undefined | Better HN

0 pointsthrowaway815234y ago0 comments

Modula-2 was at best obscure at the time, while Pascal was popular. Kernighan got involved with Pascal in order to write the Pascal version of "Software Tools", called Software Tools in Pascal. He wrote "Why Pascal is not my favorite PL" as a result of that book effort. I believe that is explained in the article.

If there had been enough demand to also do a Modula version of the book, he might have written a more favorable article about Modula afterwards.

0 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

pjmlp4y ago· 1 in thread

Obscure, when the book was published three years earlier.

And based on Mesa, used at Xerox PARC.

Then again, ignoring systems languages outside Bell Labs seemed to have been a thing back in the day.

throwaway81523OP4y ago

You are missing that Software Tools was written for a popular audience, more or less. The Pascal edition was written because people were using Pascal and wanted it. Nobody was asking for a Modula-2 edition.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse