Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?

["Dr E. Buxbaum" <EB15@le.ac.uk>]

anh@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (TRAN PHAN ANH) wrote:
>Just a side comment, by the time this thread and its offsprings end, the 
>original author will have learned both C and Pascal. :-)

The discussion which programming language is best is as old as 
programming. Any choice reflects the needs and personality of the 
programmer at least as much as anything else (appart, of course, from the 
needs and personality of your employer).

First, I think, anybody commenting on this issue should state which 
languages he/she knows. A lot of people advocate the only language they 
know, not because it is best, but becaus it is the only language they 
know. I myself started with Fortran on a Cyber mainfraim computer, but 
when I started to learn Pascal, it was like a revelation and I have not 
written a single line of Fortran ever since. My second revelation came 
when I first started working on a microcomputer, getting fast responses, 
graphical output, a user friendly interface and no hassle with user 
numbers has thoroughly convinced me of their value. Over the last 10 
years I have looked at a few other programming languages like, C, APL, 
Forth, Basic and Prolog. None of them have had the same 'Aha' effect on 
me as Pascal did. C in particular is to cryptic for my taste, although I 
know it good enough to port the odd interesting routine to Pascal. 

Part of the problem is of course the kind of programs you write. My own 
work is mainly concerned with the handling and evaluation of scientific 
data (I am a biochemist). I like a language which allows me to come back 
to my own programs (or that of other people) after a couple of years and 
see immediately how things work. Short utility programs, which work close 
to the hardware, may be a different kettle of fish. Of course, I work 
exclusively in the MS-DOS world, if I had to port programs between 
different operating systems, Pascal might not be such a good choice 
(although with the new Pascal standard and Gnu-Pascal being available for 
different systems, this may change). 

On a more partisan tone, I always wondered whether or not the quality of 
a programming language should not be reflected somehow in the final 
product. Questions of maintainability, readability, compiler complexity  
and so on should leave traces in the programs for the end user to see. 
This would require 2 programs, serving the same purpose, written in 
different languages. These programs should be generally available and 
have a function common enough that the comparison can be done without 
specialist knowledge.

I know of only one pair of programs that meet these standards: 
COMMAND.COM, the shell of the MS-DOS operating system is written in C and 
Assembler. 4DOS.EXE, its replacement, is written in Pascal, with some C 
and Assembler. So, if you whant to know which language is better, go 
ahead and compare these two programs. May I add that my own computer runs 
4DOS?