[fpc-devel] Re: [fpc-l] type discussion

[Jamie McCracken]

Florian Klaempfl wrote:

> 
> I'am a poor delphi programmer, didn't use it for years, but I bet with any
> python programmer that I create any application faster than him :)

You must be a damn fast typer then :)


> 
> 
>>Ironically python is perhaps the
>>most popular language on Linux and most of its syntax is derived from
>>object pascal whereas pascal 
> 
> 
> Well, I wonder which languages the kernel, X windows, GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice,
> Mozilla etc. use ;), definitively not python ... Python is a usuable scripting
> language but nothing more.

I agree but nevertheless it has become popular for desktop applications. 
Ubuntu and Fedora now uses it exclusively for filling in the blanks in 
their gnome desktops.

> 
> 
>>on linux is virtually non-existant. 
> 
> 
> The problem with pascal on linux was/is that there was no good compiler in the
> 90s for linux so a lot developers got lost.

Gnu pascal?


>>1) Forward declarations - they sux! Why should the developers have the
>>burden of making the code totally sequential declaration wise. All other
>>modern compilers dont need this. 
> 
> 
> C++ is still the number one language and it requires it.

yes but that aint modern! C# and python do not.

> 
> 
>>Sure your code might take a bit longer
>>to compile but thats peanuts compare to the time saved in extra typing
>>and reordering your code
> 
> 
> Did you ever work in a team? Then you know why ordering declarations is a good
> practice because reading non sequential declarations is hard.

Yes i have worked in small teams and that was never an issue. Of course 
crazy ordering is harmful but any reasonable ordering is readable.

> 
> 
>>2) I have touched on manual memory managaement of tobjects before so I
>>wont rehash it here (in summary ref count tobjects and they should have
>>good performance with c++ style exception handling).
> 
> 
> Good performance like python ;)?

If that were the case then yeah it would sux (however pythons 
performance is due to bien a bytecode interpreter and dynamic typing 
neither of which we need in pascal).

jamie.