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by broken-kebab
975 days ago
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It's not something to differentiate between them: neither is obsolete as long as somebody uses it to earn, and Pascal dialects has been evolving as well as C#, while neither deviated significantly from their roots. TypeScript (which is rather new PL) uses Pascal-style for types. Haskell, and Ocaml are niche too, and the syntax is 98% from 70s, but it still feels like a new for someone who sees them for the first time. And let's not even touch what hardcore Pythonistas think about what "old-fashioned" means. Pascal syntax is non-mainstream nowadays, as well as Lisps, MLs, and lots of others, but neither fits to the word "archaic" |
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People's opinions do change over time, but I do not think it's likely that there is a renaissance awaiting Pascal's overall design decisions, specifically the ways in which Pascal differs from C. That's because differing from C is costly and requires justification. In some cases, I think Pascal's decisions just proved wrong; like the lack of short-circuiting in boolean expressions. I assume modern Pascal compilers have resolved this, but it's a good example of how I think things go: ideas that improve the status quo are worth bringing back, ideas that have a lot of switching costs are a hard sell.
I also understand that sometimes the difference may seem superficial, and that's because they are. Are Pascal units really vastly different from modern translation units/modules? Somewhat, but not that much. But it differs enough that someone not familiar with Pascal needs some time to adapt, whereas almost anyone with programming experience of any level can pick up Go, because it's stupidly simple. It does differ from C and other languages that are still contemporary, but when it does differ it's often good: the type syntax and declaration syntax is massively simpler than C, for example. (And yes, Pascal's type syntax is also better, at least by some measures.)
I'm happy to discuss these matters, but I will also be completely honest: I'm not particularly moved by this line of argument. It feels somewhere between semantics and an implicit desire to consider a future where Pascal syntax somehow becomes in vogue again as it was in the early 2000's. Maybe an evolved Pascal, but not the Pascal of today. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong; I'm just calling it the way I see it.