Dr Wirth inventor of pascal has died at 89

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SUMMARY

Dr. Niklaus Wirth, the inventor of the Pascal programming language, passed away at the age of 89. His contributions to structured programming and educational methodologies in programming languages have significantly influenced generations of programmers. Wirth's design of Pascal emphasized structured data types and user-defined data types, which were pivotal in teaching programming concepts effectively. His legacy includes the promotion of good coding habits, contrasting with earlier languages like BASIC and FORTRAN.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of structured programming concepts
  • Familiarity with programming languages such as Pascal and C++
  • Knowledge of pass-by-value and pass-by-reference mechanisms
  • Awareness of user-defined data types and structured data types
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the impact of Pascal on modern programming languages
  • Explore structured programming techniques in C++
  • Learn about the evolution of programming languages from FORTRAN to Pascal
  • Investigate educational methodologies for teaching programming
USEFUL FOR

Students, educators, and software developers interested in the history of programming languages and the principles of structured programming will benefit from this discussion.

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Pascal is the second language I learned. It helped me a lot in learning how to structure programs.
 
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DrClaude said:
Pascal is the second language I learned.
Me too. Fortran was my first, first IV, then 77, where I got into "structured programming" using IF / END IF statements and DO / END DO loops that eliminated the need for statement numbers.

So the new stuff for me in Pascal was pass-by-value versus pass-by-reference in functions, structured data types, user-defined data types, etc.

I taught intro programming courses in Pascal during the early/mid 1990s, then switched to C++ until I stopped teaching those courses in the early 2000s.

Dr. Wirth is reported to have once said, "You can call me by name, which is 'Wirth' [pronounced 'veert'], or you can call me by value, which is "Worth".
 
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Similar here, BASIC and FORTRAN despite being completely different were both poor in terms of teaching good coding/programming habits, most of what I know (I am not saying my habits are OK :wink: ) I learned while using Pascal.
 
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