Comparison of Pascal and C

Comparison Of Pascal And C

The computer programming languages C and Pascal have similar times of origin, influences, and purposes. Both were used to design (and compile) their own compilers early in their lifetimes.

Both C and Pascal are old programming languages: The original Pascal definition appeared in 1969 and a first compiler in 1970. The first version of C appeared in 1972.

Both are descendants of the ALGOL language series. ALGOL introduced structured programming, where programs are constructed of single entry and single exit constructs such as if, while, for and case. Pascal stems directly from ALGOL W, while it shared some new ideas with ALGOL 68. The C language is more indirectly related to ALGOL, originally through B, BCPL, and CPL, and later through ALGOL 68 (for example in case of struct and union) and also Pascal (for example in case of enumerations, const, typedef and booleans). Some Pascal dialects also incorporated traits from C.

What is documented here is the Pascal of Niklaus Wirth, as standardized as ISO 7185 in 1982. The C documented is the language of Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, as standardized in 1989. The reason is that these versions both represent the mature versions of the language, and also because they are the closest in time. C99 (the later C standard) features and features of new dialects of Pascal are not included in the comparison.

Read more about Comparison Of Pascal And C:  Syntax, Pointers, Control Structures, Functions, Procedures, Preprocessor, Type Escapes, Files, Later Pascal Implementations and Extensions, Epilogue

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