From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 X-Received: by 2002:a05:620a:806:: with SMTP id s6mr18740018qks.68.1622661427840; Wed, 02 Jun 2021 12:17:07 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:a25:75d6:: with SMTP id q205mr45857713ybc.339.1622661427664; Wed, 02 Jun 2021 12:17:07 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.mixmin.net!proxad.net!feeder1-2.proxad.net!209.85.160.216.MISMATCH!news-out.google.com!nntp.google.com!postnews.google.com!google-groups.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2021 12:17:07 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Injection-Info: google-groups.googlegroups.com; posting-host=79.13.125.26; posting-account=JRF_-woAAABYlsAtkCl_CUxBuQy2SsaQ NNTP-Posting-Host: 79.13.125.26 References: User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <62a51520-f7bc-4bbf-b0bf-fdfb1c1a9dadn@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: why the pascal family of languages (Pascal, Ada, Modula-2,2,Oberon, Delphi, Algol,...) failed compared to the C family? From: Gabriele Galeotti Injection-Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2021 19:17:07 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:62096 List-Id: On Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at 2:25:17 PM UTC+2, Nasser M. Abbasi wrote: > The first language I really liked was Pascal. > But the Pascal family of languages (including Ada) have > clearly failed to become popular, at least compared > to the C-family (C, C++, C#, ....) > > The question is why did this happen? > > My theory: C was used to develop Unix/Linux and > Windows, and this made it easier for applications > to be written in C/C++ since the interface to the OS > was easier. VMS did not choose C (considered a huge > blunder by many. They choose Bliss > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLISS instead! and we > all know what happens to VMS. > > What is your theory on this? Was there another > reason or set of reasons? > > Can we all blame this success of the C family of > languages on Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan > brilliance and it being used for Unix? > > --Nasser By chance. Most of the time a concept/idea is simply too ahead-of-time, or misunderstood. In the 80s, there was P-code on the Apple II. It was beautiful and fast. But it was too early. 25 years later, Java bytecode came out, exactly the same thing, a cheeky clone. It was a success (at least, commercially).