[Coco] OS9 Pascal

[Joel Rees]

2017/11/10 10:23 "Theodore (Alex) Evans" <alxevans at alxevans.cnc.net>:
>
> On 11/09/2017 05:02 PM, Joel Rees wrote:
>
> > FWIW, it was really primitive, very few conveniences beyond the
> > modularization OS-9 provided, which was not the same that Turbo, etc.
made
> > popular. I found myself prefering BASIC-09 to the Pascal.
>
> OS-9 Pascal conforms pretty closely to ISO Pascal as described in Jensen
> and Wirth's Pascal User Manual and Report.  I used it for my first
> undergraduate CS courses in 1985 and 1986. If it is primitve, it is
> because that is the way the standard was. There are a couple things that
> it doesn't support (packed arrays for instance), but generally they are
> of little to no use in the OS-9 environment (packed arrays, if
> implemented would be identical to "normal" arrays on the CoCo).

Exactly.

OS-9 data modules were an interesting addition to the mix, too.

Many who learned Pascal learned Turbo Pascal and were disappointed in the
standard.

Turbo did things just slightly wrong, of course. But it became the de-facto
standard Pascal in the US, so I was de-motivated towards either.

I had the software tools in Pascal book but never made time to type them
in. Too many projects.

Would have been fun to build a Modula 2 compiler, but that project never
seemed to bubble to the surface when I had the free time, either.

Really should have bought a HD for the Coco. Would have greased the work I
did on the 6809 and OS-9 significantly.

Anyway, if Michael Brant can find a copy of the compiler, we might be able
to help him get it to compile pure standard Pascal programs, anyway.

Maybe.