[fpc-pascal] Object pascal a "Modern Language"

[Matt Henley]

Please note that I am advocating Lazarus for the project.. I was
responding to the project leader's (defacto at this point) call for
pros and cons of each language.  I and one other gentleman suggested
FPC/Lazarus.  I posted here precisely because I do not know what
constitutes a "modern" language.  I am not a programmer, just a
chemical engineer who has done a lot of programming (mostly in
Fortran), but who switched to delphi -> kylix -> Lazarus for my own
projects.

This is a community project... no companies are currently involved. 
The project is a continuation of an existing codebase which was
written in python. Few of the people want to continue it in Python. 
Several want to use C#.  Two of us know and love Lazarus.

The application would involve calculations, database access, and a
graphical user interface (visio like diagramming interface)... for
reference you can look at
http://www.aspentech.com/industry_solutions/oilgas/product.cfm?IndustryID=23&ProductID=274
(scroll down for screen shot)

Thanks for all the input

Matt


On 3/3/06, Marco van de Voort <marcov at stack.nl> wrote:
> > "My personal objective is not just to put out a simulator, but a fast
> > and efficient simulator.  Furthermore, personally, I do not consider a
> > program portable if it is written in a language which very few can
> > understand.  A modern language such as any of the .NET languages will
> > meet the efficiency objective but portability remains an issue.  While
> > I do have the Visual Studio .NET and I am happy with it, I understand
> > that not everybody has it and it is not cheap.  I looked at the
> > Lazarus project and (at least at a first glance) it is indeed very
> > "Visual" and will likely do the job.  It will however, limit us to
> > Pascal which is not really a modern language.  For those of you who
> > are in favor of using Lazarus, can you assure the rest of us that
> > Pascal has been modernized? "
>
> IMHO the fatal flaw in this reasoning is that this opinion simply
> regurgitates some IT management blurb, and doesn't really tailor a choice of
> language to your needs.
>
> There are three different arguments that I would mention in your response:
>
> 1) While not nearly as bad as Python, there are potential performance issues
> in using managed languages. This is not just raw calculating speed, but also
> startup time, memory usage (not unimportant in scientific calculations with
> large datasets!).
> Worse, doing something about it often means doing speed dependant calculations
> in a non managed language in a DLL. So you potentially force contributors to
> learn a new language, and later have to partially back out again.
>
> 2) The only somewhat jusitifyable choice for "modern" programming languages
> in the IT sector is hiring. One can debate if .NET and Java are new
> generations, or just a glorified old hat, but the main point is that they
> _are_ prolific.
>
> However that is not a 100% simple situation:
> - First availability must be seend relative to demand (C# programmers
> are the only programmer on the US top 10 most wanted list, J2EE has been so
> in recent years). A lot more supply, but also a lot more hiring.
> - Also, these languages are mainly business (read DB apps) oriented, and much
> less scientifically. Pascal has been a scientific language for years.
> -  Are you going to be hiring anyway? Otherwise I would inventorise
> first which suitable language is most common in your community and choose
> that (Pascal, Java, C# or not). It would be stupid to e.g. offend your most
> worthwhile potential contributors with a wrong language choice.
>
> IOW, don't be fooled by a simplistic mantrum, but do the research what
> language is most suitable, and what's available in your community.
>
> (your actual question is pretty much unanswerable till you define "modern")
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