[Info-vax] Userland programming languages on VMS.

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 1/31/2022 12:53 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 1/31/22 12:48, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 1/31/2022 12:33 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 1/31/22 08:36, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 1/31/2022 3:25 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>>>> The problem is that the ISO standard for Pascal is pretty useless. 
>>>>> Which is why every useful Pascal have extensions...
>>>>> And they are all different...
>>>>> Which makes everything very non-standard...
>>>>>
>>>>> But Pascal is definitely not that bad a language. But it has it's 
>>>>> warts...
>>>>
>>>> Pascal as in Wirth Pascal is a very good language for what it was
>>>> intended for: teaching structured programming. It is just that real
>>>> world programs need a bit more.
>>>
>>> And, just maybe, the answer was to pick the right language for the job
>>> and not try to modify the wrong language to make it fit.  When you buy
>>> your kid one of those toys with round, square and triangle blocks and
>>> holes to match do you also buy them a saw so that any block can fit in
>>> any hole?
>>
>> There are evolutions of Wirth/ISO Pascal that can be the right tool
>> for real world programs.
>>
>> VMS Pascal and Object Pascal/Delphi as heavily extended flavors of 
>> Pascal.
>>
>> Modula-2 and Ada 83 as new languages in Pascal style.
>>
>> I like Modula-2 and VMS Pascal better than Delphi and Ada 83, but YMMV.
> 
> Isn't it interesting that Wirth called his new language Modula and
> not something like "New Pascal" or "Pascal-2".

He made some fundamental changes like the case sensitivity, so
he thought that it made sense.

I think it was the right decision. But some may disagree.

Arne