Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!crash!pnet01!haitex
From: haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Modula-2 ? No thanks !
Message-ID: <3417@crash.cts.com>
Date: 11 Sep 88 00:16:23 GMT
Sender: news@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
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rkl@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk writes:
>AAArrrggghhh !!! If I hear Modula-2 mentioned again whenever anyone brings up
>the subject of Turbo Pascal 4 on the Amiga (now that's what I'D vapourware !),
>I'll SCREAM ! Modula-2 is NOT an adequate substitute for a good extended
>Pascal (aka Turbo Pascal 4 or VAX Pascal) - it's a far fussier language and
>the string handling is non-existent. I now INSIST that any language I write in
>has the + operator to concatenate two strings together - I know, this seems
>trivial but it is a good test as to whether a compiler of any language is
>worth using... For a start it rules out : any variety of C, most (crummy)
>Pascals, Modula-2, Fortran (strings ? hah !), even VAX ADA !

        Hmmm...

        I used to program in PASCAL alot.  In fact, while I was at UCSD, this
was the only upper level language used in the C.S. dept.   Had to write an
Ada compiler in Berkley PACAL :^(.

        What is wrong with useing a simple function to concat your two
strings  There are many string manipulation funtions provided in Benchmark
Modula-2, and it is easy enough to deal with these things without them anyway.

        The problem with using the "+" operator to concatinate strings is that
it genrates sloppy code, which is why it is not a part of modern languages. 
It was one of many things included in PASCAL to make teaching programming
easier, but has no place in proffesional code.  What happens when you 
concatinate two strings and the destination is too short to hold the result?
How much run-time code do you want to include to handle programmer sloppyness?

        Surely Niklaus Wirth would not have removed such things from the
Modula-2 definition without good reason.

        PASCAL is especially unsuited to the Amiga, which requires strong low
level control, and I suspect this is the reason it does not exist on the
Amiga.   Modula-2 gives you the best of PASCAL (strong structure and typing)
and still allows low-level control.

        Maybe you should take a look at Amiga Basic.


                                                                Wade.


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