Pascal and its current applications

Question

I studied Turbo Pascal in 1997 and I liked it very much as a language. Everything was very structured and the compiler made sure you did things the right way. I later tried Delphi but never got very interested in it.

Since then I've used a lot of different programming and scripting languages (C, C++, PHP, Python, Perl, TCL) and recently I started thinking of my old Turbo Pascal days.

So, I am wondering for what practical purposes Pascal could be useful today and what API's and frameworks are available. Does anyone have experience using Pascal in a modern development environment or is it just a dead language?

To clarify my question: Can Pascal be used for modern application development. Is it being used and how?

Wikipedia links or quick Google searches will not help, I've been there. That is why I am asking the 'experts'.

Solution 1

Note that older (1.0.x) versions of the Free Pascal compiler sources were effectively Turbo Pascal compatible (as in could be debugged with TP), which demonstrates basic Pascal capabilities.

The question of use of Pascal as a basic language is roughly the same as for C, since they are nearly equivalent on a language level. The only difference is the amount, versatily and quality of compilers.

I would strongly recommend to go in the direction of the Delphi dialect though (either using Delphi or Lazarus/FPC), and not go back to Turbo.

The DOS-isms and 16-bitisms would seriously limit you, and nearly the entire dialect that is free from DOS-isms and 16-bititms is supported by FPC or Delphi.

Turbo Pascal was one of the (if not THE) main compilers of the DOS era, and Delphi is still the second most sold IDE in the world (after visual studio), so I think the "dead language" and "teaching language" bits are a bit exaggerated.

Solution 2

An opinion from a satisfied user who switched to FPC from Java/C/C++:

Pascal, Free Pascal (FPC) in particular, is useful for absolutely everything. Application programming with good performance (since it is compiling), game programming (e.g. through OpenGL), and also for web programming since it can compile to Java bytecode. It runs on all important platforms (MS, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and more).

FPC is highly updated, it is a very modern language compared to the 70's/80's language that some may think we are discussing. It has OOP extensions (including a "Objective Pascal" mode for using Objective-C classes), and OOP is non-mandatory just like C++. It also has operator overloading, function overloading, dynamic arrays, a limited garbage collection, automatic namespaces... Moreover, it is a modular language (like Java), while C/C++ are, after all these years, still non-modular (fakes it with #include). (I would be interested in a serious discussion about what features a "modern" language must have today.)

Did I mention portability? FPC comes with a big runtime library, much of it cross-platform, including a class library (mostly use with Lazarus AFAIK). FPC is highly suited for writing portable code.

As a teaching language, a major advantage is how close it is to C/C++. It really only differs in the most trivial syntax (and different object model) but is really pretty close to C++. Porting between C/C++ and Pascal is easier than porting between ObjC and C++. But FPC has the advantage of being easier to learn, with easier syntax.

So I claim that FPC is perfectly useful both as teaching language and for serious application programming. (I think it is ideal but that is more an opinion.)

There have always been Pascal haters who make uninformed flames usually referring to the 70's original language. Personally I don't think that neither the 70's Pascal nor 20 year old problems (back when portability was the problem) are worth discussing at all. What is interesting is what you can do now, pros and cons between languages beyond "but everybody else does..." arguments.

Solution 3

Nobody has yet mentioned that TeX (and METAfont and other TeXware) is written in Pascal.

In the early 90s, I developed commercial X/Motif CAD applications using a custom dialect of Pascal.

Solution 4

Well let's remember Lazarus a free clone of Delphi:

http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php

And FreePascal:

Free Pascal (aka FPK Pascal) is a 32 and 64 bit professional Pascal compiler. It is available for different processors: Intel x86, Amd64/x86_64, PowerPC, PowerPC64, Sparc, ARM.

http://www.freepascal.org/

Solution 5

I have been using Pascal since version 1 all the way up to RAD Studio XE3 in 2012. That was my first language. Knowledge in pascal is almost the knowledge in the system it runs.

It is an amazing language which laid me the foundation to be a mastered in C, Embedded C and Analog/Digital Circuit Design - all self studied. I later studies PHP, JS and TCP Model without any difficulty in comprehending any of the core concepts behind them.

Of course Pascal is now Object Pascal like Basic is Visual Basic. Following are the things Pascal does in 2012 in it's commercial product. (non commercial versions of pascal does as good, if not better)

Supports almost all Web technologies. Supports almost all database technologies. Cross Platform in single code base. Large community, components and libraries.

One popular application developed in Pascal is Skype.

Microsoft, having had their own languages, bought Skype last year for, I think, $800M.

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