#its been a heavy few days icl

[princemick]

saying this with the utmost earnestness but you're exactly the kind of teacher i would have loved to have had in school/uni <33

remy. ur genuinely gonna make me cry here :(( this shit is exhausting but these kids r so fun and I love teaching them n it sucks so much to see them fail just because of a mental block

[theimpossiblescheme]

Queens About Town

I was paired up with @mister-meowoffelees and her OC Virsilia for @mybonesohno‘s OC-icle Ball, and since I’m no great artist, I wanted to write a short and sweet fic about Virsilia’s relationships with both her mate Demeter and her friend Bustopher Jones!  I hope I’ve done this wonderful OC justice, and I hope you all enjoy this story!

“I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to come and visit,” Demeter laughed unsteadily, leaning on her mate’s arm as they approached the great red canopy reading FOX’S.  “I figured I’d stick out like a sore thumb at these clubs.”

Virsilia merely shook her head before leaning it against Demeter’s to nuzzle her gently.  “Oh, don’t be silly… they’ll love you here, I’m sure of it.”  In truth, even if this was as far as they got—even if Demeter panicked at the last moment and wanted to stay outside or even turn back around and go home—Virsilia was still so proud of her.  She knew how nerve-wracking long trips outside of the Junkyard could be for her, and it took a great deal of persuasion on her part to get her to agree to come.  And Heaviside only knew how many cats were scared to death of Bustopher’s clubs on principle.  But she would be there every step of the way.  When Demeter gave her a shy smile in return, Virsilia squeezed her paw and led her through one of the open windows at the very end.

On the other side was a wide room, warmly lit by the sunlight streaming across the chestnut-colored walls and multicolored bookcases that lined them.  All around them were chairs and little sofas, and each one of them was occupied by a Man and his cat.  Long-haired pudgy cats who were content to sit in someone’s lap and purr, wiry long-legged cats who were looking for something to scratch and summarily getting scolded for it, adolescent kittens who were chatting up their neighbors… all shapes and sizes of feline guests.  Two of them—a fluffy white queen and an imperious-looking gray tom—were looking down at Demeter with heavy, scrutinizing eyes as she passed, but Virsilia just patted her paw and led her away.  Franz and Duchess could judge all they pleased… they weren’t the ones she was here to see.

At the end of a room was a very well-stocked bar and a barkeep in a white apron currently pouring two drinks into a mixer and shaking it vigorously.  Demeter paused for a moment to watch him, rising up slightly on her hind legs and cocking her head curiously.  “What is that… do you know?”

Squinting up at the barkeep, Virsilia watched him pour out a bright orange liquid into a glass and garnish the rim with an orange slice.  “I believe that’s a vodka screwdriver… but you mustn’t quote me on that.”

Demeter gave her a bemused look.  “Why would they call it a screwdriver, though?  It doesn’t look anything like one.”

Virsilia simply shrugged. “Who knows why humans do anything? They have a hard enough time giving us names most of the time.”  That got a smirk and a tiny laugh out of Demeter, so she considered it a small victory.

The barkeep passed the drink over to a heavyset, white-mustachioed man in a thick grey coat sitting at the bar, and Virsilia’s face broke into a wide grin.  “There’s our host… come on, love!”  Beckoning Demeter with her tail, she ran to the base of the man’s chair and stood up against the leg, looking up into his lap and giving its occupant a more gently sardonic smile.  “Are you going to come and greet your guests, or shall I have to show my mate around myself?”

At first there was only a hearty laugh in answer.  Then the man’s lap stirred, and a familiar, similarly heavyset tuxedo cat heaved himself off of the chair and down onto the ground.  “And hello to you as well, my dear,” Bustopher Jones replied, adjusting his monocle with one paw as he gave Virsilia’s a fond shake with the other.  Then he turned around.  “Are my eyes finally going in my age… or is that really young Demeter?”

Demeter laughed, shaking her head slightly.  “I’m not that young anymore, Mr. Jones—I have mates and children now.  And we met at the last Ball, you must remember…”

“Oh, I do.  But I don’t remember seeing you at any of my clubs before.” He lifted her paw and gave it a gallant kiss.  “Welcome to Fox’s, my dear.  And please, friends call me Bustopher.”

Virsilia smiled at the two of them, watching an embarrassed, but pretty blush painting her mate’s cheeks and squeezing her paw again.  “When she told me she’d never been here before, I insisted she come with me to see you. I promised she’d have a wonderful time.”

