XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: bowman@montana.com   
      
   On Wed, 7 Jan 2026 13:38:49 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:   
      
   > On 2026-01-06 17:30, John Ames wrote:   
   >> On Tue, 6 Jan 2026 13:19:54 +0100 "Carlos E.R."   
   >>  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Turbo Pascal had [...]   
   >>   
   >> Sure did! But TP didn't roll out 'til 1983, thirteen years into the   
   >> language's existence.   
   >>   
   >>> I don't think anyone used the original flavor of the language.   
   >>   
   >> The ISO standard wasn't finalized 'til 1983, the same year as TP; even   
   >> UCSD Pascal didn't come around 'til 1977. But it was being used for   
   >> teaching well before that, and Kernighan's essay was published in '81,   
   >> so people were most definitely using (or trying to use) earlier forms   
   >> of the language for stuff.   
   >>   
   >>   
   > Ah. I did not meet it till about the time of TP 2.   
      
   The timeline is important. I'll try to construct my experience. I was   
   doing contract work for Sprague in Sanford ME in the early '80s. Most of   
   their engineers were University of Maine graduates and UM used Pascal as a   
   didactic language. That would mean their Pascal courses were in the late   
   '70s, given the time to graduate and find a job.   
      
   These were electronics engineers, not CS students. Like when I learned   
   FORTRAN IV, the assumption was you would use computers as a tool during   
   your career, not that it would be your career. The Pascal they had learned   
   was inadequate for what they were trying to do.   
      
   In another context I also worked with chemists in the '80s who had been   
   taught Fortran. Their code was pretty horrible but it did get the job done   
   and I was able to adapt it.   
      
   Colleges don't always make great choices and do their students a   
   disservice. At one time University of Montana used Modula-2, another Wirth   
   production. Later they chose Java after being offered financial incentives   
   by Sun. (I think it was before Oracle).  Arguably a better choice although   
   it didn't do much when we were looking for C/C++ programmers.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)