Proficiency in Ada

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <46we2B1w165w@netlink.cts.com> mshapiro@netlink.cts.com (Michael Shapiro) writes:
>
>There's a difference between learning a language enough to use it and 
>becoming extremely proficient in it.  An experienced programmer should be 
>able to pick up any language similar to the one they've been using fairly 
>quickly.  But they'll learn more and more features and techniques with 
>use.  One of the cost models I have used (SoftCost, if I recall), assumes 
>an Ada programmer is less than fully proficient until they've completed 
>three projects.
>
This is NOT a useful figure of merit unless it is given together with similar
figures for other languages. Do we know how many months, years, or projects
are required before a programmer is proficient in, say, Fortran or C,
sufficiently to write the kind of robust and maintainable systems we all
desire?

Without useful comparative data, you are merely perpetuating the canard
that Ada is somehow DIFFERENT, HARDER, than its predecessors or successors.

I have seen, in 10 years of doing Ada, lots of figures showing how long it
takes to train an Ada programmer, but none that do an honest comparison
of the costs to train a programmer in other languages, TO THE EXTENT THAT
THEIR CODE IS OF EQUIVALENT QUALITY. I'll bet we'd find that the numbers
are fairly equivalent; I'd like to believe that an honest comparison
would show Ada in a favorable light, but that would be speculation, as
I have not seen any such comparative data.

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)

"The most important thing is to be sincere, 
and once you've learned how to fake that, you've got it made." 
-- old show-business adage
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