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From: Richie Bielak <richieb@XYZZYcalfp.com>
Subject: Re: Eiffel anyone? - Who uses it?
Date: 1997/07/11
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Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-07-11T00:00:00+00:00
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ivory@tower.com wrote:
> 
> My friend's son is looking at colleges, and was startled to see
> that RIT appears to have a heavy focus on the language Eiffel for
> the first 2-3 years.  He's using this as a black mark against the
> school.  The thinking is that he'd rather be learning a 'real'
> language that has real-life value on the job market.

Hmm. When I went to college the "real-life" languages were:
JCL, BAL and COBOL. 

> 
> He's asked me for my opinion, and I'd have to say that I somewhat
> agree.  I've never met an Eiffel programer, and don't see a lot of
> ads for them in the classifieds.  Note: I'm not debating whether or
> not Eiffel is a good language; that's not the concern.  The concern
> is whether or not the job market will see this as having been time
> well spent.
> 
> So, what's the (reality based) counter argument?

You don't become a programmer by learning a single language.
You need to know many. Eiffel happens to be a good one
to start with as it will teach you important principles which
are independent of the language.

Besides by the time he graduates the "real-life" language will
most likely be different than what he chose to study. Someone
decided to concentrate on C++ four years ago, today is
scrambling to learn Java.

Learn the profession of programming, not a particular language.
The course of study should include many programming languages,
as well as literature, art, science and engineering.

...richie "Eiffel Programmer"

-- 
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