Filename: pascal.txt

Pascal, The Man
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The programming language Pascal was named after Blaise Pascal.  He was a
French mathematician, engineer, scientist and religious philosopher. 
Pascal was born in 1623 in Auvergne in central France, and died in 1662.
At the age of 18, he designed a mechanical computing machine capable of
performing simple arithmetic calculations. The machine was "just" a type
of adding machine, and not the kind of programmable device that would be
called a computer in the sense of today's meaning of the term.
Nonetheless, the machine attracted much attention and became a prototype
for a number of later computing devices.  Pascal had a number of models
constructed, and attempted to sell his invention.  Unfortunately, its
high price doomed the machine to financial failure. 

His calculating machine was only one of Pascal's many contributions to
science and engineering.  He designed the first public transportation
system for the city of Paris, which used horse-drawn carriages.  He also
made important contributions to many branches of mathematics, including
geometry, probability theory and hydrodynamics. 

Pascal was also a prominent figure in the religious philosophy of his
time. His last and most enduring religious work is his Pensees.


Pascal, The Programming Language
--------------------------------
The programming language Pascal was introduced in 1971 by the Swiss
computer scientist Niklaus Wirth.  It was originally intended as a
general-purpose, high-level language for teaching the concepts of
structured programming and top-down design.  Pascal's simplicity,
elegance, and embodiment of structured programming principles have made
it quite popular with a wide audience.

Among all the computer languages widely used in recent years, Pascal is 
probably the best for demonstrating what structured programming is all 
about.  It is simple, straightforward, and easy to learn, and it imposes 
rules that encourage good programming habits.  In addition, Pascal is a 
versatile and powerful language that helps users avoid programming 
errors.  Consequently, large, complex, relatively error-free programs 
are easier to write in Pascal than in many other languages.  

Designed to be a teaching language, Pascal was not intended to be
employed outside of the academic world, in which it became a very
influential language. However, despite some problems, it was also used
quite widely in the "real world" for a number of years.