Andrew Gregory wrote:
I think that Pascal is still one of the better compiled languages. For someone who wants to write GUI applications on Windows, Delphi is a good choice because of features such as the form designer. But things have moved on: Powerful dynamic scripting languages such as Python contain a lot of new thinking, and really do save time in many applications (e.g. data processing). There is a good case for writing core functions (e.g. maths) in a compiled standardised language such as Pascal or extended Pascal, which will be around for decades, then writing interfaces to scripting languages as required. Unfortunately, to interface Python and gpc, you have to go via C, so for new code it's tempting just to use C.
But what does "go via C" actually mean? I remember a joint project I did with a C++ programmer. We also "went via C" which means he wrote `extern "C"' and I wrote `external name' etc. No actual C code was involved (apart from the GMP library which is written in C (and assembler) and was used by both Pascal and C++ parts of the program). So "going via C" doesn't have to mean more than using a simple (i.e., only types available in C, no schemata, templates or objects etc.) and well-defined (no name-mangling) calling interface.
Frank