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Turbo Pascal Turns 40

blog.marcocantu.com

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Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#21

Post by einpoklum »

Other than some Logo experience, I first learned "real programming" using Turbo Pascal. I was in sixth grade and went to a programming summer-camp-of-sorts, held on the grounds of the Techno-da science museum (today called the Mada-Tek). At break time, one of the other kids got a copy of "Ironman Super Off Road" [1], and we would play or watch others try to beat the computer. And at break time there were bread rolls with some filling I think, and every other day or so it was this chocolate-flavored spread.

Man, that was so much fun!... I haven't thought about those times in years; thanks for the trip down memory lane :-)

[1] - https://www.mobygames.com/game/4444/ivan-ironman-stewarts-su...

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#22

Post by sbarre »

Ok with a bunch of old hats here, anyone else remember

Technojock's Turbo Toolkit?

It was a UI and eventually object toolkit for Pascal apps and it was pretty damn cool for the time.

There isn't much online about it, but everyone I knew who was working in TP or BP swore by this in the early 90s..

https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10277966...

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#23

Post by agumonkey »

tomcam wrote: post #12
giancarlostoro wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

hand written and also optimized for throughput right ? maybe pascal syntax was also parsing friendly.. i don't recall

one thing for sure is that it felt near instant if not real time building small projects, to the point that 14yo me was completely unaware of meaning of Compile until years later.

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#25

Post by zozbot234 »

cvwright wrote: post #7
bdcravens wrote: post #3

Never wrote a line of code in Turbo Pascal afterward, but taking it in HS (somewhat on accident) in 1995 was what set the trajectory for the rest of my life.

Same here. Even now, I still sometimes set my vim colors to blue background and yellow/white text.

That was a common choice for TUI software running in the 16-color PC textmode palette. I suppose the blue provided a "dark" background with less contrast than actual black. (TUI programs of the era generally had a pure black-and-white mode too, and the overall look there was not unlike that of *nix terminal-based software.)

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#26

Post by NikkiA »

orionblastar wrote: post #2

I started with TP 3.0 in high school. It compiled faster than any other Pascal. It uses the WordStar editor. My teacher called it the cat's pajamas.

TP 2.x and 3.x had integrated editors that were functionally similar(inspired by) to WordStar, but were not wordstar, and using an external editor was a pain in the ass.

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#27

Post by bear8642 »

agumonkey wrote: post #23
tomcam wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was completely written in assembly

hand written and also optimized for throughput right ? maybe pascal syntax was also parsing friendly.. i don't recall one thing for sure is that it felt near instant if not real time building small projects, to the point that 14yo me was completely unaware of meaning of Compile until years later.

>maybe pascal syntax was also parsing friendly..

Yep, designed to be single pass, recursive descent friendly

Re: Turbo Pascal Turns 40

#28

Post by blorenz »

My first exposure to TP was when I pirated it off a warez BBS in the winter of 93 at the age of 14. The raw power I felt when I compiled my own EXE in contrast to running just a .BAS file was enthralling! I started modding Renegade BBS and writing door programs. I tried to, unsuccessfully, create worms, Trojans and viruses. It changed my life and set me on a course for where I am in tech today. Moreover I’m reformed my deviant teenage tendencies. I owe Borland a lot.
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