APL\360

[Jon Elson]

On 01/15/2021 07:18 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
>
> One measure I've used is that, out of 40 or so languages I 
> know, with only two have I gone from "no knowledge" to 
> "able to write a substantial program" in one week. One was 
> Pascal (in university -- computer course code generator).
I used to be a Pascal proselytizer, using it on PDP-11 and 
VAX, then on PCs with Borland Turbo Pascal.
I found that when I got a Pascal program to compile, it 
would generally run first time, as the language nudged me to 
think clearly.
I wrote a number of modest programs with it, and then one 
larger program to take Gerber files and generate raster data 
for a photoplotter.  This turned out to be quite a large and 
intricate program.
I just used it as a tool for a number of years, and stopped 
using Pascal as I had migrated to Linux.
Then, FPC (Free Pascal Compiler) came out, specifically 
aimed at accepting Turbo Pascal and DEC Pascal extensions, 
units, etc.  I converted my old photoplotter program to run 
under Linux and FPC, and of course, it ran many times faster 
on new hardware.

Jon