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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 107f24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid107f24,public X-Google-Thread: f4fd2,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gidf4fd2,public X-Google-Thread: 10259a,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid10259a,public X-Google-Thread: 103d24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid103d24,public X-Google-Thread: 1164ba,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid1164ba,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,ea8ea502d35ca2ce X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-08 06:49:51 PST Path: newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!news.gv.tsc.tdk.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!netnews.com!isdnet!psinet-france!psiuk-f4!psiuk-p4!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.basic,comp.lang.functional,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.perl Subject: Re: Beginner's Language? Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 09:38:48 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9d8st9$t2r$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <9cukad$nn68@news-dxb> <9d6b6e$1bt$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9d867n$ort13@news.kvaerner.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 136.170.200.133 X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 989329129 29787 136.170.200.133 (8 May 2001 13:38:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 May 2001 13:38:49 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:7321 comp.lang.lisp:9825 comp.lang.smalltalk:9575 comp.lang.functional:5570 comp.lang.scheme:3692 comp.lang.perl:2697 Date: 2001-05-08T13:38:49+00:00 List-Id: If it were me, I'd just use Ada and be done with it. However, some people may have too much of an anti-Ada bias and would refuse to use it in their course - in which case I'd suggest considering Pascal or some other similar language that is reasonably well known and available & provides the right sort of constructs for teaching about how to think about programming. You're right - there is no advantage over Ada. This is especially true since Gnat is generally available, of descent quality and has plenty of educational materials associated with it. A prof can hand students an intro-level text, a compiler, an IDE with debugging capabilites and plenty of examples of working code - all of it free or reasonably inexpensive (The book is about all you'd have to pay for.) Syntactically and semantically, Ada is better than Pascal & many other languages and offers plenty of room for the student to grow. I'd use Ada for an intro class and not look back - but obviously some people have an irrational attitude about it. (Just lets watch how long it takes the cross-posting of this thread to bring out the Anti-Ada bigots who know nothing of the language and have never used it, yet *know* they hate it. :-) I had a prof in business school who taught MIS for MBA's. He found out I used Ada on the job and immediately began snearing at it and commenting on it with contempt and wondering who it was who was "forcing" us to use Ada. In conversation, I discovered that he knew *nothing* of Ada beyond rumors. He was pretty well astonished that we would use Ada *by*choice* because we found it technically superior. If this is the sort of prof who proposes teaching an intro level class on programming, I'd rather he at least went with Pascal rather than trying to teach beginners with C++ or something equally unsuitable. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com Web: http://www.mcondic.com/ "Tarjei T. Jensen" wrote in message news:9d867n$ort13@news.kvaerner.com... > But none of these are any improvement on Ada or sufficiently different to be > of paedagogic value. Well, perhaps Delphi for a windows project to > familiarize student with windows programming. >