3 ms·

I'd happily read that.

• pjmlp 10y ago
  A small list: - Type safe enumerations - Proper strings with bounds checking - Proper arrays with bounds checking - No implicit decay of arrays into pointers - Type safe pointers - Explicit casts for subverting the type system - Bounds checking must be explicitly disabled - Var parameters instead of pointers for out parameters - Real modules with type encapsulation - Type safe function pointers - Language support for concurrency - Open arrays for variable length parameters - Exceptions All of this available in 1978. By no means anything exceptional, Niklaus Wirth inspired himself on the programming language Mesa, used by Xerox PARC to create the Pilot OS and the Star workstation, as Xerox wanted to move away from BCPL in 1977. Also many of these features were already available in Algol.