Pascal (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:23, 9 October 2002

Revision as of 05:17, 10 October 2002

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== Criticism ==

While very popular (although more so in the 1980s and early 1990s than at the time of writing), early versions of Pascal hashave been widely criticised for being unsuitable for "serious" use outside of teaching. [[Brian Kernighan]], co-creator of the [[C programming language]], summedoutlined up thehis most importantnotable criticisms of Pascal as early as 1981, in his paper [http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/bwk-on-pascal.html Why Pascal Is Not My Favourite Programming Language]. Since that time Pascal has continued to evolve and most of his points do not apply to current implementations. The summary of Kernighan's criticism of early Pascal in that paper is as follows:

#Since the size of an array is part of its type, the programmer can't create procedures that deal with general arrays, without regard to their size. This is particularly a problem for string handling.

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#There is no way to override the type system, most notably, no casting.

As mentioned above, the currently available compilers address most of these issues. Many uninformed people still perscribe to the old belief that Pascal is not for "serious" programming and do not realize the benefits it currently offers. This stigma, more then any actual deficiency, is Pascal's biggest liability.

However one should note that the currently available compilers address some of these issues.

== Publicly available compilers ==