Pascal User Manual and Report: ISO Pascal Standard [Paperback]

Kathleen Jensen (Author), Niklaus Wirth (Author), Andrew B. Mickel (Author), James F. Miner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0387976493 | ISBN-13: 978-0387976495 | Publication Date: September 24, 1991 | Edition: 4th

This new edition of the definitive Pascal reference updates the text with the most recent revisions of the ISO Pascal standard, performed by Working Group 2 of the ISO community, since the standard was formally ap- proved in 1983. This reversion of the ISO standard resolved differences between it and the American (ANSI) standard, and these as well as other changes are subsequently reflected in this new edition. It should be noted that in 1984 the third edition of this book was modified with respect to the standard while retaining the readability and elegance which originally set it apart from the standard. This book consists of two parts: The User Manual, and the Revised Report. The User Manual is directed to those who have some familiarity with computer programming, and who wish to get acquainted with the language Pascal. The style of the User Manual is that of a tutorial, and many examples are included to demonstrate the various features of Pascal. Summarizing tables and syntax specifications are among the Appendices. The Report serves as the ultimate, concise reference for both programmers and implementors. It describes Standard Pascal which constitutes a common base between various implementations of the language.

Product Details

• Paperback: 283 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 4th edition (September 24, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387976493
• ISBN-13: 978-0387976495
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,645,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive yet readable standard for Pascal, November 27, 2004

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Willett Kempton (Newark, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pascal user manual and report (Paperback)

This book is a complete and authorative definition of the ISO Standard Pascal language. Unlike the official ISO standards document, this is highly readable, with explanations and examples. The ISO Standard Pascal language is implemented by most of today's highest-quality compilers, including GNU Pascal, Prospero Pascal, Compaq Pascal, Dr. Pascal, and pix. The newer Extended Pascal language is a proper superset of the Standard Pascal language described in this book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old, but Still Useful to Delphi Programmers, August 18, 2000

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Peter N. Roth (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pascal User Manual and Report: ISO Pascal Standard (Paperback)

The book that *defines* Pascal, the seed of the underlying Delphi language. Use it to get a concise definition for the procedural parts of Delphi, while learning linked lists, binary trees, pointers, and more. You'll have to work with this text, (i.e., think!), but it is still the most straight-forward presentation of the Pascal language.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The classic, August 4, 2005

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wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pascal user manual and report (Paperback)

If you remember Pascal, you're probably dating yourself. I sure remember it. Reading this book is a real bit of nostalgia.

Pascal was originally intended as a teaching language only. It's wide commercial acceptance was a bit of a surprise. Many millions of lines of commercial Pascal appeared in the 80s, and I admit I wrote a few tens of thousands of them. Funny thing was that none of the commercial Pascal compilers were pure ISO Pascal. All of them had some kind of non-standard extensions. Pascal was OK for about 98% of systems programming tasks, but that last two percent dealt with device drivers, multithreading, absolute memory addresses, and other stuff that the academic language never needed.

These days, Jensen and Worth isn't the Bible of programming any more. Well, maybe the Old Testament, but the world's moved on. (Remember "railroad" syntax charts? They're still here.) I need the historical information, though, and that's about the only reason you'd need this.

//wiredweird