Tony Smith wrote:

>> It doesn't help pretending that Pascal isn't dead in the professional
>> world, or make this into yet another "this language is better than
>> that language" pissing contest... It's about finding out why Pascal,
>> with all the perceived advantages, didn't make it -- and, arguably,
>> at this point, has little chance of making it ever.
> 
> I still use TurboPascal when fiddling with TurboCNC. 

Which probably doesn't make up a big chunk of your income.

> That said, the differences are often just perception, BASIC is for
> little kiddies, Pascal for quiche-eating professors, and 'Real Men'
> (TM) use C.

Not sure where the people are that perceive it like this, but not around
where I make my money. VB /is/ a professional tool, so is Delphi. And
nobody in his right mind would use C (or pay for someone using C) for
something these two are usually used. 

But compare the "bucks made" with Delphi and other Pascal variants with
the "bucks made" with other languages, and you'll probably see why I
said "dead in the professional world". 

This isn't a judgment of the "quality" of the language. It's a fact of
the market.


> Microsoft wised up with Windows C & Basic, so VB didn't get a
> compiler, thus letting the 'Real Men' (TM) get on with the job of
> doing whatever it is they do.  

It's been a long time that Microsoft has last promoted a C compiler.
They do sell a C++ compiler that also (as a rarely used side effect) can
compile C sources. But their heart (and their money) lies with VB and C#
(both running on the same engine), not with C and not with C++.

> Probably telling the VB weenies their language of choice sucks -

No, not really. VB is probably more popular than C++ in the professional
Windows world. C++ is treated like some kind of a step child; many of
the useful RAD features that VB and C# have for GUI development (in the
Visual Studio IDE) don't work with C++. It's probably still there mostly
because of legacy applications that need to be supported, and because
some people develop highly optimized applications where the additional
control a low-level language like C++ provides may be helpful (and they
don't need the GUI RAD features for that).

> No-one needs the 'power' that C gives you these days, it's all
> libraries, web apps and front-ends for SQL databases.  You don't need
> C for that.

Nobody really uses it (professionally) for that. But then, check out
what the SQL databases are written in... Chances are it's not a BASIC or
Pascal dialect. (Which again is not to say they couldn't be; just that
they aren't.)

Gerhard
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