> But the whole idea that any high level language could be even close to competitive with assembly was a very radical idea considered laughable by the mainstream, for many years, which I think is the underlying idea here.

From the papers I used to dig during my degree, I would assume Algol derivatives were already quite competitive, given that quite a few OS were implemented in them.

> I wasn't a Turbo Pascal user, but wasn't it, too, tied to the one platform?

Yes, to the PC. I eventually moved into C++ as time came to move along to more portable languages, as C was too primitive for my taste and I had just got hold of Turbo C++.

> Wirth's languages after Pascal, I dunno; everyone heard of them but they were never that widely adopted. I guess I'm unclear on why.

I was lucky to discover Oberon, and to use the Native PC version.

It opened my eyes that is it possible to have workstation OS done in GC enabled systems programming languages.

It also made me research Modula-3, Component Pascal, Oberon-2 and Active Oberon.

Coming back to the original point, back when coding for home computers, if performance was an issue, Assembly was the only option (Z80, 68000, x86).

For me, C was something I would see mentioned in some computer magazines about those new expensive UNIX workstations.