Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site opus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!hao!nbires!opus!rcd From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) Newsgroups: net.lang.c,net.lang.mod2 Subject: Wirth... Message-ID: <1092@opus.UUCP> Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 02:52:46 EST Article-I.D.: opus.1092 Posted: Wed Feb 13 02:52:46 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 14-Feb-85 03:17:08 EST References: <7854@brl-tgr.ARPA> Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO Lines: 32 Xref: watmath net.lang.c:4373 net.lang.mod2:165 > ... Tell me some > good things about Pascal. I happen to think it is pathetic. Let's see, first > there was Pascal, then Modula-1, then Modula-2. Looks like it took Wirth three > tries to get it right (if in fact he did). The claim that "It was designed as a > teaching language" doesn't cut it with me. It's a toy. If I were Blaise I'd be > rolling over in my grave. [My turn to return a zing at a DeadHead...oh well...] As long as we're doing history, let's be careful about it...Pascal wasn't "first" for Wirth. There was PL/360, which was designed as a decent alternative to assembly language for the IBM 360--not bad, for its time. There was Euler (a much earlier "name it after someone" language) which was an experiment with some new concepts. Pascal WAS designed as a teaching language, like it or not. It's useful for writing certain classes of programs, and it's a DAMNED GOOD language for teaching--I know; I've used it for just that. Pascal has a lot of characteristics which make it interesting for constructing serious software. It also has a handful of serious drawbacks. These could not be solved without bad boogie on compatibility. Wirth had also learned a bunch about languages, particularly for systems and low-level use. So we get Modula. Modula 1 was an oops; Modula 2 is at a somewhat lower level than Pascal but is otherwise basically a cleaned-up Pascal. It's not three (or five) tries to get it right--it's 3 or 5 different languages with different goals and different results. The guy's a language designer. Look--Pascal came in around 1970 and had the serious smell of CDC 6x00 batch about it. Modula 2 came in around 1977 and had a lot of feel of PDP-11 and RT-11 about it. Someone has said that language designers turn out a new language every seven years. We're about due--any guesses about what will come from Wirth next? -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Cerebus for dictator!