Re: Looking for good Ada95 book

[ok@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au (Richard A. O'Keefe)]

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>I find it interesting that out of a couple of dozen reviewers of the
>two books we are discussing, NONE objected to the upper-case reserved
>words. These were not Ada dummies; they saw the logic behind what I was
>doing, and went along with it. Every reviewer was an active teacher of
>Ada in intro courses.

There is a non-sequitur here.
From the fact that they did not *object*,
you *cannot* infer that they saw your logic,
or that they "went along with it".
If they specifically *said* in their reviews that they
saw the logic or were happy with the result
(as opposed to reluctantly accepting it because of the
book's other merits) then you can infer these things.
The most you can infer from silence is that they didn't
consider it _enough_ of a problem to object about.

I also note a little bit of selection here.
Concerning the book "Ada 95 Problem Solving and Program Design",
which is the only CS1 book of yours I've seen,
one reviewer did *not* see the logic, did *not* go along,
and *did* complain.  I know, because that was me.
Perhaps you are referring to pre-publication reviewers.

Again, I must stress that Feldman's books have great merits.
My position is like the Frenchman in the 18th century who was
about to propose to a woman when he saw a louse crawl out of
her wig.  Sometimes small things loom large.

>I think it matters in dealing with first-term students. If the community
>is THAT outraged, I'll certainly consider changing it in the next edition.

There are three issues here, and they are different.
(1) Will protest die down if you make a change?
(2) Will more people buy your books if you make a change?
(3) Will students learn better if you make a change?
You are insisting on your present scheme because of (3), and you are
exactly right in your attitude.  If you are *factually* right as well;
if someone can come up with good-looking *evidence* that putting keywords
in caps is better for our students than putting keywords in lower case;
then I will switch to your still and beg you to stick to it.

If.

>It's a small point in the larger community; I maintain it is a helpful
>style for first-year students.

I can't speak for anyone else, but you can silence me *completely* on
this topic and convert me to your style *by showing me the experimental
evidence*.  It should be a fairly straightforward experiment to perform.
(Although double-blind is clearly out of the question...)

-- 
Mixed Member Proportional---a *great* way to vote!
Richard A. O'Keefe; http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/%7Eok; RMIT Comp.Sci.