John Ollason wrote:
Greetings,
I follow the postings on the mailing list with interest but seldom feel that I have anything to contribute. I am becoming concerned that some fundamental questions that we ought to address are simply being ignored. The most important question is Is Pascal a dead language? This might look like flame bait, but it isn't. Evidently the development of GPC presents a variety of interesting technical problems in the construction of a portable compiler, but the solution of such problems, though interesting in itself, deteriorates into navel-gazing if there isn't a group of users, reasonably sophisticated programmers who use write programs in Pascal. While there is a cohort of people like me who learnt Pascal in the '70s and '80s, the language is no longer taught in the introductory courses in programming at Aberdeen University of which I am a member, and as far as I can discover it certainly is not taught at school. With the decreasing number of recruits to the population of Pascal programmers it seems to me that Pascal is dying out and there is little anybody can do to conserve it. Perhaps my perceptions are mistaken, perhaps there is still a thriving process of recruitment to the ALGOL tradition, but I fear that the recruitment is not happening in Britain and certainly not in America.
Everything you say is true. And my recommendations are risky for you.
I'm a Biophysicist. I studied under Otto Schmitt (Schmitt trigger) who modeled digital electronics from nerve cell electronics. So I go way back. Otto was a rather poor, lonely man (but always delighfully full of new ideas).
You are seeing the same thing I see here in Minnesota, USA. The herd has not followed Pascal. The herd goes to the mall with a credit card.
It is simply a choice one makes; follow the herd, or follow your beliefs. The rare period of scientific enlightenment we witnessed is under great challenge. In the US, evolution can't be safely taught. Now nuclear is pronounced "nucular." Being out of the herd is costly. I live in the north Minnesota countryside. Usually I can barely hear the birds sing because the gun carrying pick-up trucks are blasting away. My oldest daughter is finishing college in (and loves) England. My second daughter will study next year in Hong Kong. My youngest daughter will study next year in Spain. This group (GPC) represents people from around the globe. You are right to fear being trampled by the herd.