Re: A Pascal Subset of Ada (was: Why Ada is Failing Socially)

[doug@saturn.cs.swin.OZ.AU (Doug_Grant)]

>|> One of the biggest mistakes of AJPO (or whoever made the decision) was to
>|> disallow Ada subsets.  I think they should have allowed ONE subset, 
>|> corresponding roughly to Pascal and including packages.  We would have had 
>|> inexpensive & commercially useful compilers much earlier, & disposed of the 
>|> "Ada is huge" mindset.

The issue is not whether subsets are allowed or not, but rather
whether a compiler for the Pascal subset (whatever that is) could be
used productively for a first course in Ada. Having taught Ada as a
first language for 2 years now, to a diverse group of students of
variable ability, I am convinced that a VERY CHEAP (or FREE) compiller
for the Pascal subset that will run on the old 8088 machines that some
of my students have (yes, without hard disks), would be worthwhile.

I ussed to be, but now am not, sure that we need to cover (Ada \
Pascal) in the first course.


Doug Grant(Swinburne Inst of Tech, Melbourne, Australia)
(apologies for my mis-bahaving keyboard)