compiler binary is at compiler/target/blaise.

# Compile a single file
compiler/target/blaise --source Hello.pas --output Hello

# Compile via project.xml
compiler/target/blaise --project project.xml --config debug --output myapp

# Emit QBE IR (useful for debugging the compiler itself)
compiler/target/blaise --source Hello.pas --emit-ir