"New Jack City": Pascal programming at a drug cartel?
So, I was watching an old "classic" gangster movie, New Jack City, the other day and while watching it I noticed some dialogue I hadn't noticed before, about 44 minutes into the movie:
This kid's been bringing us business.
I'd like to take a shot at one of those computer terminals.
Can you program Pascal?
Now, I work as a developer and even though I don't have experience with Pascal as such I was wondering two things:
First, what on earth is a drug cartel doing programming Pascal?
And second, what is a drug cartel from 1991 doing programming Pascal?
Well, perhaps they did some very drug-related CRM programming but why? And when the police storms the building, they are all rushing to remove the Floppy Disks only which would be strange if the actual data was saved on hard drives.
It just stand out to me as a really weird thing to do at a drug cartel..
Best Answer
I believe this activity was meant to show the "new" way of doing business. Cutting edge meant computers, so whether or not anything they were doing was actually computer-related, they were implying that they were doing business "the new way" (my quotes). This is somewhat related to the Technology Marches On trope, but also IMO related that that scene in Juraissic Park where the girl is like, "I know this! This is a UNIX system!". And we're all amazed at the (now crappy looking) 3D interactive menu as it flashes by. In both instances, we are introduced to crazy new technology that few people understood at the time, so Hollywood can take liberties with it.
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Answer 2
First, what on earth is a drug cartel doing programming Pascal?
I think he was working on an accounting system
what is a drug cartel from 1991 doing programming Pascal?
I went to college in the late 1990s and a lot of colleges were teaching pascal at the time... Java 1.0 was release in January 23, 1996... Other popular options would have c, basic, cobol....
Well, perhaps they did some very drug-related CRM programming but why?
You could not download it from the app store. It is not uncommon for a business(illegal or not) making that kind of cash to use computers to keep up with suppliers, customers, debate and credit....
Sad truth is people think proprietors of illegal business don't use technology to maximize profit.
Answer 3
Others have answered the first question.
As for the second, I can tell you about my experience at that time. I took the AP Computer Science test (both the A & B parts) circa 1989 and it was entirely in Pascal. The earlier versions of MacOS (Systems 1 - 7, so 1984-1996-ish) had Pascal interfaces and all the documentation for them was in Pascal. When Windows 3.1 came out, they also used the Pascal ABI for a lot of it. I actually had Turbo Pascal on both a DOS machine and a Mac around that time. It was realistic for a developer to buy a copy of Turbo Pascal and write software in it as depicted in the movie.
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