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From: KMays@msn.com (Kenneth Mays)
Subject: Do you C my Ada? (or why C++ knocks the crap out of Ada rehashed)
Date: 1996/02/17
Message-ID: <00001a73+000027fe@msn.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 139807017
organization: The Microsoft Network (msn.com)
newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-02-17T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Hi,

In actuality, many of the best programmers don't REALLY know C++ or C 
(they learn the alphabet). You become fluent with the basic 
communication skills to get a finished product. Ponder this: many 
people speak the English language but do they really know English? 
Also, which english are we talking about (American/British/Hacked). 
Crack open a Webster dictionary and/or an encyclopedia to see what 
you don't know!! You are always learning something new, and you are 
limited by what the language designer gave us. English is a mixture 
of many languages. But, this is another subject.

Ada95 is like the english language. Its the glue of many ideas boiled 
in a pot. You can learn Ada!!! But its like learning any human 
language, you can't expect to know Spanish in a day or 21 days 
(smile). You learn by a building block method (or main 
body/subroutine method). Its not so much the language, its how it is 
taught in many books. Compare some of the best books on teaching you 
how to program in C/C++. Honestly, many of these books follow each 
other's style. You have the great book that teachs you C, then the 
one that teachs you C++, and then the combined C/C++ books. If you 
want a great teaching book on Ada, then you look at the C books and 
follow the lead. When I took English, I was told that in order to 
write a famous poem or story, you have to read famous novels and 
poems. So, look at Howard Sams, Sybex, and Addison-Wesley books since 
they are all used for Basic/C/Pascal. You are not going to learn Ada 
overnite, but with a good book in your hand you might do well within 
a month or two.

C++ is a nice language, but I am always learning something new. Game 
programming seems to be a learning experience (always a new algorithm 
to play with). Honestly, C/C++ have enjoyed the luxury of being fed 
ample C/C++ books. Ada books do exist, but they are not on every 
bookstore shelf. I can't go to Waldenbooks and pick up a copy of 
"Mastering Ada95 in 21-days" or "Tricks of the Ada95 gurus". So you 
will have a big problem if you don't have a personal reference 
library on the programming language.

Ponder this: Why was there a problem with the Boeing 777 
avionics/flight software that was written in Ada? There are a few 
articles on this subject. Matter of fact, do your homework on 
everyone using Ada95. Ask the experts at Carnegie-Mellon/SEI/ACM 
SigAda on supplying CDROMs on proven Ada source code for teaching the 
language. Hey, find a good Ada compiler that supports MFC or OWL 
(haha). but for now, just read the article on Boeing's use of Ada 
software.

Ken Mays (maysk@wg53.eglin.af.mil)
"We don't see the world as it is, but who we are."