Clascal is an

object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of '' objects''. Objects can contain data (called fields, attributes or properties) and have actions they can perform (called procedures or methods and impl ...

language (and associated discontinued

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...

) developed in 1983 by the ''Personal Office Systems'' (POS) division (later renamed ''The Lisa Division'', then later ''The 32-Bit Systems Division'') of

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

. Clascal was used to program applications for the ''Lisa Office System'', the operating environment of the

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA" * Lisa, stagename of Japanese singer Lisa Komine (born 1978) * Lisa (South Korean singer) (born 1980) * Lisa (Japanese musician, b ...

. Developed as an extension of

Pascal, which in turn harked back to the

UCSD Pascal UCSD Pascal is a Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the University of California, San Diego (UC ...

model originally implemented on the

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

, the language was strongly influenced by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC (company), PARC) release of Smalltalk-80, v1 (which had been formerly ported to the Lisa), and by Modula. According to Larry Tesler, Clascal was developed as a replacement for Apple's version of Smalltalk, which was "too slow" and because the experience offered by the Smalltalk syntax was too unfamiliar for most people. Clascal was the basis for

Object Pascal Object Pascal is an extension to the programming language Pascal (programming language), Pascal that provides object-oriented programming (OOP) features such as Class (computer programming), classes and Method (computer programming), methods. T ...

on the Apple

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

in 1985. With the demise of the Lisa in 1986, Pascal and Object Pascal continued to be used in the

Macintosh Programmer's Workshop Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) is a software development environment for the Classic Mac OS operating system, written by Apple Computer. For Macintosh developers, it was one of the primary tools for building applications for System 7.x an ...

for systems and application development for several more years, until it was finally supplanted by the languages C and C++. The

MacApp MacApp is the object oriented application framework for Apple Computer's discontinued classic Mac OS. Released in 1985, it transitioned from Object Pascal to C++ in 1991's version 3.0 release, which offered support for much of System 7's new fu ...

application framework was based on ''Toolkit'' originally written in Clascal. Object Pascal, in turn, served as the basis for

Borland Borland Software Corporation was a computing technology company founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad, and Philippe Kahn. Its main business was developing and selling software development and software deployment products. B ...

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

References

* Programming languages Pascal programming language family Class-based programming languages Object-oriented programming languages High-level programming languages Programming languages created in 1983 {{Prog-lang-stub