Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!ogccse!littlei!intelisc!omepd!bobdi From: bobdi@omepd (Bob Dietrich) Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal Subject: Re: Pascal dying out? Message-ID: <3915@omepd> Date: 11 Nov 88 02:20:18 GMT References: <267@lafcol.UUCP> <9631@swan.ulowell.edu> <6157@claris.com> <1071@dukeac.UUCP> Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon Lines: 89 In article <1071@dukeac.UUCP> sbigham@dukeac.UUCP (Scott Bigham) writes: >In article <3884@omepd> bobdi@omepd (Bob Dietrich) writes: >>...and Pascal >>is about to undergo such a change with Extended Pascal. Extended Pascal >>should offer enough of what users want (modularity, strings, random I/O, >>flexible arrays, standardization, etc.) that it should renew interest in >>the language... > >So who's doing this? Is this one of those ANSI committees, like the X3Jn >committees we hear so much about in comp.lang.{c,fortran}? What is n for >Pascal? Is there anyone out there on that committee, or anyone who knows >what's happening? FILL US IN! >Scott Bigham "The opinions expressed above represent Maybe you're new to the newsgroup, or maybe my postings haven't been making it off my machine. In any event, I've tried to update the readers from time to time as to what's going on. Yes, Extended Pascal is being worked on by a (uniquely) joint committee of ANSI and IEEE. It is officially known as the Joint ANSI X3J9/IEEE Pascal Committee, or JPC. There has been a lot of cooperation with the British and ISO committees as well. Although the American public comment period is officially over, below is an extract of the announcement I posted. You can still obtain the document and send in comments, although JPC will not be obliged to act upon them. I hope to post a summary of where things stand in the standardization process shortly. Bob Dietrich Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Oregon (503) 696-2092 usenet: uunet!littlei!ihf1!bobd or tektronix!tessi!agora!ihf1!bobd or tektronix!ogcvax!omepd!ihf1!bobd or tektronix!psu-cs!omepd!ihf1!bobd ===================================================== [Extracted from a previous posting] Extended Pascal is an upward-compatible extension to the presently-existing standards for Pascal. It has been developed in an international effort between the American Joint X3/IEEE committee, the British Pascal committee, International Working Group on Pascal, and the ISO/JTC1 Subcommittee 22. As such, Extended Pascal is being put forth as an American, British, and International standard. This standard is intended to coexist with the existing Pascal standards until such time as these standards are no longer needed. The major features in Extended Pascal that distinguish it from the classic language defined by Jensen and Wirth are: modules with separable definition and interface parts (including initialization and finalization of modules), a generalized type definition mechanism (schemata) which permits the static and dynamic selection from a "set of types", a secure method for initializing variables of a given type (even if they are outside of the module where the type is defined), and the ability to define private variables which have restrictions placed on their access. In addition, Extended Pascal contains many pragmatic features which make it a more practical and usable language than "classic" Pascal. Some of these are: string types of both dynamic and fixed length, short-circuit logic operators, exponentiation, direct-access files, external file binding, complex numbers, constant expressions, record and array value constructors, non-decimal integer constants, time and date functions, and numerous other features. Extended Pascal also includes many simple conveniences which have become standard practice, such as an underscore character in identifiers, relaxed order of declarations, and an otherwise clause in the case statement and variant records. This draft standard is available for public review and comment for a two-month period ending October 11, 1988. Copies may be obtained from GLOBAL ENGINEERING DOCUMENTS, INC. Phone: 800-854-7179 (USA) +1-714-261-1455 (International) FAX: 714-261-7892 Address: Global Engineering Documents, Inc. 2805 McGaw Ave. Irving, CA 92714 USA Note: Because the public comment period only lasts two months, it is advisable that all requests be made by telephone so that you will have more time to submit comments within the designated period for public comment. Single Copy Price: $ 35.00 International Copy Price: $45.50 [U.S. dollars. I believe they take credit cards or will bill you. Be sure to ask for "X3.160-198x", because last time they didn't know what you were talking about if you said "Extended Pascal". Maybe they've improved.]