Re: Object Pascal vs Ada -- which is better for a hobbyist?

[Oliver Kleinke <oliver.kleinke@c-01a.de>]

Am Tue, 27 Aug 2013 16:34:34 +0200
schrieb Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57) <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr>:

> Le Thu, 04 Jul 2013 13:47:20 +0200, <gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com> a
> écrit:
> 
> > Le jeudi 4 juillet 2013 08:59:26 UTC+2, Dufr a écrit :
> >> Which is better for an amateur programmer, Object Pascal or Ada?
> >
> > Pascal is easier for learning the basics of programming and for
> > setting up small test programs.
> > The issue is when, even as a hobbyist, your projects become more  
> > ambitious. At some point you need to mix various components, or
> > change platform, or work on several systems.
> > Sooner or later you face the fragmentation of the Pascal language,
> > which is not a problem if you stay forever with one Pascal dialect.
> 
> I don't agree with the first sentence. A well choose Ada subset is as
> much easy to introduce as Pascal may be. I would say even more, as
> Pascal's behaviour vary too much from compiler to compiler, to not
> become an issue. Introducing a standard presents an advantage here.
> 
> What's worth learning something which will become false or subtly  
> different, depending on the vendors and platforms? That's not
> pedagogic.
> 

If I may barge in here, it is very much possible to write good working
Ada programs using just a very small part of the language, you don't
need to know or use every feature Ada has to offer -- The benefit
however is that when you do need the functionality it's there. Once you
get a hang of the language you can possibly write small test programs
equally fast with the added benefit that you can easily modularize
and reorganize your code to use it in a larger project. And what Yannick
Duchêne wrote concerning portability is also a good point -- why use
some vendor dialect when you can use standardized and highly portable
language...