-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 source= http://www.piclist.com/piclist/2004/01/14/130923a.txt? Wouter van Ooijen says: >I don't know how you can do anything in software (especially in Europe) >without hitting at least one Wirth language. I have used Algol60 (IIRC >Wirth was on the commitee) and Pascal, and studied Modula. Jal (my >language) looks al lot like algol/pascal/ada in syntax (but is much more >primitive). Actually, it is pretty typical in the US for people to think that all Cs are the same language, that it is modern, and that it is preferable. And to compare the most trendy C product they use with some 1973 student version of Pascal. Many students can get a BS in CS with exposure only to C and Java. So I stand out quite a bit here by actually prefering Wirth's work. There is also a bit of "practical" instead of "liberals arts" approach evident in a lot of CS curricula. I learned two years ago that there was a huge split on the practical vs liberal arts issue between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Bubois, and in my opinion the wrong side prevailed. The erosion of liberal arts is a bit of an issue with me, so I should stop. This conversation woke up an old friend who was part of a consortium I put together to get the source license to Wirth's 4 pass Modula-2 compiler back in 1983. The UCSD Pascal system on Apple // and Terak (an LSI-11 graphics intensive machine) were the newest, coolest things at the time. For reasons that surely made sense at the time, I wrote a p-machine emulator in Pascal and ran it under the UCSD P-system, just to prove that I really understood the internals. Hmm. I don't think the 16F877 would support it. I have to read the 18 datasheets, and pay attention to RAM availability and addressing modes. I used Algol 60 on a GE timeshare system in '69, and used an unfinished Algol69 compiler in about '71-'72. I have the source to the 68HC11 Oberon-2 compiler that was a Master's project. The Wirth sequence is Algol69 (committee), AlgolW, Pascal, Modula ('77?), Modula-2, Oberon, Oberon-2, Component Pascal, all spaced about 5 years apart. I have read almost all the code for the corresponding compiler on some other processors, but I don't know if my temperament and skill mix are quite right to bring off a PIC compiler, especially with the change to Harvard architecture. I'll go look at JAL, but right now I haven't. Is it a finished line, or are you going to evolve it more? Have you looked at the BlackBox (Component Pascal) site? I think the language is very suitable for embedded work, but the compiler implementations are somewhat narrow. I also don't have my equilibrium on some of the way the language enforces correctness with abstract types and type extensions. http://www.oberon.ch/prod/blackbox/ Are you up to discussing compiler support kernel data structures (off-list ?) on an occasional basis? - --- Aubrey McIntosh http://www.piclist.com/member/AM-vima-Y84 PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 7.0.3 for non-commercial use iQA/AwUBQAWrawKlSw8yssF7EQI9DQCgq0dS5cYI8NR+EQ9kBFCsSaPHQ0AAn3og I7m1X0rh7vN9wRR6gyr+kYwR =2B5Q -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.