https://github.com/pleumann/pasta80/issues/7#issuecomment-28...

Thanks for spoiling my upcoming weekend. :)

[1] https://github.com/Mati365/ts-c-compiler

After I learned C and started using it, I noted that I experience five times more memory-related issues in C programs than in an equivalent Pascal code I was writing before.

During that era, Pascal had a remarkable advantage few other languages could match: it used a single-pass compiler that generated machine code as it parsed the source code. No intermediate representations or syntax trees - just a direct translation from source to machine code, all thanks to the well thought-out language syntax invented by Nicolas Wirth. That feature made Pascal compilers incredibly fast.

In turn, it allowed to tighten up a typical development cycle of the day: (edit -> compile -> run) x N times. Given typical CPU speeds of the time, it made a night and day difference. For example, given the same piece of software under development with a comparable number of lines, Turbo Pascal development cycle was about 5 seconds, while Turbo C gave you 40 seconds of a round-trip time at best.

Pascal was the right tool at the right time. Both Apple and Microsoft initially used Pascal to develop their operating systems.

When available CPUs started to become faster and faster, that particular Pascal advantage began to fade out and other languages commenced eating away its market share. Somewhere between 1986 and 1992, software houses were switching to C in flocks.