Do You Remember Pascal?
When I was a college student in the 1980s, every computer science major had to learn Pascal. It did not matter whether you studied in the United States, China, India, or the United Kingdom. Pascal was universal.
Pascal was created by Niklaus Wirth around 1970 and named after Blaise Pascal. It was designed to be simple, efficient, and strongly typed, with the goal of teaching clear and disciplined programming.
After I graduated in 1990, I discovered something unexpected. Pascal was not used in my professional work at all. Instead, I worked with languages like C, C++, Java, and Fortran. The language I had spent so much time learning seemed to disappear overnight.
At first, it felt like a waste. But over time, I realized it was not. Pascal taught me how to think logically, structure programs, and build a strong foundation. Those skills made it much easier to learn new languages.
The lesson stayed with me. Always keep learning. When your foundation is solid, adapting to new technologies becomes natural. That is why I enjoy the fast pace of AI today. Technologies come and go, but the fundamentals remain.
Max Li
Founder, Grassrootech
max@grassrootech.comMax is dedicated to bridging the gap between advanced research and practical industry application. Drawing on his experience at IBM Research and Union University, he leads the development of AI solutions that drive meaningful progress.
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