Pascal

since 1970 (earliest usage recorded on this site was 1977)

Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.

Wirth's intention was to create an efficient language (regarding both compilation speed and generated code) based on so-called structured programming, a concept which had recently become popular. Pascal has its roots in the Algol 60 language, but also introduced concepts and mechanisms which (on top of Algol's scalars and arrays) enabled programmers to define their own complex (structured) datatypes, and also made it easier to build dynamic and recursive data structures such as lists, trees and graphs. Important features included for this were records, enumerations, subranges, dynamically allocated variables with associated pointers, and sets.

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Sub-Technologies

Turbo Pascal

66

Users

Technology Timeline Graph

1977

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2013

rragan

JamieXML

sceptreofjudah

empty

pkshiu

vangale

lawley

brucehoult

Cema

hexdump42

undoingemptyvoid

gjmilne

dfan

yacitus

coordt

kan

avowkind

rah

cdeblois

AndyC

takitimu

dabeaz

adamv

abtin

jtauber

grasuth

bg4

r1chardj0n3s

doughellmann

shiny

parsley72

growe

David

edd

UloPe

thumper

davidpaccoud

honzakral

bob

Rolo

binarydud

vitaliyf

otherchirps

sbastn

Bunglebogs

bkmontgomery

Atrujillo

pejrak

audreyr

Swizec

cstejerean

nsmgr8

mikl

natevw

bittercoder

eddymul

SeanOC

jbeigel

xytop

greyfade

collypops

RossP

ch0llima

james

gregmuellegger

bkopanja

kratorius

Arbaces

Indy

sanchom

CrociDB

ellisonleao

devien

anoop

NX172

fisadev

DataShed

rragan - 13 years

JamieXML - 4 years

sceptreofjudah - 2 years

empty - 34 years

pkshiu - 4 years

vangale - 5 years

lawley - 34 years

brucehoult - 21 years

Cema - 9 years

hexdump42 - 2 years

undoingemptyvoid - 4 years

gjmilne - 2 years

dfan - 6 years

yacitus - 5 years

coordt - 12 years

kan - 3 years

avowkind - 8 years

rah - 1 years

cdeblois - 7 years

AndyC - 4 years

takitimu - 4 years

dabeaz - 2 years

adamv - 13 years

abtin - 2 years

jtauber - 27 years

grasuth - 3 years

bg4 - 2 years

dl - 6 years

r1chardj0n3s - 2 years

doughellmann - 3 years

shiny - 25 years

parsley72 - 5 years

growe - 24 years

David - 23 years

edd - 23 years

UloPe - 3 years

thumper - 4 years

davidpaccoud - 6 years

honzakral - 12 years

bob - 3 years

Rolo - 2 years

binarydud - 5 years

vitaliyf - 2 years

otherchirps - 2 years

sbastn - 2 years

Bunglebogs - 2 years

bkmontgomery - 1 years

Atrujillo - 4 years

pejrak - 3 years

audreyr - 3 years

Swizec - 5 years

cstejerean - 5 years

nsmgr8 - 2 years

mikl - 2 years

natevw - 1 years

bittercoder - 3 years

eddymul - 17 years

SeanOC - 2 years

jbeigel - 6 years

xytop - 6 years

greyfade - 1 years

collypops - 2 years

RossP - 1 years

ch0llima - 14 years

james - 3 years

gregmuellegger - 2 years

bkopanja - 10 years

kratorius - 4 years

Arbaces - 7 years

Indy - 3 years

sanchom - 1 years

CrociDB - 3 years

ellisonleao - 2 years

devien - 2 years

anoop - 1 years

NX172 - 9 years

fisadev - 1 years

DataShed - 6 years

JamieXML

1977–1980

It was around in CSci as the Next Better Thing Than FORTran

rragan

1977–1989

sceptreofjudah

1979–1980

I took a graduate course at Santa Clara University to learn Pascal. I used it for a short while developing a wafer fab control system.

empty

1980–

Sadly still working with Pascal as Delphi. Have the original Apple Pascal book on my bookshelf.

brucehoult

1980–2000

My first introduction was Apple's UCSD Pascal on the Apple ][, then in 1981 NBS Pascal and Omni Pascal on the PDP-11, 1982 VAX Pascal, 1984 Turbo Pascal, 1987 THINK Pascal, 1987 MPW Pascal, 1994 CodeWarrior Pascal. Used in Parallel with C++ for half a decade.

pkshiu

1980–1983

Teaching language of choice in the UK. Used it as one of the main language during my Imperial days in London.

vangale

1980–1984

UCSD Pascal on Apple ][, VAX Pascal, IBM Pascal for PC-DOS. Have never written another line of Pascal after learning C.

lawley

1980–

Cema

1981–1989

Mostly in the academic environment (high school, college).

hexdump42

1981–1982

undoingemptyvoid

1982–1985

College - first real language - had basic for one course before. It was okay, better than FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC. I liked LISP better and C better.

