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Should the developers who creates programs with Delphi, FPC, Lazarus agree with the name of the language? This struck me since every possible variation not only adds confusion for new programmers, also when I write or name each of them, I feel that it's not fully correct.

  • Pascal. We know how Wirth dislikes OOP, so this plain naming is not correct. There were years where there were no objects in Pascal so it's also not correct to name it Pascal.
  • Delphi ("please, give me a link to the code fragment in Delphi"). Seeing how strong fpc/Lazarus is while keeping the high level of compatibility, now it's also isn't completely correct.
  • Object Pascal. Seems like a good choice, but the only places where it used noticeably is Delphi help and Wikipedia. And seems like there's even no badge "Object Pascal" at stackexchange/stackoverflow.

This also makes me sad because the developer of other languages don't hesitate at this moment. They can mention multiply compilers or dialects, but rarely hesitate in how to name the language.

Caleb
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Maksee
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  • Pascal is the language in which I learnt to program and for me Pascal is a procedural version of the language. I would call an object-oriented extension of Pascal object Pascal. The dialect I used most was Turbo Pascal, which was different from the Pascal implementation we had on a mainframe at the university (which was more similar to the original language defined by Wirth). So I often said, explicitly, Turbo Pascal instead of Pascal. I also used UCSD Pascal. Again, I normally always used the full name. So, probably you should call it Object Pascal or Delphi. – Giorgio May 06 '12 at 20:43
  • It is not true that developers of other languages do not hesitate. When I say C++ mean C++03 while others probably mean C++11 which is quite different. – Giorgio May 06 '12 at 20:48
  • Ok, another example. When there's a question "What language support anonymous functions", I don't know how to tell that both fpc and Embarcadero compilers support this. If I tell "Pascal", it's not correct, Delphi? It's not a language technically, and "Object Pascal" is not widely spread in general conversations. – Maksee May 06 '12 at 20:57
  • Let's not forget about "Prism" ;-) – Nick Hodges Jun 01 '12 at 17:49
  • @Nick: "Prism"... don't you mean "Oxygene"? or was it "Chrome"? :-) – Wouter van Nifterick Jun 29 '12 at 15:10
  • Well, I guess we are lucky that it is not Bamboo (iirc one of the other options besides Prism in the questionnaire) – Marco van de Voort Sep 06 '15 at 11:47

2 Answers2

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I think "Object Pascal" is the best possible name. Even though some programmers don't know it, it's as self-descriptive as it can get.

user281377
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  • I agree. I would call Delphi, Oxygene/Prism, and FreePascal all "Object Pascal" derivatives, the original "Object Pascal" was actually NOT by borland, Borland emulated the work done by Apple. Pascal was a hugely important systems language in the motorola 68K era (original Mac). Objective-C is what people think of nowadays as Apple's Language, but in the 80s they were Pascal folks. I remember at least 3 or 4 other DOS era Pascal compilers, including one from Microsoft. – Warren P Sep 27 '12 at 18:39
  • I would heap Oxygene/Prism with Modula3 and Oberon as "Post Pascal" – Marco van de Voort Sep 06 '15 at 11:47
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I work with the Delphi IDE, I program in Pascal, dialect is object pascal.

I like project Euler, but when you look at the statistics page you see all the different " versions" of pascal listed as different languages while c/c++ is put into one big pile.

That and Delphi really is not a language, it's an IDE.

No programmer states: "Visual Studio" as his programming language, you shouldn't use Delphi that way either.

So, I would say: Pascal.

Pieter B
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    Actually, Delphi is both the IDE and the language. Borcadero renamed the language a couple of years back... – Marjan Venema May 07 '12 at 07:26
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    Marjan: True from the "marketing" point of view. From a linguistics point of view, CodeBorGearDero doesn't get the final say; The society does. – Warren P Sep 27 '12 at 18:40
  • A trademarked term like "Delphi" is not a good name for a general language. BorCodeDevcoDeroDera nowadays :-) – Marco van de Voort Sep 06 '16 at 08:12