Why doesn't the Pascal program work?

Question

Programming

type list=^point;
     point=record
      data: char;
      next: list;
     end;

procedure readList(var L: list);
  var c: char;
      temp: list;
  begin
    new(temp);
    read (c);
    temp^.data:=c;
    temp^.next:=nil;
    L:=temp;
    while not eoln do begin
      read(c);
      read(c);
      new (temp^.next);
      temp:=temp^.next;
      temp^.data:=c;
      temp^.next:=nil;
    end;
end;

procedure delDouble(var L: list);
  var 
temp1, temp2: list;
  begin
  temp1:=L;
  temp2:=L^.next;
  while temp2<>nil do begin
    if temp1^.data<>temp2^.data then begin
      temp2:=temp2^.next;
      temp1:=temp1^.next;
    end
    else
      temp2:=temp2^.next;
      temp1^.next:=temp2;
  end;
  while L<>nil do begin
    write(L^.data, ' ');
    L:=L^.next
  end;
end;

function numE(E: char; L: list): integer;
  var i: integer;
  begin
  if L^.next<>nil then begin
    if L^.data=E then 
      numE:=1+numE(E, L^.next)
  end;
end;

var L1, L2: list;
    j: char;

begin
  readList(L1);
  L2:=L1;
  delDouble(L1);
  read(j);
  numE(j, L2);
end.

Here is the program. The compiler stubbornly refuses to read j, when debugging it just goes through the line without any reaction. What's the magic?

Answer 1

Replace read with readln everywhere