On 01/15/2021 07:18 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
One measure I've used is that, out of 40 or so languages I
know, with only two have I gone from "no knowledge" to
"able to write a substantial program" in one week. One was
Pascal (in university -- computer course code generator).
I used to be a Pascal proselytizer, using it on PDP-11 and
VAX, then on PCs with Borland Turbo Pascal.
I found that when I got a Pascal program to compile, it
would generally run first time, as the language nudged me to
think clearly.
I wrote a number of modest programs with it, and then one
larger program to take Gerber files and generate raster data
for a photoplotter. This turned out to be quite a large and
intricate program.
I just used it as a tool for a number of years, and stopped
using Pascal as I had migrated to Linux.
Then, FPC (Free Pascal Compiler) came out, specifically
aimed at accepting Turbo Pascal and DEC Pascal extensions,
units, etc. I converted my old photoplotter program to run
under Linux and FPC, and of course, it ran many times faster
on new hardware.
Jon
