Re: [linux-audio-user] Re: An equivalent for Megafont

On Friday 13 May 2005, Lee Revel wrote:
> > [1] http://www.geocities.com/lstnght2000/
> > [2] http://www.geocities.com/lstnght2000/megafont_mutation_src.zip
>
> Is it really written in... Pascal? What was the author smoking?

It is written in Delphi, a Pascal dialect developed by Borland as an object
oriented replacement for his ancient and successful product "Turbo Pascal".
There is a Linux version, Borland Kylix [1]. There is also a GPL-licensed
compiler aimed to be compatible with this dialect: Free Pascal [2].

And why not to choose any language to develop your programs it the language is
suitable for the task?

You can use some arguments like the ones in Kernigham's old diatribe [3]
against Pascal, followed by the other sacred cow [4]. But Delphi/Kylix and
Free Pascal are Pascal descendants without any of the flaws claimed by
Kernigham. You can find similar rants against any language, including C
[5][6].

Here are some rebuttal facts against Kernigham's arguments.

Delphi language has dynamic arrays, where the size is not part of the type
anymore (2.1). It has static and initialized variables (2.2). Forward
declarations and function prototypes (2.3). It allows *fast* separate
compilation (2.4) preserving strong type checking across units. Set types
are powerful and large enough, allowing 'set of char' with 256 elements, and
type declarations are allowed in a function prototype (2.5). There is a cast
mechanism (2.6) similar to Java. It has advanced control flow for loops using
break and continue keywords (3). A powerful runtime library allows you the
use of all the operating system functions, including I/O (4), you can even
use the Glibc library in Kylix and FPC. And finally, you can write ALSA
programs using this language [7], which is why I'm writting this article and
why it is on-topic in this list.

[1] Borland Kylix
http://www.borland.com/kylix/

[2] Free Pascal
http://www.freepascal.org/

[3] Brian W. Kernighan: Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language.
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~cs655/readings/bwk-on-pascal.html

[4] Eric S. Raymond. The Jargon File.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/P/Pascal.html

[5] James A C Joyce. Why C Is Not My Favorite Programming Language.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/7/144019/8872

[6] Weilin Zhong. Why C is not My Favorite Language
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/%7Ewz5r/cs655/whycnot.htm

[7] ALSA Library Bindings for Pascal
http://perso.wanadoo.es/plcl/alsapas/alsapas-en.html

Regards,
Pedro
Received on Sat May 14 00:15:14 2005