programming-for-dummies

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The Structure of a Pascal Program
Although it’s unlikely that Pascal will ever regain its popularity as a major
programming language, Pascal has inspired other programming languages,
most notably the Ada programming language, which is used in critical, realtime
systems, such as the Boeing 777 avionics system. As a result, Pascal
remains an influential programming language to this day.
The Structure of a Pascal Program
The strength (or weakness, depending on your point of view) of Pascal is
that it forces you to structure your programs. At the beginning of a Pascal
program, you must declare any constants, types, or variables, such as
Program name;
Const
(* Constants here *)
Type
(* Type definitions here *)
Var
(* Variable declarations here *)
Begin
(* Commands here *);
End.
A typical Pascal program might look like this:
Program TaxRefund;
Const
TaxRate = 0.35;
Type
ClassLevel = (Upper, Middle, Lower);
Var
MyClass : ClassLevel;
TaxesOwed, Income : integer;
Begin
Income := 60000;
TaxesOwed := Income * TaxRate;
If MyClass = Upper then
Begin
Writeln (‘Bribe a corrupt politician.’);
End;
End.
Pascal ends every statement with a semicolon but uses a period at the end
of the entire program.