[Info-vax] Free Pascal for VMS ?

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 05/08/2018 09:03 AM, Chris wrote:
> On 05/08/18 12:38, Simon Clubley wrote:
> 
>>
>> I could never get the hang of Forth. :-)
>>
>> Simon.
>>
> 
> Ditto, but in the days of small memories and slow processors on
> embedded systems, it was quite a good solution,. 

Best use I have ever seen for Forth was Open PROM.  Too bad IEEE
killed that concept.

>                                                  However, on the odd
> occasions i've had to use Pascal, I found it terminally frustrating,
> as it lacks all the features needed for such work. ie: facilities
> for direct hardware and low level access. 

Maybe not in the standard, but every Pascal I have worked with
going all the way back to Z80's and 6809's had these features
built in.  Take a look at something like UCSD-Pascal Kermit for
the Terak (an LSI-11) where a machine language interrupt driven
ring buffer program is installed and the interrupt vector loaded
from P-code compiled Pascal.

Not what Pascal was designed for, but what it eventually morphed
into.

>                                           C is still the best match
> for that...

And, with that, I agree.  One should always choose the right tool
for the job even if one finds it distasteful for non-technical
reasons.

bill