Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-ngp.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!kjm From: kjm@ut-ngp.UUCP (Ken Montgomery) Newsgroups: net.lang.pascal Subject: Re: PASCAL as a system's programming language Message-ID: <1172@ut-ngp.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 16:02:41 EST Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.1172 Posted: Thu Jan 10 16:02:41 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 06:29:06 EST References: <252@harvard.ARPA> <193@ihu1m.UUCP> Organization: U.Texas Computation Center, Austin, Texas Lines: 44 [] >Perhaps the nicest (in the sense of clean) thing about PASCAL >is the way it bifurcates the universe of objects into pointers >and pointees. I've always thought that was one of its most *broken* features. This bifurcation is ridiculous in the light of such C objects as pointers to pointers. > It is thus easier to debug monster programs >with monster data structures than is the case with C. Exactly contrary to my experience with ~1000 line programs. (Not really monsters, but large enough for comparison purposes...) > Actually, >all PASCAL needs to be a superior systems language to C is a >casting operator, No pointer arithmetic? Or ability to take the address of a static object? ACK! The ability to have static headers for linked-lists in dynamic storage is one of the things I miss most in Pascal. > assuming the compiler knows how to optimize >programming constructs like sequential array references. I prefer a minimum of magic (like global optimizations; these are an invitation to the compiler to mysteriously break programs). >I can do without the demented precedence of logical operators, >though. Plus the fact that short-circuit evaluation is not required... >ken perlow -- The above viewpoints are mine. They are unrelated to those of anyone else, including my cats and my employer. Ken Montgomery "Shredder-of-hapless-smurfs" ...!{ihnp4,allegra,seismo!ut-sally}!ut-ngp!kjm [Usenet, when working] kjm@ut-ngp.ARPA [for Arpanauts only]