Recollections about the development of Pascal

  • Authors:
  • N. Wirth

  • Affiliations:
  • Institut für Computersysteme, ETH Zurich, Zurich

  • Venue:
  • History of programming languages---II
  • Year:
  • 1996

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Abstract

Pascal was defined in 1970 and, after a slow start, became one of the most widely used languages in introductory programming courses. This article first summarizes the events leading to Pascal's design and implementation, and then proceeds with a discussion of some of the language's merits and deficiencies. In the last part, developments that followed its release are recounted. Its influence chiefly derived from its being a vehicle for structured programming and a basis for further development of languages and for experiments in program verification.