From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,56250291936154a0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Marin D. Condic" Subject: Re: Where is the elusive jump command? Date: 2000/03/29 Message-ID: <38E240D1.DB36C983@quadruscorp.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 603875273 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <38D771CA.D41AF9B5@port.ac.uk> <8bq7ku$mc8$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <38E0E723.C39C392@quadruscorp.com> <8brfm4$4uc$1@nnrp1.deja.com> Organization: Quadrus Corporation X-Sender: "Marin D. Condic" (Unverified) X-Server-Date: 29 Mar 2000 14:45:46 GMT Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-03-29T14:45:46+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote: > I disagree, noone teaches goto's in any beginning programming > courses, for good reasons. Anyone desparately wanting to write > gotos has a peculiar starting point. > I agree. However, I rather got the impression that the original poster was an experienced programmer who was used to doing things a particular way based on what other languages normally do. I wouldn't teach gotos as an introductory style, but if a Fortran weenie wanted to know how it was done in Ada, I'd show him and advise him that there were better ways. > As for terminating strings with null, that really does not work > in Ada for many reasons, the models of strings are very very > different in C and Ada, and trying to gloss over this will be > a disservice. > Again, I agree wholeheartedly. I've seen too many C programmers come over to Ada and try terminating strings with null, pass parameters with addresses, etc. Essentially they are fighting the language and making their lives harder. However, I would at least point out to them that what they are used to doing can be done with Ada, but that again they are fighting the language and making their lives harder. I just think that Ada gets a bad rap and gets ignored because someone used to C programming starts going "Well, I can't do in Ada the kinds of things I usually do, so Ada is useless." > As for pointers, I would NEVER tell people about *aliased* until > they understood the language well. > Certainly *aliased* anything is a concept best left for the experienced programmer and should not be an intro-level topic. It depends on the audience though. If you've got an experienced C programmer who wants to learn to use Ada to interface to the Win32api, you need to discuss this topic. All the while emphasizing that it should be used judiciously, hidden at low levels in the case of bindings and that generally Ada programs don't do this kind of thing because it has better ways. > You just confuse people by introducing features that are > unnecessary and will lead them in the wrong direction. > We do have to be careful not to confuse the newbies. We should try to emphasize The Ada Way of programming. I just think we'll win a few more converts by being willing to say "Yeah, you can do exactly what you usually do in language X and here's how. But there is a *better* way to consider that will make your life easier." I know we have the same objective. The tricky part is how best to get there. MDC -- ============================================================= Marin David Condic - Quadrus Corporation - 1.800.555.3393 1015-116 Atlantic Boulevard, Atlantic Beach, FL 32233 http://www.quadruscorp.com/ m c o n d i c @ q u a d r u s c o r p . c o m ***PLEASE REMOVE THE "-NOSPAM" PART OF MY RETURN ADDRESS*** Visit my web site at: http://www.mcondic.com/ "Because that's where they keep the money." -- Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks. =============================================================