From: engelbert_buxbaum@hotmail.com   
      
   RadSurfer wrote:   
      
      
   > Where somebody like me might possibly gain a foothold as to what Pascal   
   > offers that other languages do not; and/or how Pascal is better suited   
   > to a particular genre of tasks.   
      
   Pascal and its decendants are very clear languages, precisely defined   
   without limiting versatility. If you give a Pascal program to your   
   grandmom, she will probably understand most of it. With C-like   
   languages, that is ... unlikely. This results in programs with fewer   
   errors, which can be removed easier. I even had the idea that most   
   programmers use C to make their jobs safer: Nobody but themselfs can   
   read and maintain their code (and after a while, even they can't).   
      
   Additionally, you can program at the appropriate level for a problem in   
   modern Pascal variants, structured, modular or object oriented. Just   
   this weekend I tried to figure out the function of a small, simple   
   program in Java (heuristic for the traveling salesman problem using   
   virtual ants, c't 2005 No. 5, 204-207, use softlink 0505204 on   
   www.heise.de/ct to download). Despite the simplicity of the task, it   
   defined its variables as objects (which had no descendants), using 3   
   modules. I finally reimplemented the code in Pascal, a short (183 lines)   
   structured program (not even modules were required). The problem with C   
   was that it lacked structure, so its descendants (like C# or Java) used   
   object orientation to replace, rather than complement, structure. This   
   is like building a glas palace on top of a wooden shack.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)