🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 18 Jan 1996, Steven William Carvaines wrote:

>    As part of our computer science curriculum at Ohio State, we learn
> Modula-2 as one of our 'first' languages (we also learn Pascal).  I've
> checked with a few potential employers, and none of them need anyone with
> Modula-2 experience.  Most don't even know what Modula-2 is.  I've been
> told by professors that learning Modula-2 is a stepping stone for learning
> other languages.  I don't buy that.  So my question is this:  has anyone
> come across an employer who uses Modula-2?  It would be a shame to become
> proficient in it and never use it again.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Steve

Although the government <says> it uses Ada, that really isn't the whole
story.  Ada is such a HUGE language, it takes years to compile.  So the
place where I worked looked for a good substitute that produces good solid
transportable code in which they could prototype their system, and so all
of the coding I did was in Modula II.  After I was done, somebody else
went through and translated, line for line, my M2 programs into the Ada
that most of the government seems to want.  We kept the M2 versions, and
they are used as well, but we had to create Ada versions for the
departments that only used Ada.  We used M2 as the original development
platform because it is self-documenting (well-written code reads like a
good novel in M2, and comments are usually not needed within modules),
quick compiling, and not prone to errors.  I really enjoyed the language. 
It is professional-level in capability, portability, and object code
quality, but (as opposed to C++) it is a very logical, simple,
straightforward language that encourages good programming techniques, and
(as opposed to Ada) has a quick debug-compile-test cycle.  Until I
graduate (at which point I don't have a clue where I will be working), M2
will be my primary employment language since I have a fairly firm offer of
summer employment at this government operation until I graduate.  After
that, I hope M2 will have made a comeback because I still feel it is one
of the best languages around and I enjoy working in it.  As a stepping
stone, it is the best, and I highly recommend becoming and expert at it,
because the techniques you learn in M2 are excellent for all languages. 
M2 just encourages them more.  So learn it.  Even if you never use it in 
the work force, it will improve your code quality in all of your other 
languages if you let it.  For example, treat Pascal as if it were 
case-sensitive and your programs will look neater.  Structure your code 
the way M2 forces you to when you are programming in C or Pascal and it 
will be organized much better.  And don't use strange programming 
techniques that can't be done in M2, because if they can't be done in M2 
(but can be done in C++), it will probably take someone else a long time 
to figure out what you are doing (I'm talking about weird stuff with 
post- and pre-increment, pointers, etc., like obfuscated code).

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Douglas Cook, undergraduate in Computer Science at BYU
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*REAL* programmers use COPY CON PROGRAM.EXE
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