gjmilne

1982–1983

First year comp sci @ Aberdeen

dfan

1982–1987

One of my first programming memories is learning Pascal from a textbook as a kid, writing out a program longhand that ran Conway's Game of Life, going to the college where my mom taught on a day off and typing the entire thing in, compiling it - and getting hundreds of error messages. Then it was time to go home.

kan

1983–1985

avowkind

1983–1990

Learned at Uni and completed final year project in it. Dabbled a bit in Delphi later on but that spoiled it really. Still prefer pascal syntax to C though.

coordt

1983–1994

yacitus

1983–1987

Our second class in computer science at University of Calgary was in Pascal. (The first was in PDP-11 assembly.) I bought Turbo Pascal almost as soon as it came out, and put it to work replacing the BASIC code I wrote to generate price-lists for a family friend's window blinds shop. That turned into more complex software using a database library (also made by Borland, for Turbo Pascal). I continued to maintain this code until I replaced it with a new system written in PICK BASIC.

AndyC

1984–1987

Started using Pascal on a NCR Tower (running a version of UNIX) and then onto using a version of Pascal on the BBC Micro and IBM PC

cdeblois

1984–1990

Purely educational.

1984

1986–1989

First programming language I learnt at University, can't say I liked it as a language.

dabeaz

1986–1987

Programming language used in AP Computer Science course.

jtauber

1987–

People may knock it but I think Pascal was in some respects the Python of its time. Clean syntax and focus on data structures. And hey, if it's good enough for Knuth...!

jeffself

adamv

1987–1999

Started with Turbo Pascal 4; ended with some Delphi version.

grasuth

1987–1989

First used on a PDP-10 -- and got stuck in, writing a simulation of highway traffic flow. Never really went back. Oh, well, there were those university assignments. Very clean syntax, but annoying in places.

abtin

1987–1988

bg4

1988–1989

Writing silly stuff with a grade school friend. Convinced ourselves we could write cool text based games.

eMBee

morgs

1988–1993

as with basic, commercial considerations kept me using this long past my natural inclination. would like to try oberon, but never find the excuse.

1989–1991

1989–

the year is just a guess

r1chardj0n3s

1989–1990

Last year of high school and first year of Uni and NEVER AGAIN!

zellyn

growe

1990–

Used to teach a few courses in Pascal back in the early 1990s. It was OKish I guess, but I could never see the point of "teaching languages" - that is, languages designed specifically for teaching programming, but not used in writing any real code. The students simply have to unlearn the language the following year when they learn a real one. Utterly pointless. Teach them Java or C++ or C# or whatever right from the start.

parsley72

1990–1994

When I went to University (UMIST, Manchester) this was the default teaching language. I also used it in my summer work placements.

1991–

My first compiled language. Taught me about pointers

zephyrfalcon

thumper

1991–1994

Pascal was a teaching language at Otago University at that stage.

1991–

1991–1993

1992–2003

Very first contact with programming, then went back to it in school.

davidpaccoud

1992–1997

Learned imperative programming with Pascal.

1993–1995

1993–1994

1993–1997

1994–1995

High School

1994–1995

1996–1997

1996–1997

I did not really get Pascal back then. We did the typical Fibonacci series and a couple of other mathematical problems but... Maybe a language to explore again?

tswicegood

bkmontgomery

1996

Technically, my very first programming language. I had a college course as a Freshman, which was great fun.

Swizec

1996–2000

audreyr

1996–1998

At school.

1996–2000

1996–1998

1996–1999

programas a pedido :P

nsmgr8

1997–1998

Not my favourite! Learned it for the uni computer course.

mikl

1997–1998

I experienmented a bit with Pascal, hacking around programs written by a friends older brother, not really knowing what I was doing, but managing to accomplish a few things regardless.

natevw

1997

Probably a little unfair to claim this, since on my Apple /// it took half a dozen floppy swaps to compile Hello World and I soon moved on.

andrew

bittercoder

1997–1999

Learnt turbo pascal while Studying. Actually went on to use those Pascal skills when learning Delphi and building a few applications using Delphi.

1997–

1999–2004

1999–2000

2000–2001

This as well as Comal were the two languages that introduced me to the big wide world of programming. I've been hooked ever since, but I'd never touch Pascal again in my life!

ch0llima

2000–

Rented a book from the local library about Pascal, gave up, took the book back, never looked at it again. Nothing wrong with the language itself, it was just me losing interest (as ever).

greyfade

2000

An intro to programming class at the local college. Ended up teaching myself when the instructor proved that he knew less about it than most of the other students.

RossP

2000

A brief foray into this with programming classes in high school. Even then the version we used was out of date so I didn't hang around long.

xytop

2000–2005

Pascal, Delphi.. were my first languages and ide`s

2001–2004

2001–2010

2001–2003

2001–2002

2002–2008

Used it a lot in high-school.

devien

2003–2004

A level, used this as an introductory language to programming. makes sense given its a teaching language, but with easy to use languages like c# and java around its usefulness is very limited.

CrociDB

2003–2005

sanchom

2003

Brief exposure during a course about programming language paradigms. I don't know this language.

Indy

2003–2005

First steps into procedural programming. Good language for teaching.

ellisonleao

2003–2004

anoop

2004