Hacker Read top | best | new | newcomments | leaders | about | bookmarklet login

Modula-2 haws not been "succeeded" by Modula-3; Modula-3 is a very cool different language. Don't let the numbers confuse you.


view as:

It is a bit more involved than that.

Mesa/Cedar people from Xerox went on to DEC Olivetti research labs, to create Modula-2+, using Modula-2+ as their baseline, and eventually their project grew into Modula-3.

Meanwhile on the Modula-2 world, many compilers added language extensions for OOP, GC, generics based on what going on with those projects.

So while Modula-3 isn't the direct descendant from Modula-2, they are kind of intertwined.


If I remember correctly, tracing GC and generics pretty similar to Modula-3 eventually got into the ISO standard for Modula-2 (as optional features), no?

Yes, the Wikipedia page lists their ISO numbers,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modula-2


Too late to edit, "... using Modula-2 as their baseline...".

The whole Wirth language family tree is pretty complicated. Wirth himself designed Pascal (1970), Modula (1975), Modula-2 (1978), Oberon (1987), Oberon-2 (1991), and Oberon-07 (2007). Every iteration had many offshoots, surprisingly many were trying to build a business around their own version, most notably maybe Borland with TurboPascal/Delphi. Mesa/Cedar/Modula-3 is another interesting branch.

This is a topic that a book could be written about, tracing the 50 year old history


Indeed, by the way, Object Pascal was born at Apple as evolution from Clascal with collaboration from Nicklaus Wirth, although many think Borland did it, due to Turbo Pascal's popularity.

Legal | privacy