Re: Why is Ada NOT a good choice for a beginner to programming?

["Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@cogeco.ca>]

faust wrote:
>  "Jeffrey Creem" <jeff@thecreems.com> ,  emitted these fragments:
>>are more worried about picking the winner so they can be "right" then they
>>are about applying critical thinking and making an intellegent selection.
> 
> Since to many, languages are tools that they use in their professional
> lives, being "right" can be important.

Being "right" means being able to deliver, be on time, be reliable
and be able to maintain the result. Usually management will listen to
talented thinking and if you push your viewpoint, being right may
in fact mean doing "the real right thing".

However, if you must work within the confines of a larger team, where
your viewpoint is not shared WRT Ada (which seems rather common),
then unless you are top dog, or have convincing arguments for both
management and your team, you are correct in that the "right" thing
becomes muddied with politics (I will refuse to call it the "right
thing" however ;-)

> On the other hand, if you are a hobbyist , an academic or a government
> contractor, well you can ignore the market place.

I agree with Ted (in a separate post), that it is probably wise
to ignore the market popularity WRT tools. You need to look
at the life cycle of your product and then evaluate if a
waning market may influence your ability to provide support.
To base a new 20-year product on a trendy new tool, is for
example, not wise.

Someone last year (Ted?) was discussing the problem of providing
replacement motherboards for Navy ships, running military apps
on NT (I think it was). Imagine trying to buy the same thoroughly
tested 486 MBs today? Software support is not much different.

-- 
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg