Pascal is a programming language that has had a significant impact on the world of technology and education. It was created by Niklaus Wirth in the late 1960s and was named after the French mathematician Blaise Pascal. Initially based on the ALGOL 60 language, Pascal expanded its data structuring abilities, allowing developers to build dynamic recursive data structures like trees and graphs. It gained popularity when it became the language of choice on the Apple 2, Lisa, and Macintosh computers, and eventually became the default high-level language on nearly every PC.
Over the years, Pascal has evolved into a variety of dialects, with one of the most famous being Turbo Pascal, created by CP creator Anders Hejlsberg. Turbo Pascal was one of the first languages with its own full-screen IDE, and in 1983, you could buy a copy at Circuit City for only $49.99, making it a great deal at the time. Pascal was extensively used in education to teach people how to code, but it was also used to build serious desktop applications and games such as Crisis Mountain, Gravity Wars, and IBM’s Alley Cat.
In modern times, Pascal’s popularity has declined, but Pascal dialects like Delphi are still in use today, and developers might find its syntax surprisingly familiar. To get started with Pascal, you can install a compiler like the Free Pascal Compiler and create a file ending in .pas. Alternatively, you can use a dedicated IDE like Lazarus.
In Pascal, the `program` keyword is used to define the main entry point for the application. The `begin` and `end` keywords with a period execute the actual code in the program, similar to the `main` function in many other languages. The built-in `writeln` function can be used to say “Hello, World!”.
Pascal is a procedural language, meaning that instructions are executed in a linear sequence one after the other. The `const` keyword is used to define immutable global data, while the `var` keyword is used to define values that might change throughout the execution of the program. Variables are strongly typed using a syntax that looks almost identical to TypeScript.
The main program can be organized into subprograms, which include functions and procedures. Functions return a value, while procedures are used to execute code or create side effects. Conditional logic can be used within functions to determine a value, which can then be returned from the function.
Pascal is also well-suited for complex data structuring. Custom types, such as records (key-value pairs or dictionaries in other languages), can be created, assigned to variables, and used to create and access records’ fields with notation.
Once all the code is in place, the executable can be built with the compiler. This has been a brief overview of Pascal, a procedural high-level programming language that has left a lasting impact on the world of technology and education. Thank you for reading, and I hope you found this information helpful.
