Re: How Would a Hobbyist Learn Ada?

["Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.acm.org>]

Ludovic Brenta wrote:
> 
> How about others? Were you a hobbyist when you learned Ada? Did many
> people attend formal training?

As a new hire at Martin Marietta Denver Aerospace in 1984, I was in a "leper 
colony" when an instructor looking for bodies tagged me to attend a short 
course. This involved watching videos of Ichbiah, Barnes, and Firth presenting 
Ada at the Ada Launch (1980 Dec 10). We also got copies of their slides. This 
introduced me to Ada 80.

At the time Pascal was my favorite language. I had read about information hiding 
in /Software Tools/, but never understood the concept until I encountered Ada 
packages.

I was then chosen to attend a 13-wk, full-time course, "Software Engineering 
with Ada", where I learned Ada 83 using the Rolm/Data General Ada compiler.

I learned Ada 95 and the current language on the job.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Brave Sir Robin ran away."
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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