“Is it always so crowded, though?” Demeter asked, eyes flitting anxiously around them at all the other cats.

“Not usually.  It will empty out soon enough around sundown—I can give you a proper tour then.  But first, you must be famished, coming all this way…”  Gesturing for them to follow, he lead them around the bar and underneath into a cozily dark area littered with pillows for seats and small carboard boxes for tables.  As Demeter and Virsilia took their seats at a box in the corner, Bustopher reached under his chosen pillow and pulled out three small notecards that had been printed with menus.

“Take your time ordering,” he said as he made himself comfortable across from them.  “There’s a particularly delightful array of steaks—I would wager say only the Globe is better.”

“Oh, I’ll probably just get something small,” Demeter said, reading over her menu with an apprehensive look on her face.  “I don’t want to eat too much… and I’m not even sure what half of these are…”

“Darling, you don’t have to be shy,” Virsilia reassured her.  “Cats eat here completely free—you can get whatever you want.  Besides,” she continued in a lower voice, “I know you didn’t eat very much today.”

Her mate’s gaze dropped guiltily into her lap.  “I certainly meant to… you know how it is sometimes… I just couldn’t work up the energy.”

“I know.  And that’s perfectly fine.  But this evening, Bustopher and I want to treat you… and you wouldn’t want to disappoint us, would you?”  She gave her an exaggerated pout, and that got another little laugh out of Demeter in spite of herself.  It always gave Virsilia a little thrill to hear her laugh… she did so seldomly, and it meant the world to her that she could still coax it out of her, even in her darkest moods.

Either not hearing the whole exchange or tactfully pretending not to, Bustopher clapped his paws into the air.  “Garçon!”  A thin brown tom with a towel around his waist came rushing over, and Bustopher gestured toward Demeter, holding out his paw for her to take so she could stand up. “Show our lovely guest some of our dinner trays, will you?  She deserves to know what she shall be served tonight.”

“Oh, that’s all right—I don’t want to leave the table—”

“Nonsense, dear girl. You go and educate yourself, and make some friends along the way.  I’m going to catch up a bit with your mate.”  He gave her a gently chiding look over his monocle, a look he must have given his nephews many times, and Demeter relented, letting go of his paw and turning to the waiter. And extending his arm gracefully, the waiter led her away down the dimly lit corridor formed between the bar and the wall.

Virsilia watched her go, nodding encouragingly until she was out of sight, before laying down her menu—she already had an idea what she wanted.  “Now before you ask, Bustopher, I won’t be treating all of your guests to a dance tonight.  I’m afraid I left my tap shoes back at the Junkyard.”

“The idea hadn’t even crossed my mind.”  Taking off his monocle and polishing it on his cravat, he squinted off in the direction Demeter and the waiter had left.  “But you must tell me… how did the two of you meet?”

For a moment, Virsilia wasn’t sure what to say… well, she was, but she had no idea how to condense it all.  Hers and Demeter’s story was such a long, emotionally taxing one, and no doubt most of it wouldn’t make for very good dinner conversation.  But she hadn’t seen her old friend in such a long time, and so much of her life had changed since then…  “We met shortly after she first returned to the Junkyard.  She had her little girl by then, and… well, she still wasn’t quite sure how to be a mother.  I stepped up to help her and teach her what I knew, and we spent so much time bonding together with little Jemima all the while.  I suppose it was only natural we would fall in love,” she added, unable to help a blush herself that she tried to hide with a paw on her cheek.

“I’d say you’ve been a good influence on her,” Bustopher replied, replacing his monocle.  “I could never have imagined the poor creature I met last year coming all this way, even with someone to lean on.  And I’d imagine that Jemima is no small help herself.”

“Oh, she’s such a sweetheart!” Virsilia exclaimed, melting into a fond smile.  “She’s so much like her mother, so kind and patient… she’s been more help than she realizes.”  Seeing Demeter smile wider than she had in so long, hearing Jemima call the two of them her “moms”—there were few things the world that warmed her heart more.  “Really, all of those kittens there are so sweet. I have to admit, that might be my favorite thing in the Junkyard—just playing with them, spending time with them whenever their parents are busy.  It’s never boring, I can tell you that,” she added with a chuckle.

