Oh, great, more competition...(Pascal++)

Oh, great, more competition...(Pascal++)

[David Weller]

I"m reposting this here as an FYI service.  It's pretty long.  Hit
the "n" key if you don't give a rip.

IMHO, there should be an international law making it legal to shoot
anybody slapping the "++" moniker on non-C-based languages. *sigh*

Another question: Why do universities support this kind of stuff?
Wouldn't it be easier to expend effort of creating better compilers
and tools for Ada, rather than supporting _another_ variation of
Pascal? (This one's rhetorical -- I know the answer)

Anyway, on with the show....

From: pplus@tfl.dk (Flemming og Anders)
Subject: Psacal++ compiling system available
Keywords: extended pascal,object orientation,concurrency,monitors,virtual types
Organization: Tele Danmark Research
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 1994 16:49:07 GMT

			ANNOUNCEMENT


		A POWERFUL LANGUAGE SUPPORTING:


			EXTENDED PASCAL

		      +          +   

         CONCURRENCY                OBJECT ORIENTATION  

		\			/
		 v		       v

			PASCAL++


Extended Pascal, which was issued by ISO in 1992, has resolved most of
the more obvious drawbacks of Standard Pascal, such as separate
compilation, dynamically determined types, mixing of definitions,
direct access files and character string manipulation.

However, the new standard has not taken into account the trends within
software development towards use of concurrency for structuring and
towards use of object oriented techniques for modelling.

Inspired by the language Pascal Plus, developed at Belfast university,
we have therefore defined Pascal++ as an extension of the new Pascal
Standard, to support concurrency.  In addition, we have incorporated
advanced features for object oriented programming, such as
inheritance, dynamic binding, encapsulation and redefinition of types:

 
    Virtual types (in addition to virtual procedures/functions).
    Virtual types allow generic types to be defined (e.g. lists, maps etc.)
    and to place such types in inheritance hierarchies like ordinary types. 
    Despite being very useful, virtual types are only found in a few object 
    oriented languages.
 
    Full subtype/supertype compatibility (polymorphism).
    Most object oriented languages allow a value of a subtype to be assigned 
    to a value of its supertype. In Pascal++, it is also 
    possible to assign a supertype value to a subtype variable.
 
    Multiple inheritance.
    A subtype can inherit from several supertypes.
    Name clashes are solved by hiding some of the names from one of the 
    inherited supertypes. 
 
    Exceptions as objects.
    Handlers can be set to catch exceptions. Whenever an exception occurs,
    an object of the exception object type (or a subtype thereof) can be 
    created and passed to the handler.
    By specialising the exception type, any
    user defined information can be passed to the handler.
\f

Why should you use Pascal++?
============================
 
    Pascal++ is a modern, powerful object oriented language with concurrency.
 
    It has strong typing allowing detection of most kinds of undefined
    situations, i.e. 
    detection of static errors (such as type compatibility) by a compiler
    and detection of dynamic errors (such as validity of array indices) 
    during execution.
 
    It is an extension of Pascal, making Pascal++ easy to learn for Pascal 
    users.
 
    It is operating system independent (as opposed to e.g. Turbo Pascal) and
    it is a strict extension of the new Pascal standard.
 
You can now get a public domain version of the Pascal++ system
including limited user documentation (about 50 pages as ASCII-file).

The compiler front-end and interpreter including complete documentation
is also available as shareware on several different hardware
architectures, as described below.

The compiling system consisting of a front-end and an interpreter for
Pascal++ is available by FTP.  The system has passed about 1800 test
programs in many different environments, e.g. VMS, MS-DOS, MS-Windows,
and various Unix machines etc.

The system is available on different machine architectures such as:

	IBM PC,			 "MS-DOS"
	IBM PC,			 "MS-WINDOWS"
	DECstation 3100/5200,	 "ULTRIX V4.2A (Rev. 47) System #1"
	SUN 3/60,		 "SunOS Release 4.1 (UX)"
	DEC-VAX,		 "VAX/VMS V5.5"

The binary code for the Pascal++ system (ppl) is made available to the
news groups:

  comp.lang.pascal,          comp.lang.misc,        comp.object,
  comp.parallel,             comp.binaries.ibm.pc,
  comp.binaries.ms-windows,  comp.os.vms,           vmsnet.announce,
  comp.std.announce

The system files are available from the ftp-server ftp.tdr.dk
(130.227.226.84) in the diretory /pub/pplus.  The documentation of the
system is found in the directory /pub/pplus/INFO and the presently
available machines are found in the directories PCDOS, PCWIN, ULTRIX,
SUN360, VAXVMS.

