Re: How Would a Hobbyist Learn Ada?

[Maciej Sobczak <see.my.homepage@gmail.com>]

On 3 Cze, 14:02, Ludovic Brenta <ludo...@ludovic-brenta.org> wrote:

> How about others? Were you a hobbyist when you learned Ada?

Your question is a bit incomplete and I think I can add something
interesting to the discussion.

I worked with C++ on systems that have high reliability requirements
(control systems, real-time, middleware). I believe I can use this
language very effectively and with high confidence, but I felt that
there is a margin for improvement in what I do that is not covered in
popular sources related to C++. I started to search for a source of
good and proven practice, guidelines and engineering approaches and
decided that Ada with its mature community is a good candidate to be
such a source. Obviously, one needs first to understand Ada to later
understand the existing experience of the community, so I started to
learn Ada and read whatever I was able to find (Barnes, Burns,
Wellings, AARM, Ravenscar, SPARK, etc.), experiment with small
projects and annoy you on this group. ;-)

Note the path: I did not use Ada at work, I was not a student taking
any Ada course, but I also do not consider myself to be a hobbyist. I
have decided to inject a good dose of proven software engineering
knowledge to my professional work, which is still not directly related
to Ada. I believe it was a very good decision and I recommend the same
to my fellows.

Note also that after three years of learning I still find Ada to be a
difficult and complex language and I'm still not confident in my
ability to attack complex problems without risking the project's
failure (easy projects are... just easy and do not prove anything).
Many language corners and lots of compiler (GNAT) problems I have
encountered on the way contributed to this perception and I find it
rather unfortunate. For this reason I do not think that Ada could
become the only language for me, but I see a lot of space for healthy
"cohabitation" between various languages. I will certainly keep the
link with Ada with an eye for its potential use in both professional
and out-of-work projects.

--
Maciej Sobczak * www.msobczak.com * www.inspirel.com