Multilevel standards

[Henry Spencer]

> > The problem with Pascal was that the original language was excessively
> > minimal.  We *have* avoided this trap with C, since it was in heavy use
> > for production work long before K&R, much less the current ANSI effort.
> 
> Hey, c/mon fellas!  Pascal was designed as an introductory language for
> a first programming course.  Of course, it's restricted!  A full system
> language (like C) is not appropriate for Programming 101.  A toy language
> (like Pascal) is not appropriate for building operating systems.

I'm not heaping scorn on Pascal; I was a founding member of the Pascal
Users Group.  (Literally:  I was at the little meeting at ACM 75 that
started the group.)  But Pascal's problems are not restricted to cases
where it is being misapplied.  How can one teach defensive programming
without an OTHERWISE in the CASE statement???  Oh well...
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry