Pascal Users

[Nosferax]

I used the PCQ compiler on the Amiga for quite some time and did some Pascal here and then (also see Gfx4PCQ, on Aminet, which is a nice graphic support library for PCQ).  Well, Pascal was designed as a teaching language, allowing a single-pass compiler, that grew larger and more successful than its inventor originally intended (Wirth). Interestingly, his languages that tried to connect to this success and tried to provide functions for more professional programming were much less successful (Modula, Oberon).  The good part is: It is a very clean, very strict, and very static language. In a sense, it is a very "German" language (sorry, Wirth is swiss, but I guess you get the idea), compared to the very pragmatic "American" language "C".  If something is against the Pascal design, you cannot do it in Pascal. If something is against the C design, there is always a way to do what you want, even though it looks dirty and becomes a mess. It's much easier to create a mess in C than it is in Pascal, but it's much easier to get something done in C "quick and dirty" compared to Pascal.  It is, in its design, a bit outdated for today's requirements, some of which were addressed by later language extensions. For example, the original Pascal had no "include" support (TurboPascal added this, and it is a very standard extension), had no String support (only static "Array of Character", though String is a very popular extension offered by many if not all implementations) and no modulo support, and no object orientation (Delphi added this).  It is a nice tool for learning structured programming, but probably run out of fashion as it lacks some important modern features. Object orientation is closer to state of the art today, and this is why today python or java is tought instead. Nevertheless, Pascal was a milestone in language design.

Turbo Pascal 7 added object, not Delphi. Delphi came later.