Re: newbie, Spark 2014 or Ada 2012

[Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@nbi.dk>]

nomadfate@gmail.com wrote:

> I am not new to programming. I went to basic programming classes when
> I was in school. I am more interested in micro-controller and
> electronic stuff.

For embedded systems Ada and C seem like the sensible choices.

C is useful to know because it (still) is the lingua franca of systems
programming.  You may also occassionally want to program a
microcontroller without an easily available Ada compiler.

Ada is useful to know because it helps you structure your
implementations and helps you avoid programming errors [1] (giving the
very short explanation).

SPARK 2014 should in your case probably be seen as an optimisation tool.
If you notice that some section of your Ada sources are taking too much
time, you can use the SPARK tools to evaluate if it is safe to disable
checks for that part of your application.

Greetings,

Jacob

[1] John McCormick has written a paper on his experiences with letting
    students use Ada and C for implementing a model railway control
    system.  It explains in detail which Ada features are most important
    for that kind of problem.
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