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From: Martin <martin.dowie@btopenworld.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada as a first language
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:16:36 -0700 (PDT)
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On Mar 22, 2:26=A0am, Chris <c...@internode.on.net> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I am a mechanical engineer, and I have become interested in robotics
> embedded systems. I have little experience in this area other that
> plugging in electronic components and clicking run.
>
> I had recently started to learn Java, when I found out about Ada. From
> what I have seen of Ada, I really like the way that the language is
> structured, that is has a proper standard, and it seems like a good
> choice for the types of projects that I have in mind.
>
> I have down loaded GNAT with the GPS IDE, as well as the work bench for
> eclipse (although I haven't had it working yet), and have been trying to
> work my way through the examples.
>
> My concern lies in the smaller community for Ada. As an
> amateur/hobbyist, am I biting off more than I need to?

As others have pointed out, without know what your building, what CPU,
what you want your robot to do, etc it is very hard to say. However...

...I would encourage you to learn Ada in the same way as I would
encourage my kids to learn Latin. It may not be a day-to-day language
for many people (although there are more Ada-natives than Latin-
natives these days ;-) but it will serve you immeasurably well when
you learn almost any other language.

Cheers
-- Martin