Understanding of Pascal Programming Language

In the first tutorial learning pascal programming in duniailkom we will get acquainted with pascal language, ranging from understanding pascal programming language, features available in pascal language and know pascal compiler: Turbo Pascal and Free Pascal.
Pascal is one of the computer programming languages ​​commonly used as an introduction to start learning algorithms and programming. Pascal is relatively easy to learn because its commands are similar to everyday english like begin, end, write, and read.

Pascal is taken from the name of medieval french mathematician Blaise Pascal. The Pascal language was developed by Niklaus Wirth in 1970, and was popularly used in the 1970s and early 1990s.

From the beginning developed, Pascal is designed for academic purposes. For this reason Pascal is still used in schools and universities around the world (including Indonesia). Pascal also became the programming language used in the National Science Olympiad (OSN) field of computers.

PASCAL Language Features
Pascal has several features that make it suitable for learning programming and for creating commercial applications. Some of them are:
Default data type: Pascal has standard data types commonly found in computer programming languages ​​such as Integer, Real, Character, and Boolean.
Data type of formation: Pascal allows us to create a formatted form data type itself.
Having multiple data structures: Pascal provides multiple data structures like Array, Record, File and Set.
Rigorous data-type rules: Pascal strictly limits the use of data types. We can only use variables for 1 data type only and those variables must be declared first.
Structural programming support: Pascal language is designed with the concept of structured programming that supports sub programs through functions and procedures
Simple and expressive: Pascal uses many commands in simple English, making it easy to understand.
Supports object programming: Although not much discussed, but Pascal also supports object-based programming, especially in the latest version of the compiler.

Know Borland Turbo Pascal
If talking about apps to create programs using pascal, then the most famous is Turbo Pascal.

Turbo Pascal is a compiler (program for running pascal languages) created by American companies: Borland. Turbo Pascal is just one of many available pascal compilers. In the 1980s, there were UCSD Pascal, Microsoft Pascal, and QuickPascal applications, all of which were used to run Pascal programming languages.

Free Pascal Compiler
Although popular, Turbo Pascal is far beyond its time. The last version of Turbo Pascal (Turbo Pascal 7) was released in 1992 for the Microsoft DOS operating system (MS-DOS) running on a 16-bit architecture. So we can not run Turbo Pascal applications in modern operating systems like Windows 7 or 8 that use 32-bit or 64-bit architecture. Turbo Pascal has also been developed by Borland.

One way to run Turbo Pascal 7 applications is to use an MS-DOS emulator like DOSBox (www.dosbox.com). Emulator is a program that simulates a system in another system, so we can run Turbo Pascal from inside DOSBox.

Another alternative to running Pascal is to use the Free Pascal compiler (www.freepascal.org). Free Pascal is a pascal compiler application that has been developed to date voluntarily by various programmers from around the world. Free Pascal can be used for free and can be installed directly into the modern operating system without the need for an emulator or additional applications.

In this tutorial learning pascal in duniailkom I will use freepascal because we are not bothered to install emulators and copyright / copyright issues.

Associated with copyright issues, Turbo Pascal 7 is actually a paid app and not released for free. Borland officially released Turbo Pascal 1.0, Turbo Pascal 3.02 and Turbo Pascal 5.5 for free, but not for Turbo Pascal 7.

The problem is, now Borland also no longer sell Turbo Pascal 7, so Turbo Pascal 7 is widely circulated is 'pirated' from the original version. Therefore I also suggest you to use Free Pascal. In terms of features and appearance, both Turbo Pascal 7 and Free Pascal are very similar.

How to install Turbo Pascal 7 with DOSBox and Installing Free Pascal will be discussed in a separate tutorial.

Need to Learn Pascal?
If you see the current programmer job, almost no one needs pascal language skills, so why learn pascal?

Due to various reasons and a long history, Pascal is currently 'less competitive' with other programming languages, such as C, C ++, Java and even BASIC languages ​​(via Microsoft Visual Basic). This is not because Pascal language is not 'good', but rather because of the marketing side and lack of industry support.

For example, many people think Pascal is better and more structured than BASIC, but BASIC is supported by Microsoft's class company with Microsoft Visual Basic, making it more popular than Borland Delphi (a similar application of Visual Basic that uses Pascal).

Although not as popular as C, C ++ or Java languages, currently Pascal is still widely used as an introductory programming language in schools and universities.

Pascal is for those of you who want to learn algorithms and programming from basic, or high school / vocational students who want to follow the olympiad of computer. Pascal is also suitable for high school students who plan to major in Computer Science / Informatics Engineering and want to 'steal start' acquainted with the programming language.

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