Pastel (programming language)

Pastel was a Pascal-like programming language developed at Stanford University in the mid-1970s. It was designed primarily as a portable systems programming language intended to be used for the implementation of the Stanford University Network (SUN) operating system. Pastel's key feature was its strong type checking and emphasis on data abstraction, aiming to reduce errors and improve code maintainability compared to existing systems languages.

The language supported features like records, enumerated types, sets, and pointers, common in Pascal, but with additional constructs and restrictions designed for systems programming. Pastel was notable for its use of a "symbolic intermediate language" (SIL) which served as a platform-independent representation of the compiled code. This SIL code could then be translated into machine code for various target architectures, thus achieving portability.

While the SUN OS project ultimately transitioned to using the C programming language, Pastel influenced later language design and compiler construction techniques. Its focus on strong typing and portability principles contributed to the broader evolution of systems programming languages. The language saw limited adoption outside of its original development environment.