[mod.computers.vax] Pascal vs. Fortran; summary

sommar@seismo.CSS.GOV@enea.UUCP (02/23/87)

I posted a request some days ago about comparisons between VAX-Fortran
and VAX-Pascal in order to get some arguments to convince my fellows
in the project I'm in that Pascal is just as good as Fortran for the
purpose.

Let me first say, that my request was deliberately quite vague. I'm
new to the project and I haven't grapsed all of it yet. Since the
project is military I didn't want to give too much details either.

I got some responses, both directly and on the mailing list. Most
of them said the compilers are equal, possibly with a 
5-10% gain for Fortran. Many also stressed the fact that algorithms
etc are much more important, something I was aware before. (In fact
this guy who didn't like Pascal had this as an argument too. People
writing Pascal, he claimed, uses a lot of linked lists with pointers,
which slows down the programme. Bizarre) 

Some also proposed other languages as C and BLISS. They may be faster,
but I don't think any of us, including me, is interested. They are even
more uglier than Fortran to look at.

Finally, I like to thank all of you who responded to my request. 

Erland Sommarskog
ENEA Data, Stockholm
sommar@enea.UUCP