On 07/17/18 11:50, Ryan Joseph wrote:
On Jul 17, 2018, at 12:24 PM, Jim Lee <jle...@gmail.com> wrote:
It has to fit the spirit of the language as well.
I don’t propose new features to copy other languages but I’ll mention other
languages as evidence that more people than just myself have discovered some
merit to the concept (i.e. a form of validation). When I say c++ does ___ too
I take that as a good indication many other programers who work in a similar
language had the same problem I did.
If lots of programmers using main stream languages like c++ are having a
similar problem we are I think it’s incumbent for Pascal to at least consider
if there is merit to the concern.
I disagree.
Pascal is a language (originally) intended to be used to teach
structured programming concepts, and also to be a practical production
language *in that same domain*.
When Mr. Wirth saw the merits of modular programming, he did not try to
retrofit that functionality into Pascal - he instead created a new
language, Modula-2, and later, Modula-3.
When Mr. Wirth later saw the merits of object oriented programming, he
did not try to retrofit that functionality into Pascal or Modula - he
instead created a new language, Oberon.
On the other hand, both Apple and Borland chose to extend their versions
of Pascal with these newer concepts (and several others), turning Pascal
into a multi-paradigm language. That was in the day and time when
commercial interests were more important than language design. It was
also a time when products were judged by the number of features
included, not by their quality.
Now, I happen to think that both structured and modular programming
belong together, and that Wirth could have added modular extensions to
Pascal without destroying the spirit of the language. However, what is
known as "Object Pascal", to me, should be a separate language, with a
different name. Not better, not worse, just different. And that's why
I hesitate whenever someone comes along and says we should add <feature
of the day> to Pascal.
-Jim
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