Re: Ada as a first language

["Brian" <phaedrusalt@hotmail.com>]

"Jacob Sparre Andersen" <sparre@nbi.dk> wrote in message 
news:87r60oip8a.fsf@nbi.dk...

> Considering the papers I have read comparing how engineering students
> succeed in implementing embedded systems in Ada and C, I disagree.
>
> There is of course the difference that the students most likely got
> their development system served on a silver platter.  You may want to
> see if you can get information on what they have been working with.
> (Asking John W. McCormick might be the easy way to get the
> information.)

Hmmm, with no consideration of the scope, size, and complexity of the 
problem space that Chris is trying to tackle, you disagree?  So, you truly 
believe that Ada is a better language, no matter what he is trying to 
achieve?   For any size project?  (The Ada Kool-Aid claims another victim!) 
This is one of the items that, I believe, has lead to some disillusionment 
with Ada.  It isn't the perfect tool for every situation, embedded or not. 
And we should stop saying that it is, the language and it's proponents are 
losing credibility.

When someone asks us for advice like this, we should consider it from an 
engineering perspective.  What's the right tool to use?  The one that gets 
the job done, for the right amount of manpower, time and money.  Just as I 
wouldn't recommend that Chris use COBOL for his hobby work, I would expect 
that the learning curve for Ada would hamper his work.  Since hobbyist, 
beginner code tends to be small (Less than 1K SLOC/project, and usually much 
smaller), then other languages might tend to give him more success with less 
pain.

With all due respect to Mr McCormick, his "Why Ada succeeds where C fails" 
should be changed to "Why Ada succeeds where C fails for this hardware and 
these software requirements relating to driving a model railroad".  While my 
version lacks snappy prose, the accuracy is much improved.  Otherwise, 
people might assume that he is saying Ada is superior to C (Or other 
languages) for every situation, which is just plain silly.

Brian Salter