Re: Success: Ada versus C

[dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

Arthur says

<<Ada 'was' around when C started, tho' in another form. The immediate
predecessor to Ada was Pascal. At the time that Pascal was introduced
it was immediately hailed as an innovation over existing languages and
was in general felt to be superior to it's competitors, Fortran and
Cobol. During the beginning 80's, fast, cheap, and relatively good
compilers for Pascal were available (ala Borland). Despite its
deficiencies, it was gradually being expanded in capability, supplanted
by other 'better' languages (Ada and Modula for two), and then it
died. I've heard reasons why. I don't understand them. But it died
as it appears that Ada might.
>>

To claim that Pascal has died is uninformed nonsense. Delphi has a very
substantial following, and is used on a large number of serious projects
(Ada would be pleased to have its penetration in the PC world!) It is
surprising how many people gaily make this statement without knowing
anything about it (at a recent department meeting, where the chairman
decided Java was a good think without knowing much about it :-) several
people made the claim that Pascal was not used in serious projects any
more, including the poople currently teaching Pascal.

For an antidote, visit www.borland.com, and you will quite easily find you
way to a nice page that talks about Delphi projects.