Re: A simple ADA puzzle (I haven't the answer)

[Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com>]

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> If a programmer does not understand what are arrays, types and
> constraints, then probably he/she should look for other job, probably
> as a dish-washer?

But this programmer does understand what arrays and types are,
just not how they manifest in Ada. And constrained types are
unique to Ada, or at least they are not present in the popular
languages of the day. Knowing what an array is has nothing to
do with knowing that in Ada they can be passed by value, or that
you can declare an array object which gets its bounds from an
initializer. Knowing what a type is does not tell you that in
Ada a polymorphic type can't be declared in the same places that
other types can. And that bit of code with constraints that eats
all of memory looks completely innocent. How is an Ada newcomer
to know that the default discriminant doesn't apply when an object
of that type is created?

Since most programmers do not know Ada, if they are to be taught
the language then these places where Ada is extremely different
from the languages they do know must be carefully described, and
done so in terms of the concepts they already know.

Acting condescendingly towards people who are not learned in the
nuances of what is at best a niche language is not going to win
any converts.