Dolphin Bay Software Ezy Pascal

Finally, despite its advantages, Ezy Pascal is a proprietary system. The US$99 price drops substantially when you’re purchasing class- or school-friendly quantities: for example, 30 licences currently go for US$956 – a third of the full retail value. However, it’s still a significant cost.

Ezy Pascal licences are purchased for a specific machine, via a unique “hardware fingerprint”. This could be a real pain when upgrading hardware, or when replacing dud machines. It might also present issues for schools using thin clients in computer labs: this is something you’d need to test out on your own particular setup.

The proprietary nature of Ezy Pascal also means students can’t take their work home with them without investing in a copy themselves. This is really a bit much to ask, especially when there are so many free alternatives available. You don’t have to pay a cent to work through James Sugrue’s Coding Tips column in PC World, thanks to the languages he’s chosen to use and the free development environments available for them.

All-in-all, Ezy Pascal is a good learning tool if you want a simple, homogenised, easy-to-install programming package for your school’s computer lab. You’ll find a 30-day trial on this month’s PC World DVD, along with a great selection of free tools for the budding programmer. Try Ezy Pascal out yourself: there’s really no better way to see if it fits your particular niche.