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Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

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21–30 of 59 posts

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#23

Looks interesting. As someone who's been using Pascal since Turbo Pascal 6, and use Delphi daily at work, I'm not sure I quite get the "COM-style interface GUID" objection. What exactly about it is complex, and how do you implement Supports() without it?

In my early programming days, working with Clipper, I used to look at Delphi from a distance with awe and a bit of jealousy. There also used to be PowerBuilder and Paradox, as competition to the xBase platforms.

I'd love to hear more about how you're using Delphi and what it excels at, compared to current web and native software stacks.

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#24
post #15

Does this support declaring variables anywhere (as opposed to only in the beginning of a function)? That was my primary complaint when using Lazarus.

Delphi has allowed this for quite some time.

Yeah, but then I'll have to deal with Embarcadero.

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#25
post #4

It is a bit curious with the Mojo 1.0 beta coincidence, as Pascal was the other langauge with a highly readable and quite simple language combined with performant compiled code without GC. What it lacked was a modern compiler and stack. There is FreePascal for sure, and Lazarus is impressive, but it for sure has its baggage.

Yeah, Python and Pascal have always felt like they share similar vibes, despite being massively different languages. (Ease of writing, ease of reading, good inbuilts, etc.) Mojo feels like a clean take on similar goals... it's essentially a cleaner Python.

Mojo is faster than Python but certainly not cleaner.

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#26
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Python and Pascal have always felt like they share similar vibes, despite being massively different languages. (Ease of writing, ease of reading, good inbuilts, etc.) Mojo feels like a clean take on similar goals... it's essentially a cleaner Python.

Mojo is faster than Python but certainly not cleaner.

Can you share more? I haven't actually used Mojo, I've just read about it, so I'm going on vibes (not AI ones :D) here. I'd love to hear your opinion.

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#28
post #7

For me the only reason to use pascal is GUI apps but this doesn't have it.

I have not used Pascal, but things that appeal to me (other than GUI apps) are that it seems simple to learn, and is readable, fast and compiles fast.

What languages would be better in these ways?

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#29
post #23

Looks interesting. As someone who's been using Pascal since Turbo Pascal 6, and use Delphi daily at work, I'm not sure I quite get the "COM-style interface GUID" objection. What exactly about it is complex, and how do you implement Supports() without it?

In my early programming days, working with Clipper, I used to look at Delphi from a distance with awe and a bit of jealousy. There also used to be PowerBuilder and Paradox, as competition to the xBase platforms. I'd love to hear more about how you're using Delphi and what it excels at, compared to current web and native software stacks.

Not the parent commenter, but what Delphi always excelled at was being able to quickly click together a GUI (with a WYSIWYG UI designer) and easily hook up the events (onClick etc.) to your code. That, and the blazing fast compilation speed which contributed to making quick iteration easy. Think VB6, just with a "serious" compiled language sitting behind it. Current versions of Delphi also support MacOS, iOS, Android and Linux (?), although I'm not sure how well that works, as I got off the Delphi train back in 2010.

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#30
post #23

Looks interesting. As someone who's been using Pascal since Turbo Pascal 6, and use Delphi daily at work, I'm not sure I quite get the "COM-style interface GUID" objection. What exactly about it is complex, and how do you implement Supports() without it?

In my early programming days, working with Clipper, I used to look at Delphi from a distance with awe and a bit of jealousy. There also used to be PowerBuilder and Paradox, as competition to the xBase platforms. I'd love to hear more about how you're using Delphi and what it excels at, compared to current web and native software stacks.

To be fair, Delphi was left to rot during a crucial point in time, around when .Net was being created. It has struggled ever since due to that.

And while the attention to backwards compatibility has been astounding, the move to Unicode-by-default strings was a non-issue for most unlike say Python, the language suffers and feels a bit tedious at times compared to say modern C#.

That said, for creating Win32 applications, especially CRUD stuff, there's nothing quite like it in terms of the efficiency of getting deliverables to customers.

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