[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 1/24/2018 2:54 PM, John Reagan wrote:
> On Wednesday, January 24, 2018 at 2:43:51 PM UTC-5, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 1/24/2018 1:59 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>      It is always a bad idea to bet on non-standard features in
>>> any language.  It is one of the reasons Pascal languished outside
>>> of academia (which is where it was designed for, not to teach a
>>> language but to teach concepts.)
>>
>> Really?
>>
>> The by far largest Pascal code base must have been
>> TurboPascal & Delphi on PC.
>>
>> And that code was typical replaced with C++ code
>> using lots of OLE, COM, MFC and ATL.
>>
>> That type of C++ is not more portable than
>> Pascal.

> Besides "classic" Pascal (ISO 7185), we also did Extended Pascal (ISO
> 10206) which intended to standardize existing practice.  The Borland
> folks attended and provided input but never adopted anything.  The
> did submit suggestions for things like PEEK and POKE which hardly
> standard other than being under the letter "P" in the appendix.
> 
> VMS Pascal has most of Extended Pascal (ie, schema types are directly
> from the standard, etc.).  In places where we have the identical
> feature as EP, we left our traditional syntax in place with the
> promise that we'd add the 2nd spelling if/when some other compiler
> implemented the same.  Only Prospero Pascal (now defunct) did the
> full standard.
> 
> VMS customers have written large and complex applications in Pascal.
> I know of several customers each with millions of lines of Pascal
> code.

VMS Pascal is a great product.

And I used it a lot 1988-2000.

I also liked the original TP, but I never liked ObjectPascal/Delphi.

My point was just that what replaced Delphi code was not in any way
portable, so I do not believe people dropped Delphi due to lack of
portability.

I would expect that many of the VMS Pascal applications are
still used.

Arne