[Info-vax] Better languages than BASIC

[Marc Van Dyck]

Simon Clubley formulated on Thursday :
> On 2024-01-11, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>> On 1/10/2024 9:28 PM, bill wrote:
>>> On 1/10/2024 7:02 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> The world has evolved.
>>> 
>>> Exactly.  BASIC also evolved, but better languages have passed it by.
>>> 
>> 
>> I confess to curiosity.  In what ways has other languages passed by Basic?
>> 
>
> There are multiple languages that have left BASIC in the dust.
>
> If you want an initial teaching language, Python is _absolutely_ the
> language you start people off with these days. BASIC is absolutely
> dead here, and for very good reason.
>
> If you want to write business applications, then either Java or a
> subset of C++. C++ subset to be chosen based on programmer skillsets
> and the problem to be solved.
>
> If you want to write modern-day CUSPs, then either C or C++.
>
> If you want a safety-critical language (for completion only, as BASIC
> was never suitable here), then something like Ada.
>
> There are other areas that BASIC was never suitable for, such as
> number crunching. Depending on your requirements, knowledge, mindset,
> etc, then either stay with Fortran, or drive an analysis package from
> something like Python. There are also higher-level languages such as
> MATLAB or Octave that can be used here as well.
>
> BTW, Octave is available here if you want to look:
>
> https://octave.org/
>
> Simon.

Amazing that in current programming languages discussions, PASCAL is
never mentioned anymore. I understand that it has lost a lot of 
momentum
and never was a big success outside of the academic field, which used 
to
be a DEC stronghold way in the past. But in this case, why is VSI (and
before that HPE) still supporting that language today ? It cannot be
customer base, can it ? It is certainly not seen as a language of the
future either... So why ? Just because John likes it, or what ?

I'm still doing all my programming in Pascal... Now that I'm retired, 
no
one else at my former work uses it anymore. They keep a one user 
license
to maintain my code, if it is ever needed. But I'm afraid this compiler
will feel very lonely...

-- 
Marc Van Dyck