> single byte prefix was a language design "mistake"
Easy to say in hindsight.
It was an optimisation made back when every single byte mattered because you might have some kilobytes of memory and a 6502 CPU (where you strongly avoided using 16 bit pointers or arithmetic - because your program would be too bloated otherwise).
At the time Pascal was used, a whole byte for each string was seen as a waste - so fixed length strings were often used instead.
Easy to say in hindsight.
It was an optimisation made back when every single byte mattered because you might have some kilobytes of memory and a 6502 CPU (where you strongly avoided using 16 bit pointers or arithmetic - because your program would be too bloated otherwise).
At the time Pascal was used, a whole byte for each string was seen as a waste - so fixed length strings were often used instead.