Modula-2 Didn’t Make the Cut

As the title says, I’m pretty much done with Modula-2. It had promise, and was even fun to convert a few programs from PL/I and FORTRAN. But in the end, it just didn’t cut it for me.

Why? In a word, I/O. More specifically, the input/output for Modula-2, at least the CP/M Z80 version I had, was just too primitive to use.

What I have discovered while running and modifying some of my old Engineering programs in FORTRAN (and into PL/I or C) is that in many cases the actual calculation code pales in comparison to the input/output code. Many of the engineering programs produce a LOT of output, and it really needs to be readable to be of any use.

FORTRAN was my first computer language, and it was also the primary scientific / engineering language of my first professional jobs. Some of those programs produced fan-fold paper outputs that were several INCHES thick. Having a readable output format was critical.

What I’ve discovered lately is that PL/I is actually a better language for formatting output, at least when the FORTRAN compiler does not support the ‘T’ format (tab). PL/I has a tab (Column(x)) so it’s quicker and nicer to use for those programs.

Also, getting input from keyboard (console) or file in either FORTRAN or PL/I is not only quite easy, it’s easy to format, thus allowing for very concise readable input files.

Not so Modula-2. The input libraries are quite rudimentary. For example, reading real numbers is done by a routine that reads a full line, then parses ONE number from that line. To do anything else requires rewriting the library.

As a result, a simple input data file such as ‘-23.2 10.0 -44.8’ becomes one number per line. Now imaging a file with 5-10 real numbers per line and you have an unreadable input file.

Likewise the output was pretty much ‘unformatted’. You could apply some formatting, but not much. As a result, programs produced rather messy ouput. It’s fine for a simple program, but not for anything of substance.

It’s funny, because I remember the original criticism of Pascal, which is the pre-cursor language to Modula-2 by the same dude. Formal Pascal had no input or output as part of the original language spec, because it was supposed to be a ‘pure academic’ language. It wasn’t until Borland created Turbo Pascal and added a complete set of I/O routines that Pascal became a force in the 1980s.

Funny that I’m facing a similar situation in 2020 with Modula-2 on my Z80.

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