Well, I asked for discussion, and it was given. Thank you all for your input.
To be clear, although I *literally* wrote the words "non backwards compatible",
I did not mean it. I should have said that there should be a new compiler mode
to access new features. In Rust, there is the concept of "safe" vs "unsafe"
code. "Safe" code is guaranteed to be memory and type safe. For a new Pascal
mode, code marked "Unsafe" would merely be code written to compile under any of
the currently supported modes.
Someone pointed out that a main goal of Pascal was to keep one from shooting
oneself in the foot. It is this spirit that I think should be extended (if
possible) to adopt at least the memory safe aspect of Rust. There are other
programming constructs unrelated to safety which I think merit examination,
also.
I might have time later in the year to work on fleshing out the syntax of a new
FPC mode. Perhaps someone who is intimately familiar with the compiler
internals can mentor me and guide me to understand where I am wrong, and what
lines of thought would be productive. I would be willing to pay for the help.
Regardless, thank you for the discussion.
-James
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