3 ms·

I've learned C (after knowing Turbo (Borland) Pascal, and Apple Basic) by simply getting a book, and reading it for a year (I must've been in 10th or 11th grade

by malkia 9y ago

I've learned C (after knowing Turbo (Borland) Pascal, and Apple Basic) by simply getting a book, and reading it for a year (I must've been in 10th or 11th grade, and that was way before any internet, and I had no access (or idea) of BBS). It was a bulgarian version (I don't think it was translation), and I remember being it a very solid and good book - I was able to use printf/scanf right after I've read the book. Btw, I've switched to "C" for a stupid reason. I was writing a File Manager for DOS in Turbo Pascal (like Norton Commander, but single pane), and I got stuck how to move a file from one directory to another. The builtin Pascal function only renamed a file, couldn't move. I was told that "C" can do anything, so I started deep into it. To be honest, while the book taught me things, at first I was putting everything in .h files, as I was so much used to the much superior (even today) Unit system in Turbo/Borland Pascal. Then some months after, getting Ralph Brown's interrupt List, and finding that I can just call a specific interrupt in assembly to rename a file (and that's what the "C" library had implemented), Pascal was no longer limitation... But haven't touched Pascal since 1999, and moved to C/C++ since then. I still miss the Units (.TPU files).

danieldk 9y ago
Then some months after, getting Ralph Brown's interrupt List, and finding that I can just call a specific interrupt in assembly to rename a file (and that's what the "C" library had implemented), Pascal was no longer limitation... I really loved SWAG, which was basically a collection of 'how do I?'-questions with answers in the form of Pascal sample code. Interestingly enough, it seems that someone converted it into a website: http://swag.delphidabbler.com http://swag.delphidabbler.com As a kid I went through and studied many of the SWAG snippets. But haven't touched Pascal since 1999, and moved to C/C++ since then. I still miss the Units (.TPU files). Also, the compile times and the debugger were awesome. The Turbo Pascal IDE was still better than many current environments. I stopped using Turbo Pascal when I switched to Linux more or less full-time (near the end of the nineties), though I did use FreePascal on Linux a bit.

by malkia 9y ago

danieldk 9y ago

Then some months after, getting Ralph Brown's interrupt List, and finding that I can just call a specific interrupt in assembly to rename a file (and that's what the "C" library had implemented), Pascal was no longer limitation... I really loved SWAG, which was basically a collection of 'how do I?'-questions with answers in the form of Pascal sample code. Interestingly enough, it seems that someone converted it into a website: http://swag.delphidabbler.com http://swag.delphidabbler.com As a kid I went through and studied many of the SWAG snippets. But haven't touched Pascal since 1999, and moved to C/C++ since then. I still miss the Units (.TPU files). Also, the compile times and the debugger were awesome. The Turbo Pascal IDE was still better than many current environments. I stopped using Turbo Pascal when I switched to Linux more or less full-time (near the end of the nineties), though I did use FreePascal on Linux a bit.