Programming language · 1970

Pascal

Programming language.

PascalWritten in
1970First released
Niklaus WirthDeveloper
staticTyping
Built fromInfluenced PPascal PascalALGOLDelphiFree PascalModula-2AdaOberonNimGoD
CompilerInfluence
Replacedassembly and BASIC for teaching structured programming
Being replaced byC, C++, and Java in education and industry

What is Pascal written in?

The Pascal compiler is written in Pascal (documented). Pascal is self-hosting.

What Pascal is used for

Pascal was designed for teaching structured programming and dominated computer-science education for years; its Object Pascal descendant (Delphi) became a popular tool for Windows desktop apps.

Notable software: early Apple Macintosh system software, and the original Skype client (built in Delphi).

Quick Facts

Designed by
Niklaus Wirth
First released
1970
Typing
static
Filename extension
.pp, .p, .pas

About Pascal

Pascal is a programming language. It is a statically typed language that compiles ahead of time to native machine code. It supports imperative and procedural programming.

Pascal first appeared in 1970 and was designed by Niklaus Wirth. Its popularity peaked around 1985.

How Pascal is implemented

In the Language Lineage dataset, Pascal is self-hosting, so its own compiler is written in Pascal itself. Reaching self-hosting, where a language is mature enough to compile itself, is a milestone that proves the language can handle a large, real-world program.

Pascal in the language family tree

Pascal drew on ideas from ALGOL and went on to influence Ada, D, Go, Modula-2, Oberon, and Delphi.

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

Frequently Asked Questions

What language is Pascal written in?
Pascal is primarily implemented in Pascal. See the implementation section above for details and source references.
What languages influenced Pascal?
Pascal was influenced by ALGOL among others. See the influence section above for the full list.
Which languages did Pascal influence?
Pascal influenced Ada, D, Go among others.
Is Pascal self-hosting?
Yes, Pascal is self-hosting, its compiler can compile itself.
When was Pascal first released?
Pascal was first released in 1970. It was designed by Niklaus Wirth.

Evidence Sources

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Paste this iframe into any HTML page to show the Pascal relationship graph.

<iframe src="https://www.languagelineage.org/embed?lang=pascal" width="100%" height="500" loading="lazy" style="border:0" title="Pascal relationship graph"></iframe>

Please attribute the visualization to Language Lineage and link to the Pascal source record.

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