Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!ece-csc!mcnc!uvaarpa!haven!adm!xadmx!WAPJAS%CARLETON.BITNET@CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
From: WAPJAS%CARLETON.BITNET@CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL.EDU (WAPJAS)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Pascal dying out?
Message-ID: <17491@adm.BRL.MIL>
Date: 12 Nov 88 02:38:51 GMT
Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL
Lines: 41

Message-ID:  <8811112138.aa00342@VIM.BRL.MIL>

   I think it is more accurate to think of Pascal as be-calmed than
dying.
   I believe the main obstacle facing Pascal is the lack of portability
between different implementations of Pascal.  This is rather ironic as
the ISO and ANSI standards for Pascal were approved several years ago,
whereas C, a language that is considered to be very portable, has
not been standardized yet (though the draft ANSI C standard could be
approved fairly soon).
   The main strengths of Pascal are it's strong typing and simplicity.
It's main weakness is that it lacks the functionality needed to write
"real" programs.  Most Pascal implementors chose to increase functionality
by adding extensions to Standard Pascal to their compilers.  Unfortunately
there is no consistency in what extensions are provided or how the
extensions are implemented between different Pascal compilers.  Extensions
to Standard Pascal are only helpful to users who do not care about
portability.
   The situation is further clouded by the existance of Turbo Pascal.
There are probably more copies of Turbo Pascal in use than any other
Pascal compiler.  Unfortunately, Turbo Pascal does not conform to the
Pascal standard (it's close but no cigar!).  This makes Turbo Pascal
a defacto Pascal standard.

   Is there any way to get Pascal moving again?  Yes there is.  What we
have to do is

   1) Get the draft ISO/ANSI Extended Pascal standard approved.  Extended
      Pascal provides much more functionality than the current Pascal
      standard.  New features include modules, varying length strings,
      relaxed order of declarations, etc.

   2) Users have to pressure the people who write and sell Pascal
      compilers to make their products conform to the Extended Pascal
      standard.

   Is it worth it?  If you believe as I do that Pascal's strong typing
and good error detection help you write correct programs quickly than the
answer should be yes.

Regards.. John Stewart <WAPJAS@CARLETON.BITNET>