Pascal - What is the use?

[krishna2005]

What is the use of learning Pascal?
I'm not very knowledgeable about programming languages but i came across an advertisement in the Gleaner this morning where an introductory Pascal course was being offered and i'm considering doing it.
Can anyone shed some light on what my abilities should be after sucessful completion of the course?

[techie2000]

wow..i remember pascal, they though it to me in high school 12 or 13 years ago. never used it since. In college there was virtually no mention of pascal, all the intro course were either c, c++, or java.

I personally think pascal would be a waste of time. Something like java or .net (vb.net or c#) would probably go a lot further than pascal.

I really would NOT expect to have a skillset that is in high demand with pascal knowledge alone.

[Utech22]

Pascal is ancient, go for the more modern programming languages - like java or vb.net

[Skele Drew]

Pascal is ancient, go for the more modern programming languages - like java or vb.net

No VB.NET right ERE! C# FTW!!! and Python for OSS/scripting.

[KoyoteGambit]

No VB.NET right ERE! C# FTW!!! and Python for OSS/scripting.

I earn a decent living off VB.net.

Learn Pascal if you have childrean going to do sba or going to teach and SOME high schoold...only reason I can think of.

[SleepyX]

To quote Wikipedia

Among the users of Python are YouTube and the original BitTorrent client. Large organizations that make use of Python include Google, Yahoo!, CERN,, NASA, and ITA. Most of the Sugar software for the One Laptop Per Child XO, now developed at Sugar Labs, is written in Python.]

It is easy to learn as well as powerful, and does not sacrifice its ease for power.

Python is also used in popular videogames such as Battlefield 2 , Civilization 4 , Freedom Force and EVE Online .

Learn It.

[g2cris]

That course is directed at companies who still use pascal systems and programs and need to train staff.

A man on the street doing that course would be a waste of time.

[duster]

people still teach this? must be some retired 90 year old man trying to make few quick bucks to pay for his coffin!

[Artificial_Intelligence]

Pascal is the core of a more powerful language named "object pascal"
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_Pascal ). Object pascal is the language used in another langage named "Oxygene" ( http://en.wikipedia.orgwikiOxygene_%...ng_language%29)
Oxygene which is part of Delphi prism allows you can write applications that run on windows mac and Linux very little change required( knowledge of MS differences will allow for more success).
Delphi is very powerful programming language( Truly RAD development environment).
Delphi is more popular in the non western areas of the world.

As a extra - pascal can be used to develop iphone apps - Free pascal = http://www.freepascal.org/news.var

[krishna2005]

Thanks for all the responses. They are offering the other languages you all mentioned, however, Pascal was the cheapest and since i am clueless i just garnered interest in cheapest. As usual in life, you get what you pay for or would have paid for.