The mainstream scientific view is that the pascal (Pa) is the coherent SI derived unit of pressure and stress. It equals one newton per square metre, or 1 kg·m⁻¹·s⁻². It is named after Blaise Pascal, and the General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted it in 1971. Everyday pressures are usually given in multiples: hectopascals in meteorology (1 hPa = 1 millibar), kilopascals in engineering and tyre pressure, and megapascals and gigapascals for material strength. Standard atmospheric pressure is 101,325 Pa. Metrology bodies such as the BIPM and NIST treat the unit as settled and unambiguous. See the overview at wikipedia.org.
Pascal is a historically important programming language
In computing, Pascal is an imperative, structured language designed by Niklaus Wirth and released around 1970. Wirth built it to teach good programming practice through strong typing, structured control flow and data structuring. It became the dominant teaching language of the 1970s and 1980s, and UCSD Pascal and Apple's early system software helped spread it. Turbo Pascal made it popular on personal computers, and Delphi, the Object Pascal descendant, is still used commercially. Free Pascal and Lazarus are active open-source implementations. Experts regard Pascal as influential on later languages such as Modula-2, Oberon and Ada, and on the broader culture of structured programming. Today it is niche rather than dominant, having largely been replaced in education by Python, Java and C-family languages. Background is at wikipedia.org.
The ampersand and the shared namesake
The trailing symbol in 'pascal&' has no established meaning as a single topic. It is best read as a search-style variant of the term 'Pascal'. Reputable sources treat the name as a family of distinct uses, all deriving from the 17th-century French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal. These include the unit of pressure, the programming language, Pascal's law in fluid mechanics, Pascal's triangle in combinatorics, and Pascal's wager in philosophy. Pascal is also a common given name and surname, as with the actor Pedro Pascal. Some recent entertainment coverage involves him, but this is unrelated to the technical senses. Institutions and encyclopaedias consistently separate these meanings by context, which is the sensible way to read the query.
Conclusion
The mainstream view is that 'Pascal' refers chiefly to the SI unit of pressure, which is universally accepted in science and engineering, and to Niklaus Wirth's influential but now niche programming language. Both are named in honour of Blaise Pascal. The ampersand adds no distinct meaning, so context decides which sense is intended.
Alternative Views
Pascal is still a practical choice for real software
Modern Free Pascal and Lazarus, along with Delphi, give you fast native compilation, readable syntax, strong typing and cross-platform GUI tools. Supporters say the language is unfashionable but not obsolete. They argue its stability means code written decades ago still builds, which is rare in languages that churn. On this view, the fall in Pascal's popularity reflects marketing and trends more than technical merit. It remains a good fit for long-lived desktop and business tools. Background on the language is on wikipedia.org.
Attributed to: Free Pascal and Lazarus developer communities, Embarcadero's Delphi community, and Pascal educators. I can't name specific individual commentators with confidence.
Wirth's minimalism was the real lesson, and the industry ignored it
Niklaus Wirth, who died in January 2024, argued in 'A Plea for Lean Software' that software keeps bloating faster than hardware improves. In his view Pascal, Modula-2 and Oberon were deliberately small, so that a compiler and a whole system could be understood by one person. Followers say modern languages and toolchains pile on features and dependencies, and that Pascal's descendants show a saner alternative. The language is valued as a philosophy of simplicity more than as a product.
Attributed to: Niklaus Wirth (Lean Software essay); Oberon and Project Oberon enthusiasts; the broader minimalist-computing tradition, e.g. Wirth's own writings.
Pascal should be taught first, not Python or JavaScript
Some educators say Pascal was designed for teaching structured programming. Its strict typing, explicit declarations and clear block structure force students to learn how programs are organized and how types work. They claim that beginning with dynamically typed languages hides these ideas and lets bad habits form. Pascal's decline as a teaching language, on this view, traded rigor for convenience and early job relevance.
Attributed to: Pascal-in-education advocates and some computer science teachers who prefer statically typed first languages. I am unsure of specific named proponents today.
The name 'Pascal' as a unit: SI purity versus practical units
A different reading takes 'pascal' as the SI unit of pressure, one newton per square metre. Critics say it is too tiny for everyday use, so people prefer bar, psi, mmHg or atmospheres. Weather services use hectopascals, while many engineers, divers, and medical staff stay with older units. They argue that familiar units match what people actually measure, and that pushing everything to pascals adds conversion errors and little else. Background is on wikipedia.org.
Attributed to: Practitioners in medicine (mmHg), diving and HVAC (bar, psi), and US customary-unit advocates. No single named spokesperson that I can identify.
References
Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), The International System of Units (SI Brochure), 9th edition
NIST Special Publication 811: Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)
Wirth, N. (1971). The Programming Language Pascal. Acta Informatica, 1(1), 35–63
Jensen, K. and Wirth, N. Pascal User Manual and Report, Springer
Wikipedia: Pascal (unit) and Pascal (programming language), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_(unit)
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