Turbo Pascal Turns 40 • Hacker News Board

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#11

Post by bluedino » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 9:56 PM UTC

I never used the original, but I started with a 2.0 disk I got from a friends parent who was taking computer classes in college.

https://www.abandonwaredos.com/abandonware-screenshot.php?gi...

It didn't have the trademark Borland IDE yet, but along with this Pascal book from the library, I had hours of fun.

Computer Programming in Pascal the Easy Way https://a.co/d/3uPpxAw

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#12

Post by tomcam » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:02 PM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #8

rezaprima wrote: post #6

25 seconds to compile it? How come ?

My understanding is the compiler was insanely efficient and parts of it coded in assembly if I'm not mistaken.

It was completely written in assembly

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#13

Post by zozbot234 » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:02 PM UTC

Free Pascal still has a look-a-like of the original TP IDE! But that code is bitrotting by their own admission (it still relies extensively on obsolete quirks of the original MS-DOS platform) and it's sad that we don't have a look-a-like version that can work as a general editor in the terminal (like neovim or emacs) and integrate with modern IDE-oriented facilities like the LSP, tree-sitter parsers or the debug adapter protocol. That could even be a game changer for editing code remotely from SSH/terminal connections.

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#14

Post by tomcam » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:04 PM UTC

It changed my life and made me want to write compilers for a living. I wrote the first one in Turbo Pascal.

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#15

Post by tquinn » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:05 PM UTC

I first used Turbo Pascal in a high school programming class. I remember our teacher saying: "Make it work first, then you can make it look pretty."

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#16

Post by qznc » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:05 PM UTC

rezaprima wrote: post #6

25 seconds to compile it? How come ?

Niklaus Wirth (Pascal inventor) had the rule that compiler speed must never regress. So if you add an optimization (which means the compiler has to do more work), the optimization must "pay for itself" and make the compiler faster.

That philosophy probably seeped into Turbo Pascal to some degree.

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#17

Post by blame-troi » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:05 PM UTC

we had Turbo, JRT, and UCSD back at my first job out of college. All quite good in their way.

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#18

Post by mobilio » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:07 PM UTC

I started with TP 5.5...

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#19

Post by zozbot234 » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:07 PM UTC

tquinn wrote: post #15

I first used Turbo Pascal in a high school programming class. I remember our teacher saying: "Make it work first, then you can make it look pretty."

It's being used to this day (or until very recently, at least) in some countries, generally running under dosbox because DOS software can no longer run natively in modern PC OS's.

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#20

Post by randcraw » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 10:10 PM UTC

browningstreet wrote: post #5

I started with Turbo Pascal, and as is often noted by others, I spent a lot of time with the book Borland shipped with the compiler.

And Jeff Duntemann's outstanding "Complete Turbo Pascal".