“I can imagine not.  I always mean to visit more than I have lately, but Old Henry is always milling about between establishments.  Not that I mind at all, you understand,” Bustopher put in quickly, “but I do miss the lot of you on Bristol or Dover days.”

“We’ll have to all take a special trip to come and visit you sometime,” Virsilia suggested.  “I’m sure Skimble knows a train line we can take… and I’m sure Pouncival will be able to behave himself.”  She gave him a mischievous smile across the table, knowing exactly what his answer would be.

And he didn’t disappoint, widening his eyes and giving a small huff of a laugh as if he’d choked on something.  “I say this with affection, my dear… but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that.”

Virsilia just laughed. “Oh, I promise he would be on his best behavior.  Especially if Demeter were there—she’s like a mother to him, too, and he adores her. It’s… really rather difficult not to,” she admitted softly, blushing even harder now and doggedly looking back down at her menu to hide it this time.

Bustopher only gave her a knowing look and smiled back at her.  “I can see that.”  He lifted his gaze above her, and his face unexpectedly lit up.  “Ah, speak of the devil!”

Looking up, Virsilia caught sight of Demeter being escorted back to their table by the same waiter and noted that she seemed a little more relaxed than she’d been before.  “Back so soon, love?”

“It wasn’t quite as complicated as I expected it to be,” Demeter said, nodding her thanks to the waiter before sliding back onto her pillow and brushing her shoulder against her mate’s as she picked up her menu.  “I think I know want I want now.”

The waiter looked expectantly over at Bustopher, who merely waved toward the two queens.  “Ladies first, my dears.  The night is yours.”

[erossiniuk]

Fifty years of Pascal

I don’t know you but it seems yesterday for me I started to code with Basic on my VIC20 and Pascal a couple of years later and now we celebrate fifty years of Pascal. Can’t believe that.

The beginning

In the early 1960s, the languages Fortran (John Backus, IBM) for scientific, and Cobol (Jean Sammet, IBM, and DoD) for commercial applications dominated. Programs were written on paper, then punched on cards, and one waited a day for the results. Programming languages were recognized as essential aids and accelerators of the programming process.

In 1960, an international committee published the language Algol 60. It was the first time a language was defined by concisely formulated constructs and by a precise, formal syntax. Two years later, it was recognized that a few corrections and improvements were needed. Mainly, however, the range of applications should be widened, because Algol 60 was intended for scientific calculations (numerical mathematics) only. Under the auspices of IFIP a Working Group (WG 2.1) was established to tackle this project.

The group consisted of about 40 members with almost the same number of opinions and views about what a successor of Algol should look like. There ensued many discussions, and on occasions the debates ended even bitterly. Early in 1964 I became a member, and soon was requested to prepare a concrete proposal. Two factions had developed in the committee. One of them aimed at a second, after Algol 60, milestone, a language with radically new, untested concepts and pervasive flexibility. It later became known as Algol 68. The other faction remained more modest and focused on realistic improvements of known concepts. After all, time was pressing: PL/1 of IBM was about to appear. However, my proposal, although technically realistic, succumbed to the small majority that favored a milestone.

Poster of Pascal’s syntax diagrams strongly identified with Pascal

The group

It is never sufficient to merely postulate a language on paper. A solid compiler also had to be built, which usually was a highly complex program. In this respect, large industrial firms had an advantage over our Working Group, which had to rely on enthusiasts at universities. I left the Group in 1966 and devoted myself together with a few doctoral students at Stanford University to the construction of a compiler for my proposal. The result was the language Algol W,2 which after 1967 came into use at many locations on large IBM computers. It became quite successful. The milestone Algol 68 did appear and then sank quickly into obscurity under its own weight, although a few of its concepts did survive into subsequent languages.

But in my opinion Algol W was not perfectly satisfactory. It still contained too many compromises, having emerged from a committee. After my return to Switzerland, I designed a language after my own preferences: Pascal. Together with a few assistants, we wrote a user manual and constructed a compiler. In the course of it, we had a dire experience. We intended to describe the compiler in Pascal itself, then translate it manually to Fortran, and finally compile the former with the latter. This resulted in a great failure, because of the lack of data structures (records) in Fortran, which made the translation very cumbersome. After this unfortunate, expensive lesson, a second try succeeded, where in place of Fortran the local language Scallop (M. Engeli) was used.

