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From: shack@cs.arizona.edu (David Shackelford)
Newsgroups: comp.org.acm,comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Turbo Vs Pascal.
Message-ID: <1501@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 11 May 91 01:10:42 GMT
References: <1494@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> <?.bGejk$1@cs.psu.edu> <kim.673865699@kowari> <1991May10.141756.17997@watmath.waterloo.edu>
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In article <1991May10.141756.17997@watmath.waterloo.edu> nmouawad@watmath.waterloo.edu (Naji Mouawad) writes:
>>                                      Other Pascals do not _need_ to
>>  change at all, especially to a Turbo/Borland fast and dirty 
>>  approach.
>>Kim Shearer                      |     ACSnet: kim@cs.uwa.oz.au

> You seems to consider the Borland approach as "Fast and dirty". Could
>you please explain why you believe that TP is not the right approach ?

>--Naji.

Kim,
  
"Fast and dirty"?  

Is it perhaps because a commercial organization created Turbo, and not
an academic one?  Just a stab in the dark here, and I don't want to
put words in your mouth.  Please elaborate on this position, as I've
never heard anyone say it quite that way.

Also, a general question for Turbo bashers -- what version of TP are
you basing your dislike on?  If it's earlier than 5.0, I invite you
to check out the newest features, including Units with seperate
compilation, and Objects (admittedly limited compared to true OOP,
but a step in the right direction!).

I do have a complaint about Turbo myself -- it's a PC only program,
and thus as non-portable as you can get.  My earlier statement that I
wished other Pascal's were more Turbo-like is that I'd rather not
change my own way of programming.  Selfish?  It's my opinion, you're
free to make your own!  

I viewed the differences between Turbo and Standard Pascal to be
enhancements on Turbo's part, but some have pointed out that there are
standard programs that TP doesn't have a clue what to do with.  Also,
it appears that standard Pascal is not the dead language the PC press
reports it to be.

As for what to use in the contests, the basic questions comes down
to "How many know the features of each type of Pascal", and "Which
Pascal runs best on the hardware for the contest".  I don't know
the answer to the first question.  On a PC, the answer to the second
question is Turbo because it has no competition.  If the contest
isn't run on PC's, then Turbo is out of the running.  SO if Pascal
is to be the language, it comes down to what the hardware is.

Dave    | shack@cs.arizona.edu