[fpc-pascal] Wirth and 'Wirthian nature'...

[listmember]

Mark Emerson wrote:

[...]

> The reasons in favor of the underscore are several and obvious, and today, most 
> languages support them.
> 
> There is only *ONE* reason that was offered by the anti-underscorist group to 
> exclude underscores from the language... and it was an emotionally-charged 
> reason.  Guess what it was?  Here it is:
> 
> "Underscores are not Wirthian."
> 
> These otherwise brilliant people were worshipping Wirth to the point of 
> absurdity.  I talked with Wirth on the phone once, and he's not a die-hard 
> anti-underscorist.  He's a humble professor who NEVER had any idea Pascal would 
> become so hugely important in the world.  Had I been in the right place at the 
> right time, I'm pretty sure I could have convinced him to include the underscore 
> in the Modula 2 spec.

Mark, I'd like thank you for this not because it falls inline with
what I believe, but for something completely different too.

And, here is what I think it is:

Although quite young compared to Wirth (or me :-) ), Florian is
[ see http://www.freepascal.org/aboutus.html for Florian Klämpfl]
an important figure in the Free Pascal world. [See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Pascal ]

And, since FPC is on the verge of being hugely more successful,
he too will be placed on a pedestal be worshipped whether Florian
wants it or not --just like Wirth and other well-meaning,
practical-problem-solvers cum prophets are.

I would not want him to say yes to everything, especially if
they would undermine important foundations of Pascal, but, at
the same time, he should be most careful when saying no too;
for [the fear of/that] he will be intepreted in ways he would
never have imagined so much so that might hinder the improvement
of [Free] Pascal in years to come.

Cheers,
Ray