Re: new programmer wondering what to learn

["Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93" <condicma@PWFL.COM>]

Undetermined origin c/o LISTSERV administrator writes:
>2. Is it worth my while to learn Ada?
>   Since Ada-95 includes configuration management, life-cycle maintenance
>   reduction, bug-catching, parallel processing, and software reliability
>   features not present in other languages, and since it is relatively
>   easy to connect Ada-95 code to existing code in many other languages,
>   YES, it is worth your while to learn Ada.
>
    Here I'd like to get a little clarification: How exactly does
    Ada95 include "configuration management"? CM in the usual sense of
    the term means some method of tracking what set of sources goes
    into a given software build, what changes were made between
    version N and version N+1 and related librarian kinds of issues.
    DEC CMS and SCCS under Unix would be examples of tools used for
    this purpose. (Although neither tool would encompass the
    *entirety* of the domain of CM)

    I don't see how Ada95 contributes to this in any direct way since
    it is beyond the scope of a programming language definition.
    Unless, you perhaps had something else in mind when writing
    "configuration management"?

    The rest of what you wrote makes good sense and I'd agree that it
    is worth any programmer's time to learn Ada95.

    MDC

Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer    ATT:        561.796.8997
Pratt & Whitney, GESP                           Fax:        561.796.4669
West Palm Beach, FL                             Internet:   CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
===============================================================================
    "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the
    strong - but that's the way to bet."

        --  Damon Runyon
===============================================================================