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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx05.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.mixmin.net!news2.arglkargh.de!noris.net!newsfeed.arcor.de!newsspool3.arcor-online.net!news.arcor.de.POSTED!not-for-mail Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 17:53:26 +0200 From: Georg Bauhaus User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130620 Thunderbird/17.0.7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Object Pascal vs Ada -- which is better for a hobbyist? References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <51d83d76$0$6569$9b4e6d93@newsspool3.arcor-online.net> Organization: Arcor NNTP-Posting-Date: 06 Jul 2013 17:53:26 CEST NNTP-Posting-Host: 2e9b97fd.newsspool3.arcor-online.net X-Trace: DXC=g\fiaA0hl2WI?44J>Z[:RQMcF=Q^Z^V3X4Fo<]lROoRQ8kFejVXSRCTQoSO99^[nOS On 06.07.13 09:04, Dufr wrote: > The reasons you guys gave in favor of Ada are all pretty solid, no doubt. And yet, I am not fully convinced yet, because: > > a hobbiyst learner needs a lot of support, and from what I have seen Object Pascal (in the form of Free Pascal) has a much larger community of enthusiasts than Ada, with a very active forum. When a large, active community went gold panning, those who reliably made profit were those who owned the hotels, or sold rubber boots. > By simply comparing this Ada Google Group This is not a Google Group. Google just displays this group, which is comp.lang.ada, as if it was a Google Group. It isn't. This group is independent of Google, both technically and conceptually. > I am just wondering whether Ada, which is no doubt a superior language from the technical point of view, is really for me - considering all the practical hurdles that a learner has to face, vis-a-vis the fact that the expectation of receiving practical support from the Ada community *seems* more limited than with Object Pascal. In a pinch, and not just then, Rosetta Code has many practical examples for Ada. GNAT has high quality examples right in its distribution, John English's online book, "The Craft of Object-Oriented Programming", is just one of many excellent resources for learning the language. Do the exercises. If you have questions while studying any of your choice, or a good book, ask, here, or at StackExchange. Do you have any more specific questions not covered in the resources? To get started, see if you can work through the first two chapters of a resource; be a little patient and start over as necessary. Install GNAT, and be sure to read the introductory material about GNAT and Ada in the GNAT User's Guide. It's worth it, even if you decide you should do something else, first.