Re: Mike Feldman, meet Archie

[agate!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!darwin.sura.net!seas.gw u.edu!mfeldman@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Michael Feldman)]

In article <EMERY.93Mar4145446@goldfinger.mitre.org> emery@goldfinger.mitre.org
 (David Emery) writes:
>
[good stuff deleted]

>On the other hand, as has been said many times, choice of language is
>*not* generally a technical decision.  The fact that Ada was developed
>by the DOD tends to prejudice it in the eyes of many who believe that
>anything having to do with the military is inherently evil.  This is
>particularly true in academic settings...
>
This is increasingly seen to be a canard. I have met many hundreds of
academics in the last few years as an active Ada teacher and SIGAda
education co-chair. I hear _over and over_ that the problems with Ada
in recent years in breaking into academia are mostly _not_ political-
correctness problems, but (in no particular order)

- ignorance about Ada's accomplishments and possibilities;
- perceived tremendous cost of compilers;
- lack of curriculum-oriented textbooks.

Various outreach efforts, especially the November 92 CACM issue and
the SIGAda outreach to places like the Computer Science Conference are
setting them straight about the first 2 issues - most folks realize now
that academic prices are affordable enough, especially from academia-
friendly companies ike Meridian and (since 1991) Alsys.

Ada/Ed is making a BIG impact here. Next week I will post a list of all
the schools to which Ada/Ed copies (for DOS and Mac) were given at this
year's CSC last month. You'll see what I mean. Stay tuned.

There are now 7 freshman-level texts and a couple dozen more oriented
specifically to undergrad courses. As teachers find out about these
(and book publishers - unlike Ada vendors - really do know how to
advertise to reach teachers) they are looking upon Ada much more
favorably. 

With all due respect, Dave, I've done my homework on this and i've got
my facts straight. Please do not perpetuate the myth of idelogical
opposition to Ada in the universities. There is undoubtedly a small
group of academics for which this is true, but most thinking people
realize that both X and Berkeley Unix were also funded by DoD, so
resisting Ada on that basis is foolish.

I'm not going to post my "serious Ada schools" list again until there
are significant changes to it - send e-mail if you want one. I will,
on thye other hand, post an updated book list next week.

Cheers -

Mike Feldman