Re: [Ada] made me hate programming

[Georg Bauhaus <rm.dash-bauhaus@futureapps.de>]

On 03.07.10 10:35, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:

> Profiles are bad, they create many new languages and require a deep
> language understanding as for what must be in and out of the profile.

When students study only the sequential parts of Ada
they are not learning a new language by not starting
with tasks.  Learning sequential algorithms is one example
where experienced teachers may or may not want to
draw attention to concurrent algorithms.  It's their say.
They compiler can assist with a profile.

I'm not advocating this particular profile for teaching.
It happens to be an identifiable subset and may or may not be
the preference of experienced teachers.  Experienced teachers
can identify these subsets and test them. It's *not* programmers
(in this role) who have to find teaching profiles and wonder
how they are consistent with what.

As a teacher, you may request that a sequential profile
be turned on leading to simpler error messages should a
tasking construct slip into a student's program.  The
message then simply complains that this is a concurrency
construct.

Messages involving the details of tasking may make students
even more curious.  If you want this, don't turn on the profile.
If you think that curiosity should find an object withing
the subset you are teaching, turn the profile on.