From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!june.cs.washington.edu!pattis From: pattis@june.cs.washington.edu (Richard Pattis) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: A Pascal Subset of Ada (was: Why Ada is Failing Socially) Summary: Teaching Ada as more than Pascal Message-ID: <1991Jun26.182134.9848@beaver.cs.washington.edu> Date: 26 Jun 91 18:21:34 GMT Sender: pattis@cs.washington.edu Distribution: comp.lang.ada Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle List-Id: In article <1822@stan.xx.swin.oz.au> doug@saturn.cs.swin.OZ.AU (Doug_Grant) writes: > >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 >Pascal) in the first course. Allow me to disagree. I have taught Ada in CS-1 and CS-2 to over a thousand students. By week 15 my students have learned, and are using when they write their programs: exception handling, unconstrained arrays, generic subprograms and packages, private types, and operator overloading. I will not discuss the difficulties in creating a coherent and consistent Ada subset (such a discussion has already appeared in this forum). Sure, an Ada subset compiler for an 8088 that is cheap is better than nothing. But the availability of such a product would not support my goals in teaching Ada. What is more important is the availability of full Ada compilers that are as good and as cheap as as Pascal/C/C++ compilers for a wide variety of computing platforms. Of course, this all assumes that we want Ada taught at the undergraduate level: this sentiment is not universal in the Ada community. Rich Pattis PS: When I taught Pascal and Modula-2 at this level, I always taught a subset of these languages: the really important, powerful, and useful parts. I continue this approach when teaching Ada. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Richard E. Pattis "Programming languages are like Department of Computer Science pizzas - they come in only "too" and Engineering sizes: too big and too small."