This reminds me of XKCD’s Map of Online Communities.There was a time when Pascal seemed like it was the ascendant language, just before C just zoomed on by and took over the world. I remember reading the Inside Macintosh books when I was a kid and thinking, shit, I’m going to have to learn this Pascal thing.

About the Cover

by Carl Helmers

It is rare when one can indulge in one’s prejudices with relative impunity, poking a bit of good humored fun to make a point. The design of the cover, entitled “Pascal’s Triangle” provided just such an opportunity. The cover was executed by Robert Tinney, but the prejudices are all mine and were given to him as a fairly detailed script. The point is that Pascal is here, it is consistent with use by small computers, such as many readers own, and it is available in the form of the UCSD software system at quite a nominal charge above the cost of the hardware required.