Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!dik From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal Subject: Re: "standard" pascal Message-ID: <8243@boring.cwi.nl> Date: 30 Jun 89 23:08:46 GMT References: Distribution: comp Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 38 In article afoiani@dante.nmsu.EDU (Anthony Foiani) writes: > I was thinking about the Turbo Pascal vs. ANSI Pascal controversy, and > this is what I came up with: > > If you are instructing people in pascal, why are you teaching them the > language? So they can create useful, efficient programs, usually. > Secondly, what truely defines the standard? The anSi (quote) standard > (endquote) or the *industry* standard? Not only useful and efficient, but also portable. > > It seems more logical to me to teach the industry standard. Look at > the C language; ansi defined a standard in 1986 (?) and our site still > doesn't have a system that supports it (gcc does, I believe, but that > is about it.) Seeing that C is still in the proposed standard stage.... Most likely it will be a standard in 1990, so there are still no standard C compilers. And there are more compilers than gcc that conform to the proposed C standard. > > If there were a streamlined, adequate-interface, efficient ANSI pascal > compiler available, that produced fast, tight code.... it would be > acceptable. But, before demanding on "standard" pascal, look at what > turbo *does* have: But none of the systems I use have Turbo Pascal. And some of them have streamlined etc. Also industry standard does *not* mean a standard by a single company (unless it is a three letter company), but a version that is widely used by a (large) number of companies. In general if you want to instruct a language, stick to the (a) standard as much as possible, and if you cannot avoid to use non-standard extensions, clearly mark them as such. Unless you want your students to get a big surprise when they move to another system. -- dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland INTERNET : dik@cwi.nl BITNET/EARN: dik@mcvax