Question ?!!!!

[simone]

I agree with PascalDragon's statements, which also clarify (as always) some doubts that I had about the path that is being followed.

Just one question: is it worth make efforts for the complete implementation of ISO Extended Pascal? Is it that relevant?

Don't get me wrong: I'm a believer in standardization processes and I would like Object Pascal to be standardized, but I don't know how much ISO 10206 is of interest, even among the followers of Pascal and its modern derivatives.

[LV]

the separation between declaration and use is such a core principle of the language

It is hard to disagree. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"

[ASBzone]

Wouldn’t all the delphi users who want to switch to Lazarus have joined us by now?

Sure, but they may be using both Delphi (work) and FPC/Lazarus (personal time), and there can be value in compatibility for people in both worlds.

Or even using both tools for both work and personal time...

[Joanna]

Wouldn’t all the delphi users who want to switch to Lazarus have joined us by now?

Sure, but they may be using both Delphi (work) and FPC/Lazarus (personal time), and there can be value in compatibility for people in both worlds.

Or even using both tools for both work and personal time...

I guess they will be fine so long as they don’t scatter variables all over the place and then try to port it to Lazarus 

[silvercoder70]

There are some people in Australia (I know) that use Delphi still and wondering whether to switch still. To be honest, I am unsure of the rationale re using Delphi still vs FPC. Though some use Delphi in their workplace.

[PascalDragon]

Just one question: is it worth make efforts for the complete implementation of ISO Extended Pascal? Is it that relevant?

It's not relevant at all, but it has some extensions that are useful for FPC, like untyped array and record constants or a Card() intrinsic to count the elements in a set. And for those devs that work on ISO Extended Pascal it falls under the category of "for the sake of completeness" (especially considering that ISO Extended Pascal is a closed set unlike Delphi which is still continously developed).

[simone]

Thanks PascalDragon, I didn't know these very interesting features you mention being in the standard. In particular, record constants are a feature I'm looking forward to. This is good news.

[PascalDragon]

Thanks PascalDragon, I didn't know these very interesting features you mention being in the standard. In particular, record constants are a feature I'm looking forward to. This is good news.

I suggest you to read it. It's an interesting lecture.

[marcov]

It is valid ISO Extended Pascal, but there aren't that many compilers - if any - out there that support it. However FPC is working step by step towards implementing it.

Prospero Extended Pascal. Doesn't release much, afaik doesn't even have a 64-bit version. But the site seems to be gone (it was there a few years ago with a release from '11 or '12 iirc). GPC also mostly implements it, and despite ceasing development it still circulates somewhat.
 

[MarkMLl]

Prospero Extended Pascal. Doesn't release much, afaik doesn't even have a 64-bit version. But the site seems to be gone (it was there a few years ago with a release from '11 or '12 iirc). GPC also mostly implements it, and despite ceasing development it still circulates somewhat.

I was thinking about Prospero... if it's still going it must by now be one of the oldest commercial implementations.

MarkMLl

[marcov]

I looked again, and the wikipedia refers to web archive for Prospero, so sufficient to say it is dodo too.

[MarkMLl]

I'd taken a quick look and not seeing a page assumed that it might be in a "list of implementations" somewhere.

I think it was rather a one-man outfit, I can half remember an address... but that was from the mid-'80s...

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/165564.165576 is a summary of ISO Extended Pascal from their POV.

MarkMLl

[marcov]

In the 2.4.0 era I wrote a FAQ for FPC's relation with ansi-iso: http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/ansiiso.txt

[MarkMLl]

Yes, but I thought it worth getting Prospero's position into the record once I'd stumbled across it.

I've been trying to remember TopSpeed's position on ISO, but I didn't use their Pascal very much. In any event I think their modularisation etc. was heavily influenced by the fact that they were originally oriented towards Modula-2. I do recall that their Pascal had some odd operators for casts etc. rather than using either the Modula-2 or C convention.

MarkMLl