Pascal and its current applications

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+3 Q:

Pascal and its current applications

I studied Turbo Pascal in 1997 and I liked it very much as a language. Everything was very structured and the compiler made sure you did things the right way. I later tried Delphi but never got very interested in it.

Since then I've used a lot of different programming and scripting languages (C, C++, PHP, Python, Perl, TCL) and recently I started thinking of my old Turbo Pascal days.

So, I am wondering for what practical purposes Pascal could be useful today and what API's and frameworks are available. Does anyone have experience using Pascal in a modern development environment or is it just a dead language?

To clarify my question: Can Pascal be used for modern application development. Is it being used and how?

Wikipedia links or quick Google searches will not help, I've been there. That is why I am asking the 'experts'.

+1 A:

Pascal is useful as a teaching language; it illustrates some of the more fundamental computer science precepts, with less obscurity than C.

McWafflestix 2009-06-08 23:10:13

But why isn't it used for anything practical? Isn't it powerful enough for real work applications? Kind of seems like a waste of time to learn a language you can't (or shouldn't) use in your (maybe future) profession as a programmer.

Andrioid 2009-06-08 23:22:19

Learning environments can be very useful; how often do you use that wide-ruled paper with the guidelines that you used to learn to write your ABCs? Yet, it was useful for what it was. Sometimes, a simplified environment can allow better learning by providing for fewer distractions to the student.

McWafflestix 2009-06-09 00:14:06

Pascal isn't used for anything practical because the library support isn't there. As McWafflestix says, there is value in having a simplified environment in order to learn the basics of software development. A good engineer can apply those concepts easily to any other high-level language.

Steve Madsen 2009-06-09 00:58:27

Wouldn't exactly compare Pascal to the ABCs, thats more like Basic. Pascal is more like grammar. But valid points here, thanks.

Andrioid 2009-06-09 07:33:00

I realize that this question is focused on Pascal not the Delphi variant, but Delphi has almost all of Pascal's strengths and is used for many things practical, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CodeGear_Delphi#Products_developed_with_Delphi

Argalatyr 2009-06-10 10:34:19

Madsen: I think FPC and Delphi (which account for more than 98%+ of the Pascal usage) have more in common than any two random toolchains (that have independant codebases) for any other language. See e.g. Lazarus' compatibility to Delphi GUI apps.

Marco van de Voort 2009-06-11 19:38:59

Adding to Argalatyr's comment, Pascal (Delphi in particular) is used a lot more than it's given credit for. The Windows Skype client is one high profile example.http://delphi.wikia.com/wiki/Good_Quality_Applications_Built_With_Delphi

Bruce McGee 2009-07-22 21:20:46

I want to avoid any sort of language debate here, but Pascal is very much usable for large, real-world projects. For example, Pascal was the de facto language of choice on the Mac for many years - the OS itself was written in it and most apps were, as well, and there are still folks who write commercial Mac apps in Pascal. Over on Windows, Delphi was extremely popular and remains fairly popular, and has been used for plenty of real projects. The first version of Pascal was indeed relatively simple and intended as a teaching language, but the language evolved over time to become very advanced.

mr. w 2010-10-01 20:58:20

+1 A:

The main one is the Pascal-derivative Delphi (from Embarcadero, formerly owned by Borland).

See Wikipedia for a list of some more, mostly open source.

binarycoder 2009-06-08 23:13:27

+2 A:

Well let's remember Lazarus a free clone of Delphi:

http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php

And FreePascal:

Free Pascal (aka FPK Pascal) is a 32 and 64 bit professional Pascal compiler. It is available for different processors: Intel x86, Amd64/x86_64, PowerPC, PowerPC64, Sparc, ARM.

http://www.freepascal.org/

tekBlues 2009-06-08 23:15:08

Please put the "FPK" alias to rest. The namechange is over ten years ago now :_)

Marco van de Voort 2009-06-18 14:27:19

+5 A:

Note that older (1.0.x) versions of the Free Pascal compiler sources were effectively Turbo Pascal compatible (as in could be debugged with TP), which demonstrates basic Pascal capabilities.

The question of use of Pascal as a basic language is roughly the same as for C, since they are nearly equivalent on a language level. The only difference is the amount, versatily and quality of compilers.

I would strongly recommend to go in the direction of the Delphi dialect though (either using Delphi or Lazarus/FPC), and not go back to Turbo.

The Dosisms and 16-bitisms would seriously limit you, and nearly the entire dialect that is free from dosisms and 16-bititms is supported by FPC or Delphi.

Turbo Pascal was one of the (if not THE) main compilers of the Dos era, and Delphi is still the second most sold IDE in the world (after visual studio), so I think the "dead language" and "teaching language" bits are a bit exaggerated.

Marco van de Voort 2009-06-11 09:48:49

+3 A:

Pascal isn't used for anything practical because the library support isn't there.

What a load of bull. There's a plethora of libraries out there that can be used by Delphi, FreePascal and Lazarus.

As McWafflestix says, there is value in having a simplified environment

"Simplified environment"? That's just derogatory. I would say it is, and has always been, pretty sophisticated.

2009-07-02 11:49:47

I think the main reason of the popularity of Turbo Pascal was not the Pascal language but the IDE. As far as I remember it was really easy to work with it, it was fast, and even debugging was fun.

On the other hand Pascal language was a but outdated, so Borland added quite a few things to the Pascal language (and made their language more similar to Module-2).

asalamon74 2009-10-09 15:22:26

Not entirely correct. The Pascal Ansi/ISO committees were studying (with Wirth) on modular systems. Afaik Borland mostly borrowed from their early proposals.

Marco van de Voort 2010-09-29 11:52:41

+1 A:

Nobody has yet mentioned that TeX is written in Pascal.

Some 15+ years ago I developed commercial X/Motif applications using a custom dialect of Pascal.

Dan 2009-10-22 02:56:30

Searching the keyword 'pascal',filtering the results with 'programming language' => 'pascal',you'll find a bunch of applications of pascal,if not enterprise level,at least serious programmer's level.

With so many open-source and cross-platform ides, libraries, I think pascal is still alive(except the popular delphi dialect) and could do practical tasks.As the results implies,pascal could do Operating System,Compiler,Cross-Platform Library, Desktop-Programming.So,it seems that pascal at least could do a lot of serious tasks,if not too pratical to make moeny back instantly.

Anyway,I like this language,though I havn't done any serious programming with it.

Jichao 2009-11-03 03:18:24

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