> Turbo Pascal is also a totally usable language - a lot more so than C
 > (IMHO, of course). The current non-availability on other platforms is
 > irrelevant if there is no market for your product which uses other than
 > DOS/Windows.

Agreed. If you wish to limit youself to that environment.


 > The "standard" issue is IMHO a furphy, although I'm aware
that you have
 > a big thing about it.

Disagree.

Big time.

Frank, around 50% of the work I do is porting code between environments,
compilers and operating systems. I work with plenty of them, and am more
than familiar with the problems in maintaining useful and non-trivial code
on multiple platforms and have done so long enough to understand only too
well the problems which fall out from non-adherence to standards.

The standards issue is a paramount one when it comes to the _language_. If
you want to tie yourself irrevocably to one vendor's compiler and invest
all your eggs in one basket, which covers one non-standard language and a
total of one and a half operating systems, well - that's your affair.  But
the issue of standadisation is not a trivial one.  To many of us, it is an
issue we deal with daily, so it is indeed a "big thing".

BTW, Borland had already decided not to develop a 32-bit Pascal compiler
for Windows/NT. If it wasn't for funding recently provided by Novell, the
project would probably have never been resurrected. Where would you be in 5
years time, when you had a need to port your code to NT? Or indeed, where
are you right now when you wish to run OS/2 on your system because it
delivers today what Microsoft are still only talking about with Chicago? I
mean, your machine is capable of running these and any one of several other
operating systems - do you seriously consider it wise to limit your choice
of operating systems to those which are supported by the whims of ONE
compiler vendor (even C/C++ programmers don't have to suffer this under
Windows)? To produce solutions which work in only ONE platform which is
already in decline and where there is no long term committment to support
coming from anywhere?

Language standardisation provides you, the software developer, with access
to and compatibility with more environments, more users, and ultimately
more sales. If you think that's a furphy, then it's definitely your loss.


david

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SDŽ¯ų,