[Info-vax] Userland programming languages on VMS.

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 1/31/22 19:04, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 1/31/2022 3:26 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 1/31/22 14:33, Dave Froble wrote:
>>> On 1/31/2022 12:29 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>> On 1/31/22 03:25, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>>>> On 2022-01-31 01:22, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>>>> On 2022-01-29, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Pascal is pretty limited but makes it hard to shoot yourself in 
>>>>>>> the foot.
>>>>>>> And most implementations don't use null-terminated strings which 
>>>>>>> are the
>>>>>>> most serious source of vulnerabilities in C code.
>>>>>>> --scott
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I wouldn't call Pascal "limited". DEC used it to implement VAXELN...
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem is that the ISO standard for Pascal is pretty useless.
>>>>
>>>> Pretty useless for what?  Tasks for which the language was not 
>>>> designed?
>>>>
>>>>>                                                                     
>>>>> Which is
>>>>> why every useful Pascal have extensions...
>>>>> And they are all different...
>>>>> Which makes everything very non-standard...
>>>>
>>>> Thus the reason they should have come up with new names and not called
>>>> themselves Pascal, which they were not.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> But Pascal is definitely not that bad a language. But it has it's 
>>>>> warts...
>>>>
>>>> Pascal is ideal for what it was designed for.  Too bad people still
>>>> don't understand the concept of "choose the right tool for the job".
>>>
>>> What about a "jack of all trades" that can do any job?
>>
>> Like choosing the wrong language for a task a "jack of all trades"
>> is famous for doing everything, but none of the tasks well.  It is
>> not a compliment to be called one.
> 
> Why do you ass-u-me that just because a language is versatile, that it 
> cannot do things well?  Do you have examples?  Any real facts?  Or just 
> bullshit?
> 
> 

I don't assume it.  At one time, when languages were more domain
specific, it was a known factor of program development.  There was
a reason why when I started in this business my title was not just
Programmer but Programmer/System Analyst.  One would have hoped
that the formalization of "Software Engineering" would have kept
the idea in vogue, but, alas, no.

bill