The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day. Struggling to survive and thrive in this accelerated world are three generations of the Macx clan: Manfred, an entrepreneur dealing in intelligence amplification technology whose mind is divided between his physical environment and the Internet; his daughter, Amber, on the run from her domineering mother, seeking her fortune in the outer system as an indentured astronaut; and Sirhan, Amber’s son, who finds his destiny linked to the fate of all of humanity. For something is systematically dismantling the nine planets of the solar system. Something beyond human comprehension. Something that has no use for biological life in any form...

A preliminary version o~ the programming language Pascal was dra~ted in 1968. It ~ollowed in its spirit the A1gol-6m and Algo1-W 1ine o~ 1anguages. A~ter an extensive deve10pment phase, a~irst compiler became operational in 197m, and pub1ication ~ollowed a year 1ater (see Re~erences 1 and 8, p.1m4). The growing interest in the deve10pment of compilers ~or other computers ca11ed ~or a conso1idation o~ Pascal, and two years of experience in the use o~ the 1anguage dictated a few revisions. This 1ed in 1973 to the pub1ication o~ a Revised Report and a de~inition o~ a 1anguage representation in terms of the ISO cha:.:.acter set. This booklet consists o~ two parts: The User Manual, and the Revised Report. The ManUAl is directed to those who have previous1y acquired some ~ami1iarity with computer programming, and who wish to get acquainted with the 1anguage Pascal. Hence, the style o~ the Manual is that o~ a tutorial, and many examp1e~ are inc1uded to demonstrate the various ~eatures o~ Pascal. Summarising tab1es and syntax speci~ications are added as Appendices. The Report is inc1uded in this booklet to serve as a concise, u1timate reference ~or both programmers and imp1ementors. It defines stAndArd Pascal which constitutes a common base between various implementations of the 1anguage.

It is widely known among the Frontiers of physics, that “sweeping under the rug” practice has been quite the norm rather than exception. In other words, the leading paradigms have strong tendency to be hailed as the only game in town.