Pascal arrays can use any sub-range of an ordinal type as the index. You should define the distinct type of the index instead of using integers then you will get an exception if you attempt to use an out of range index.

I'm pretty sure that FreePascal and Delphi can do run-time bounds checking (it's a compile-time option).

Pascal also avoids buffer overrun errors on strings, because strings are dynamically resized as necessary.

You can also avoid having to free objects if you declare them as implementing a certain Interface (I forget the exact one). They will automatically be freed when the number of references drops to 0.