Re: Ada as the language of first exposure

[seas.gwu.edu!mfeldman@uunet.uu.net (Michael Feldman)]

In article <1992Oct29.170458.20542@mksol.dseg.ti.com> mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com 
(fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:

[lots of good stuff deleted]
>
>Then, after that first semester, branch out to other languages,
>HONESTLY explaining the strong and weak points of each (no language
>bigots need apply -- and don't ask me how you would go about trying to
>police THAT).  

Well, we just decided at GW that the change from Pascal to Ada after
the first semester was giving the students far more hassle than just
starting with Ada. That was our main argument for the switch to Ada.
And many other schools have drawn the same conclusion. Pascal syntax
and Ada syntax are alike enough but different enough to cause unneeded   
problems to beginners.
>
>The problem with using Ada for a first language in an academic
>situation is that the compilers are typically so expensive.  Which
>brings us back to one of those original problems.

The price of compilers used to be my biggest beef. But those prices have
come down while everything else has gone up. A Meridian or Alsys Unix
server license is <$2000., which for a class of, say, 50 is an
acceptable price per student. And, of course, the compiler is good for
more than one term.

My beef now is that too many schools do not KNOW that the prices have
come down, nor that an Ada compiler, running zillions of small compilations,
will no longer eat your server alive. I keep running into teachers who
have no idea where to start looking for a compiler. I assert that the
compiler companies should be out looking for THEM.

And there's always Ada/Ed, which we used at the University of Washington
last year on a DECStation, with a class of 350 (!) freshmen. Ada/Ed has
some bugs here and there, but in general it's a good entry level system.
Its validation is a few years old, but hey, it'll compile student
programs, and it's free. Also quite fast, by the way, for small programs.

BTW - I'm teaching a 50-student CS1 at GW this year, and a 25-student
CS2. I've given out at least 25 copies of Ada/Ed for DOS. A LOT of
students are getting their own computers. At the current price of
DOS boxes, a computer costs about the same as ONE course at private
college tuition rates.

A number of students have become enamored enough of Ada to want to go beyond
Ada/Ed, so they've purchased the Meridian compiler for $99. I think
more will follow; at least 100 did so last year in Seattle.

The pieces are falling into place to create a snowball effect, but the
vendors are going to have to cooperate, or the bandwagon will screech
to a stop.

Mike Feldman
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Michael B. Feldman
co-chair, SIGAda Education Committee

Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
School of Engineering and Applied Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
(202) 994-5253 (voice)
(202) 994-5296 (fax)
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)

"Americans wants the fruits of patience -- and they want them now."
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