Re: Eiffel anyone? - Who uses it?

[Wes Groleau <wwgrol@pseserv3.fw.hac.com>]

> 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.
> 
> 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?
> 
> [obviously, I seldom (ever) read each of the newsgroups I posted this
> to, so please e-mail responses as well as re-post.  thanks]

John! Long time no see!

You just happen to have posted this query shortly after about twelve
posts in an Eiffel vs. Ada argument on comp.lang.ada (cross-posted to
other groups).  Subject lines are:
    Avoiding the second historic mistake
    Is ADA as good for graphics programming as C? 
    Safety-critical development in Ada and Eiffel

Also, I would imagine [censored for privacy] would try to give 
you an un-biased response.  My own response is that Eiffel is 
a good language for learning software engineering concepts, 
as is Ada.  Such concepts will benefit the learner no matter 
what good or bad language gets forced upon him after graduation.

Both are growing in the number of schools that use them.

C, on the other hand, is shrinking by _that_ metric.

If you want to learn programming as it's done "out there,"
look for C, COBOL, Visual Basic, etc.  Of course, there's no
guarantee Java or some other fad won't be in demand by the 
time you get "out there"

If you want to learn software engineering, look for Ada, 
Eiffel, etc.

Disclaimer: It is possible to teach software engineering in C,
and certainly a lot of C programmers (yourself included) generate 
quality stuff.  And as we both have seen, some Ada programmers
will generate garbage without appropriate outside pressure. 
So perhaps merely asking which language the school uses is 
not enough.