Pascal

Like its precursor Algol 60, Pascal featured a precise definition and a few lucid, basic elements. Its structure, the syntax, was formally defined in Extended BNF. Statements described assignments of values to variables, and conditional and repeated execution. Additionally, there were procedures, and they were recursive. A significant extension were data types and structures: Its elementary data types were integers and real numbers, Boolean values, characters, and enumerations (of constants). The structures were arrays, records, files (sequences), and pointers. Procedures featured two kinds of parameters, value-and variable-parameters. Procedures could be used recursively. Most essential was the pervasive concept of data type: Every constant, variable, or function was of a fixed, static type. Thereby programs included much redundancy that a compiler could use for checking type consistency. This contributed to the detection of errors, and this before the program’s execution.

Algor

Just as important as addition of features were deletions (with respect to Algol). As C.A.R. Hoare once remarked: A language is characterized not only by what it permits programmers to specify, but even more so by what it does not allow. In this vein, Algol’s name parameter was omitted. It was rarely used, and caused considerable complications for a compiler. Also, Algol’s own concept was deleted, which allowed local variables to be global, to “survive” the activation of the procedure to which it was declared local. Algol’s for statement was drastically simplified, eliminating complex and hard to understand constructs. But the while and repeat statements were added for simple and transparent situations of repetition. Nevertheless, the controversial goto statement remained. I considered it too early for the programming community to swallow its absence. It would have been too detrimental for a general acceptance of Pascal.

Pascal was easy to teach, and it covered a wide spectrum of applications, which was a significant advantage over Algol, Fortran, and Cobol. The Pascal System was efficient, compact, and easy to use. The language was strongly influenced by the new discipline of structured programming, advocated primarily by E.W. Dijkstra to avert the threatening software crisis (1968).

Pascal was published in 1970 and for the first time used in large courses at ETH Zurich on a grand scale. We had even defined a subset Pascal-S and built a smaller compiler, in order to save computing time and memory space on our large CDC computer, and to reduce the turnaround time for students. Back then, computing time and memory space were still scarce.

Pascal’s Spread and Distribution

Soon Pascal became noticed at several universities, and interest rose for its use in classes. We received requests for possible help in implementing compilers for other large computers. It was my idea to postulate a hypothetical computer, which would be simple to realize on various other mainframes, and for which we would build a Pascal compiler at ETH. The hypothetical computer would be quickly implementable with relatively little effort using readily available tools (assemblers). Thus emerged the architecture Pascal-P (P for portable), and this technique proved to be extremely successful. The first clients came from Belfast (C.A.R. Hoare). Two assistants brought two heavy cartons of punched cards to Zurich, the compiler they had designed for their ICL computer. At the border, they were scrutinized, for there was the suspicion that the holes might contain secrets subject to custom fees. All this occurred without international project organizations, without bureaucracy and research budgets. It would be impossible today.

An interesting consequence of these developments was the emergence of user groups, mostly of young enthusiasts who wanted to promote and distribute Pascal. Their core resided under Andy Mickel in Minneapolis, where they regularly published a Pascal Newsletter. This movement contributed significantly to the rapid spread of Pascal.

First microcomputer

Several years later the first microcomputers appeared on the market. These were small computers with a processor integrated on a single chip and with 8-bit data paths, affordable by private persons. It was recognized that Pascal was suitable for these processors, due to its compact compiler that would fit into the small memory (64K). A group under Ken Bowles at the University of San Diego, and Philippe Kahn at Borland Inc. in Santa Cruz surrounded our compiler with a simple operating system, a text editor, and routines for error discovery and diagnostics. They sold this package for $50 on floppy disks (Turbo Pascal). Thereby Pascal spread immediately, particularly in schools, and it became the entry point for many to programming and computer science. Our Pascal manual became a best-seller.

This spreading did not remain restricted to America and Europe. Russia and China welcomed Pascal with enthusiasm. This I became aware of only later, during my first travels to China (1982) and Russia (1990), when I was presented with a copy of our manual written in (for me) illegible characters and symbols.

Pascal’s Successors

But time did not stand still. Rapidly computers became faster, and therefore demands on applications grew, as well as those on programmers. No longer were programs developed by single persons. Now they were being built by teams. Constructs had to be offered by languages that supported teamwork. A single person could design a part of a system, called a module, and do this relatively independently of other modules. Modules would later be linked and loaded automatically. Already Fortran had offered this facility, but now a linker would have to verify the consistency of data types also across module boundaries. This was not a simple matter!

