Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 30th Jun 2005 12:26 UTC
For Linux users, HLA is a strong programming tool that allows them to create powerful programs on a variety of different levels. As HLA becomes more feature-rich, additional applications will be written using HLA under Linux. With HLA and Linux, programmers can develop new and exciting applications anyone can use. Read more.
Permalink for comment
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Actually Pascal is alive and well in the form of Borland Delphi, which is used to develop a significant number of Windows apps (particularly in the bespoke world). Having used both Delphi and Java in two separate jobs, I can tell you Delphi is the far easier to read, code in, and use. The downside is the small library that comes with it, particularly in comparison with Java, and the smaller community due to it being a commerical product.
The Delphi IDE particularly shines when developing GUI apps. Idea/J is the only Java IDE that's equivalent. Further, Delphi tends to be a lot more forgiving of programmers bundling stuff into the event loop: multi-threading is still necessary for the big stuff, but more often then not you can get away with it. With regard to the underlying toolkits, Swing is more flexible than Delphi's VCL and, should you wish to code a GUI by hand, is probably the better choice.
With regard to the choice of syntax, it's well known in programming circles that Pascal has one of the most readable syntaxes out there, while still being close enough to C for programmers to make the jump. It's an obvious choice for a teaching language.