Subj : Re: RIP Niklaus Wirth
To   : poindexter FORTRAN
From : Bob Worm
Date : Sat Jan 06 2024 22:27:58

  Re: Re: RIP Niklaus Wirth
  By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Sat Jan 06 2024 09:43:00

 > That makes sense, the PASCAL class was used mostly to teach data
 > structures and algorithms, then everything else was in C, assembler or
 > LISP. In retrospect I'd rather just jump into C or C++ instead of
 > spending time learning another language.

Ah, yes - this gives me flashbacks. In my Computer Science degree, which turned out to be mostly abstract mathematics, we used Pascal for the module which introduced recursion, linked lists, binary trees and so on. Pass by reference vs. pass by value and all that good stuff. To be fair I can see why, trying to learn that stuff for the first time while also trying to learn C's syntax for the first time would be a ballache - I have to do *what* to create a string? Do I need *var or var* in this context? Not to mention fun stuff like "if(x = 0)" compiling fine, even though you clearly want "if(x == 0)", then doing bonkers things at runtime.

It's a shame that was the last time I used Pascal :(

BobW
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