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From: ajayshah@aludra.usc.edu (Ajay Shah)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Runtime dimensioning and Pascal
Message-ID: <6422@merlin.usc.edu>
Date: 11 Nov 89 23:19:09 GMT
References: <6354@merlin.usc.edu> <9686@vax1.cc.lehigh.edu> <804@maytag.waterloo.edu>
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Reply-To: ajayshah@aludra.usc.edu (Ajay Shah)
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>In article <9686@vax1.cc.lehigh.edu> LUKRW@vax1.cc.lehigh.edu writes:
>  I do wish Borland would "get with the program" and stop
>ignoring the standard.  Extensions are nice, but compatibility beats

On this issue, I'm squarely on the side of Borland.  Standard Pascal
is a reasonably crippled creature: no hooks for seperate compilation,
no breakouts from strong typing, stupid file handling, etc.  Borland
has enabled some of the most satisfying programming of my life by
crafting a language which combines the basic beauty of Pascal with the
minimal extensions needed to bring it closer to real-world
programming.  Turbo Pascal might have slowed the advent of Modula, but
it sure made the life of millions of users a lot happier.

The most important single aspect where i might have differed from
Borland is that i'd have taken more trouble to create TP
implementations for a coupla other standard machines (Sun, Mac, etc.).
That way, a user has more portability.  I've often got stranded when
trying to move from the PC to a Sun.

--
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Ajay Shah, (213)747-9991, ajayshah@usc.edu
                              The more things change, the more they stay insane.
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