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From: young@uci-750a.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: How to select the best programming language
Message-ID: <1316@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Jun-84 20:43:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1316
Posted: Tue Jun 26 20:43:55 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Jun-84 04:08:25 EDT
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From:  Michal Young <young@uci-750a.ARPA>

  For a comparison of C and Pascal, with recommendations about the 
kinds of applications each is suited to, see  ACM Computing Surveys
volume 14 number 1, March 1982, pages 73-92.  

  It may be worth your while to compare software development 
`environments' (a buzzword in the making) rather than languages
alone.  The language is one part of the environment, other parts 
are the compiler, editor, etc.  The greatest language around
is not a big help if the compiler you use is too slow or has bugs,
or if has cryptic error messages.  A lot of time is lost, too,
in jumping back and forth from a compiler to an editor if they 
are not well integrated.  

  If you find Pascal adequate to your project, I highly recommend
Turbo Pascal from Borland.  Compilation is very fast, the editor 
is fully integrated, and all syntax errors and most run time errors
send you back to the editor, with the cursor at the line in error.
This can easily cut programming time in half.  Also Turbo is 
quite portable, and has tolerable interfaces to the operating system
and machine language routines (not quite as good in this department
as typical C compilers).  

--Michal Young,  UC Irvine,  young@uci