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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,abd120a1d5231d28 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: jhopper@erinet.com (jim hopper) Subject: Re: Looking for a good Ada 95 book Date: 1996/11/23 Message-ID: <577mo9$57s@news.syspac.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 198313039 sender: full@news.syspac.com. references: <3290C33B.1772@cse.eng.lmu.edu> <56rc87$lbb@felix.seas.gwu.edu> <1996Nov23.082018.1@eisner> x-authenticated: full on INN-RP host news.syspac.com. organization: Systems Solutions Inc. (Arizona's Internet Provider) newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-11-23T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <1996Nov23.082018.1@eisner> kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen) writes: > In article , dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes: > > > Students should NOT be encouraged to think that figuring out your own > > style is a normal and reasonable activity, on the contrary, they should > > learn that in the real world, an external style is imposed and you > > have to follow it. Encouraging this kind of individuality to me is > > inconsistent with good engineering practice. It would be like telling > > chemistry students in the lab to develop their own distinctive styles > > of doing experiments. > > If students do not experiment with styles, they will be ill-prepared to > contribute to the style discussion when a group such as that which wrote > GNAT chooses a style (as described many bytes ago in this newsgroup). > > Larry Kilgallen I have to agree with Larry here. If the students are never taught to think critically about an issue, only to blindly follow standards then they will never be able to meaningfully participate in evolving these standards! Thats why students should be FORCED (in my not so humble opinion) to use a variety of styles and to understand the good and bad points between them. Note, i am thinking not just in the limited case of capitalization style but all elements of programming style (including capitalization). Roberts comment that styles in the real world are imposed upon you is an excellent point. But in fact, in the real world during a career, MULTIPLE styles will be imposed upon a programmer. For example in the last two years i have had at least 3 different styles imposed upon my by the various prime contractors we have worked with, and i have imposed my prefered style on our Ada folks at SAIC in dayton for our internal work. :-) The best way to teach this (again IMNSHO) is to train them by imposing various styles during their training to shake them out of their religious opinions, and force them to understand the issues that underly stylistic choices. best jim