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=-0.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,HK_NAME_MR_MRS autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,f96ca9a3c3a350c8 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-05-20 09:42:18 PST Message-ID: <3CE92722.BB45D087@baesystems.com> Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 17:41:06 +0100 From: Mr Adam G Craggs X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.73 [en]C-CCK-MCD (WinNT; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Grabbing Mindshare in the Student Population for Ada References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: rc3036.rochstr.gmav.gecm.com X-Trace: pull.gecm.com 1021912867 rc3036.rochstr.gmav.gecm.com (20 May 2002 17:41:07 +0100) Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!mango.news.easynet.net!easynet-melon!easynet.net!btnet-feed5!btnet!newreader.ukcore.bt.net!pull.gecm.com!not-for-mail Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:24423 Date: 2002-05-20T17:41:06+01:00 List-Id: I guess as you metion ADA you must be wanting to use it in your teaching. As i think the areas which are metioned in your attachment could be covered by other languages/environments more easily (eg. flash ...). I have seen some interesting work with ada to teach programming. But it depends on what part of programming you would like to teach. An example project analysing a web log: I have done this when I was fairly new to ada using a simple graphics library. Part 1 was just text based reading in an input file of websites visited and writing out various stats. Part 2 drawing various charts with the graphics library. For example as part of a small group of programmers - 5 we implemented a programming teaching tool. Although this is not based in Ada I did see some ada wrappers doing a similar sort of thing as part of the reasearch i did on the web before starting it. The main idea was to teach control flow so if else, loop, conditions in and event based environment using a robot, and a graphical environment for programming this was going to be a public exibit so no typing was alowed it had to be fast and easy to use. To build the robot we used a lego kit called lego mindstorms. But maybe if you want people to type the programs as was the case with the ada wrappers then thats great. I think if the effort is made many things are possible and i am sure rewards will be seen. A simple example is extrapolating from the situation one of my lecturers used to talk about spanners and this made people laugh alot and i am sure they rememebered more of what he said than someone who just went straight into explanations of librarys and such. Kent Paul Dolan wrote: > Here, from a posting in comp.lang.logo, is a viewpoint entirely > different from mine (and probably lots more valid) on what it takes to > engage the mind of CS students today. Can Ada be wedged in here > somehow, or extended with libraries to make the stuff described here > possible for new Ada programmers? > > http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/guzdial/uploads/17/CACM_Nintendo_Generation.pdf > > FYI. > > xanthian. > > -- > Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG