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Borland/Inprise/Embarcadero with high and then prohibitive prices put multiple nails in the Pascal coffin, but it fate was predetermined even before this. Pasc
by citrin_ru 5y ago
Borland/Inprise/Embarcadero with high and then prohibitive prices put multiple nails in the Pascal coffin, but it fate was predetermined even before this.
Pascal occupies roughly the same niche as C. C is the language in both Unix and DOS/Windows were written which defined it success.
C was chosen by Microsoft for DOS and later for Windows - using it for app development was the path of the least resistance (Visual C, then Visual Studio, API for C/C++, Documentation examples in C/C++).
C is the language of Unix, it was used for kernel, user-space and most 3rd party apps. History of open-source and Unix is connect. It's not an accident that the first open source compiler which become popular and widely used (GCC) was a C compiler.
Once C because "an official" language for both Unix and Windows Pascal had no chances.
- zozbot234 5y ago> C was chosen by Microsoft for DOS and later for Windows Maybe for Windows (but then again, PASCAL was the supported language for the Apple Mac in the same timeframe), but MS had both PASCAL and C compilers for DOS. (And of course BASIC compilers, plus whatever weird stuff their Fox Pro thing was about. No it was not a hypertext browser, just some weird programming system that I can't find more info about.) The early Windows 16-bit ABI was rather influenced by PASCAL conventions, which introduced some awkwardness when trying to code to it from C.
- pjmlp 5y agoMS-DOS was written in Assembly.
- citrin_ru 5y agoFirst versions (at lest 2.0 and older) indeed where written in Assembly. I've seen somewhere that later version used C, but now cannot find any information about this.