The executable files are found in a sub-directory called bin, the
library is found in the sub-directory called lib.  For access to and
use of library please look into part4 of the manual.


The system consists of the files:

	readme.txt		(this file)
 
	ppl(.exe)		(executable compiler)
	int(.exe)		(executable interpreter)

	readme.ps		(this file as postscript file)
	part1.ps		(part 1 of the Pascal++ documentation)
	part4.ps		(part 4 of the Pascal++ documentation)
\f
If you have problems with the files please contact:

          FAVOR Software
          att: Anders Olsen
          Skelvej 7
          2900 Hellerup
          Denmark

	  Anders V. Olsen
          e-mail: anders@tdr.dk 
or 
	  Flemming Andersen
	  e-mail: fa@tdr.dk


If you would like to have the latest version of the complete system,
you can get a registered copy on diskette of the complete current
version including 300 pages of written documentation as postscript
file by sending 40US\$ + surface mail expenses to the address
mentioned below.  In order for the delivery to be correct you must
give precise informations about your machine (PC, VAX, DECstation or
SUN360) including information about OS version and floppy disk format.

Postage expenses within Europe is set to 10US$, outside Europe we have
to charge 20US$.

If you do not have access to a postscript printer you can get a hard
copy of the documentation by sending 20US$ extra.


Future plans are to build code generators for specific machines and
implement extended programming environments depending on demands.


Please contact:

          FAVOR Software
          att: Anders Olsen
          Skelvej 7
          2900 Hellerup
          Denmark

          e-mail: anders@tdr.dk or fa@tdr.dk
\f

Disclaimer
==========

   THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAMS, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY
APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAMS "AS IS" WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAMS IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAMS PROVE
DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
CORRECTION.

   IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY
REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAMS AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR
DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
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THE PROGRAMS TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER
OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.





-- 
Proud (and vocal) member of Team Ada! (and Team OS/2)        ||This is not your
   	      Ada -- Very Cool.  Doesn't Suck.               ||  father's Ada 
For all sorts of interesting Ada tidbits, run the command:   ||________________
"finger dweller@starbase.neosoft.com | more" (or e-mail with "finger" as subj.)
   ObNitPick: Spelling Ada as ADA is like spelling C++ as CPLUSPLUS. :-) 

Re: Oh, great, more competition...(Pascal++)

[Daniel Wengelin]

David Weller (dweller@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM) wrote:
: I"m reposting this here as an FYI service.  It's pretty long.  Hit
: the "n" key if you don't give a rip.

: IMHO, there should be an international law making it legal to shoot
: anybody slapping the "++" moniker on non-C-based languages. *sigh*

: Another question: Why do universities support this kind of stuff?
: Wouldn't it be easier to expend effort of creating better compilers
: and tools for Ada, rather than supporting _another_ variation of
: Pascal? (This one's rhetorical -- I know the answer)

: Anyway, on with the show....

Hm, I really wouldn't see this in the dark light as Mr. Weller seems
this. When reading this post, I was actually rather happy!

I thought I saw the opportunity to perform a global search-and-replace
"Pascal++" for "Ada94", and this is really an ad for something that
embodies all that Ada stands for. This is an ad _for_ Ada, in sprit.   

It is certainly much easaier to make the move from P++ to Ada94, than it
is to mek the move from a C-derivative to Ada, and if we can get some help
from the P++ entrepreneours to make the step from C to P++, then more 
than half the step is already taken!

So, cheer up! See these danes as people that has taken the essence from
Ada and are making an effort to target the C market with something that's
far better than the alternative.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
--    Daniel Wengelin       --
--    CelsiusTech           -- TeamAda member
--    dawe@celsiustech.se   --
--                          --
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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