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From: ka@sorry.no.email (Kenneth Almquist)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Beginner's Language?
Date: 6 May 2001 17:12:54 -0400
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Date: 2001-05-06T17:12:54-04:00
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Faisal Halim <faisal_halim@yahoo.com> asked:
> I would like to know if ADA is a good first language for a beginner,
> especially when compared to Lisp and Perl, and BASIC.

The answer depends in part on what you want the beginner to learn
about programming.  Ada is a good language to use to learn software
engineering principles.  

> Despite my 'O' Level qualification in Computers, please assume you are 
> answering a person totally devoid of computer concepts, as I would find 
> such  replies useful when answering queries from 7th grade students who are 
> interested in computers and programming, but have no idea of which language 
> to use.

Seventh grade students may be a bit young for a language like Ada.
For that age group, I'd be more inclined to suggest ABC, which was
designed specificly for beginning programmers.  The assumption is
that after learning ABC, if they remain interested in computers
they will learn a language targetted at professional programmers (such
as Ada).  I think that anyone who is seriously interested in computers
should learn more than one language.

With regard to the other languages you mention:

I do not reccomend BASIC.  The initial version of this langauge was
intended to be an introductory language, but we now know more about
programming language design and can do better.  FORTRAN, which BASIC
is based on, has undergone major changes since BASIC was designed.

I think that Perl is a poor choice for a first language, for reasons
that others have explained, and that LISP is a reasonable choice for a
first language.
				Kenneth Almquist