Modules with type consistency checking across boundaries were indeed the primary extension of Pascal’s first successor Modula-2 (for modular language, 1979). It evolved from Pascal, but also from Mesa, a language developed at Xerox PARC for system programming, which itself originated from Pascal. Mesa, however, had grown too wildly and needed “taming.” Modula-2 also included elements for system programming, which admitted constructs that depended on specific properties of a computer, as they were necessary for interfaces to peripheral devices or networks. This entailed sacrificing the essence of higher languages, namely machine-independent programming. Fortunately, however, such parts could now be localized in specific “low-level” modules, and thereby be properly isolated.

Apart from this, Modula contained constructs for programming concurrent processes (or quasiparallel threads). “Parallel programming” was the dominant theme of the 1970s. Overall, Modula-2 grew rather complex and became too complicated for my taste, and for teaching programming. An improvement and simplification appeared desirable.

Oberon

From such deliberations emerged the language Oberon, again after a sabbatical at Xerox PARC. No longer were mainframe computers in use, but powerful workstations with high-resolution displays and interactive usage. For this purpose, the language and interactive operating system Cedar had been developed at PARC. Once again, a drastic simplification and consolidation seemed desirable. So, an operating system, a compiler, and a text editor were programmed at ETH for Oberon. This was achieved by only two programmers—Wirth and Gutknecht—in their spare time over six months. Oberon was published in 1988. The language was influenced by the new discipline of object-oriented programming. However, no new features were introduced except type extension. Thereby for the first time a language was created that was not more complex, but rather simpler, yet even more powerful than its ancestor. A highly desirable goal had finally been reached.

Even today Oberon is successfully in use in many places. A breakthrough like Pascal’s, however, did not occur. Complex, commercial systems are too widely used and entrenched. But it can be claimed that many of those languages, like Java (Sun Microsystems) and C# (Microsoft) have been strongly influenced by Oberon or Pascal.

Around 1995 electronic components that are dynamically reprogrammable at the gate level appeared on the market. These field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) can be configured into almost any digital circuit. The difference between hardware and software became increasingly diffuse. I developed the language Lola (logic language) with similar elements and the same structure as Oberon for describing digital circuits. Increasingly, circuits became specified by formal texts, replacing graphical circuit diagrams. This facilitates the common design of hardware and software, which has become increasingly important in practice.

Download and run Turbo Pascal in DosBox

Now, if you want to run Turbo Pascal on your Windows 10 machine, you need an virtual environment where MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) can run under Windows.

So, I found DosBox Frontend Reloaded. D-Fend Reloaded is a graphical environment for DOSBox. DOSBox emulates a complete computer including the DOS command line and allows to run nearly all old DOS based games on modern hardware with any of the newer Windows versions.

With DOSBox there is no need to worry about memory managers or free conventional RAM, but the setup of DOSBox is still a bit complicated. The configuration of DOSBox via textbased setup files might be difficult for beginners. D-Fend Reloaded may help and create these files for you. Additionally the D-Fend Reloaded installation package contains DOSBox (including all lanuage files currently available), so there is only one installation to be run and no need to link D-Fend Reloaded with DOSBox manually. Now, install D-Fend following the wizard.

Then, you can download a copy of Turbo Pascal 7.1 from Vetusware.com that collects free abandonware.

After the installation of D-Fend, under your user in Windows 10, you find D-Fend Reloaded folder and in it VirtualHD folder.

Where is the VirtualHD for D-Fend Reloaded?

In VirtualHD folder, create a new folder like TP7 and in this one extract the file from Vetusware.com.

Extract file for Turbo Pascal 7

Now, run D-Fend Reloaded and click on the button Add and select Add with wizard. Skip the first page of the wizard and them you have to select the Program to be started. Click on the button at the end of the textbox and then select TURBO.EXE under BIN under TP7.

Create new profile

Click Next until the end of the wizard. Then, from the list, right-click on the profile you have just created and select Edit. Then, click on DOS environment and check the PATH

Z:\;C:\TP7;C:\TP7\UTILS;C:\TP7\UNITS;C:\TP7\EXE;

Profile editor for Turbo Pascal

Then, you are ready. Double click on the profile and your Turbo Pascal 7.1 is up and running.

Turbo Pascal 7.1

Do you remember the Help? Ok, I know, this is a sign of my age.

Turbo Pascal 7.1 Help

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