From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on
	ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1
Date: 26 Sep 91 17:17:04 GMT
From: cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!iggy.GW.Vit
alink.COM!widener!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!uofs!guinness.cs.uofs.edu!beidler@ucb
vax.Berkeley.EDU  (Jack Beidler)
Subject: Re: Survey of Educators
Message-ID: <10212@platypus.uofs.uofs.edu>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Is it just me, or is there something in the tone of the questionaire that
seems to continue a tone that I thought those of us who are concerned with 
software engineering and Ada would like to see dissappear.  Specifically, 
there is an attitude implied with questions 2, 3, 4, and 6 that implies
that we teach courses in programming languages.  Frankly, I believe that
any computing department that teaches a course in any programming language,
including Ada, is doing both its students and the computing community a 
terrible disservice.  

Concepts should drive every course.  The language is a necessary evil that we
have to put up with.  We select programming languages for two reasons, one
positive and one negative:
a.   The language provides good support for the material and assists in
     getting the concepts across.

b.   We use a programming language because it does not get in the way of 
     teaching concepts.

These are the reasons I am using Ada in my courses.  If a language is good,
and I think Ada is, then we should be encouraging good software development
practices and the understanding of concepts and help nature take the path 
to Ada.
-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  John (Jack) Beidler				                              |
|  Prof. of Computer Science  Internet (VAX/VMS)  BEIDLER@JAGUAR.UOFS.ED      |
|  University of Scranton     Internet (SUN/UNIX) BEIDLER@GUINNESS.CS.UOFS.EDU|
|  Scranton, PA 18510	      Bitnet   (VAX/VMS)  BEIDLER@SCRANTON            |
|                                                                             |
|          Phone: (717) 941-7446	 FAX:   (717) 941-4250                |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+