C/C++ vs Pascal

[LP]

Thegilb, thanks for some interesting points! I'd like to discuss some of them.

The natural reaction is to defend whichever language presents the least resistance, which isn't a bad reaction but it's not necessarily right because this opinion is biased by whichever language you know the best. From the average PGD visitor that language will be Pascal, but Pascal as well as other languages can offer interesting and unique low resistance solutions to certain problems.

In this context and considering what you said, for what language is your own opinion biased to?

There are pros and cons to using any language. Off the top of my head I can think of at least a dozen problems with C++ as a language, maybe more if I put my mind to it, so why do we use it? In priority order, they are:

1. Every platform supports it (PC, Consoles).
2. Everyone already knows it.
3. One way or another it does everything you need it to.

Well, it will be somewhat difficult to actually prove all of these points literally. However, the truth is that this is a very common fallacy, Argumentum ad populum/numerum. Many people knowing it, or using it does not make it the best choice, even for those people themselves.

I think there are several reasons why C (and then by evolution, C++) became prolific, but none so important as the venerable Unix - the first OS to be written in C, which went on to become an open standard. I'm not saying C/C++ has popularity for the right reasons, but it is arguably very popular.

Actually, the fallacy I've mentioned above is also called "Appeal to Popularity". C/C++ being popular at some point in history does not mean it was the best language or even the best choice at that time.

Speaking of performance in C++ is a moot topic.[...performance discussion...]

You have agreed yourself that the performance is gained by choosing data structures and algorithms carefully, which applies to every other language; therefore, I don't understand why you keep discussing C++ performance alone. No comparison was made to "Pascal" performance, you simply acknowledged that compiler optimizations that are present in Pascal compilers are also present in C/C++ compilers.

If your goal is simply pleasure, there is no good reason not to use whatever language suits you best. Good games can be written in any language, including Pascal. What really matters most is that you're doing something you enjoy.

According to the above, if the pleasure is NOT one of your goals and/or if you are not doing something you enjoy, then what language should you use?