Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!umd5!purdue!decwrl!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwspf!dragon From: dragon@trwspf.TRW.COM (Roger Vossler) Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2 Subject: Re: Wirth's paper "From Modula to Oberon" Message-ID: <780@trwspf.TRW.COM> Date: 27 May 88 21:01:04 GMT References: <8805190033.AA01005@mckinley> <17453@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> <3957@mucs.UX.CS.MAN.AC.UK> Reply-To: dragon@trwspf.UUCP (Roger Vossler) Organization: TRW - Data Systems Lab., Redondo Beach, CA Lines: 39 In article <3957@mucs.UX.CS.MAN.AC.UK> ian@mucs.UUCP (Ian Cottam) writes: *Whilst agreeing with most things John posts, I think he is being a little *hard on Wirth. Having got my copy of "Modula: a language for modular *multiprogramming, SP&E, Vol 7, 3-35, 1977" off the shelf, I cannot see *(nor could I remember) any claim that Modula-1 was a successor to Pascal. *Some quotes: * * "... intended primarily for programming dedicated computer * systems, including process control..." * * "...Modula is experimental. The presence or absence of certain * facilities is still subject to controversy." * *Perhaps you meant that someone else, other than Wirth, promoted it as a *successor to Pascal? * *On days when I am wearing my hair-shirt, I look back on Modula-1 with some *affection! So do we! During 1977, we were getting a distributed computing research project off the ground and chose to do our work in Concurrent Pascal. Per Brinch Hansen was local at the time and was a consultant to my project. We took a long look at Modula and decided against it at that time because it *WAS* an experimental language. As such, we were not able to obtain a copy of either the compiler nor any source code with which to work from ETH Zurich. During 1980, we were having problems with Concurrent Pascal and I made a very dumb mistake by ignoring Modula-2 when it was announced. I simply assumed that it was more of the same thing, new and improved. Two years later (December 1982), I finally got around to looking at Modula-2 in detail, learning in the process that it fixed most of the problems we were having with the Concurrent Pascal technology. When I realized the magnitude of my error, we promptly made the switch to Modula-2 and have lived happily ever after. -- -- Roger Vossler TRW, Bldg O2-1395, One Space Park, Redondo Beach, CA 90278 BIX: rvossler UseNet: dragon@trwspf.trw.com ATT: 213.535.2804 ....!trwrb!trwspf!dragon