XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: bowman@montana.com   
      
   On Sat, 3 Jan 2026 08:31:33 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:   
      
   >      No Low-Level Access: The language lacked a way to override its   
   > strict type system, making it impossible to write its own I/O systems or   
   > memory allocators *within the language itself*.   
      
   The University of Maine used Pascal as a didactic language and most of the   
   engineers at Sprague Electric were from UM. I can't remember the term but   
   I wrote several dlls, module, or whatever they were called that allowed   
   Pascal to do stuff like gather process data from HP instrumentation,   
   control robotic arms, and other real world activities. Hey, it was   
   money...   
      
   It is depressing that many companies I either worked for directly or as a   
   hired gun have wiki articles starting with   
      
   "Sprague Electric Company was an electronic component maker"   
      
   "Sylvania Electric Products Inc. was an East Coast American manufacturer   
   of electrical and electronic equipment,"   
      
   "General Electric Company (GE) was an American multinational conglomerate"   
      
   It isn't even the usual X was bought by Y was bought by Z. They're gone   
   completely although the GE trademark does live on in GE Aerospace. Also   
   gone are all the jobs the companies provided.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)