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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 103376,8eff44ec1bcf8433
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-23 13:51:06 PST
Path: 
 archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.huji.ac.il!not-for-mail
From: "Ehud Lamm" <mslamm@mscc.huji.ac.il>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Container reqs
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 22:46:32 +0200
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Message-ID: <9r4l60$la$1@news.huji.ac.il>
References: <9qctpn$lil$1@news.huji.ac.il> <3BCA86C7.BB252751@acm.org>
 <%jYy7.31350$ev2.37672@www.newsranger.com> <3BCD7C50.647ADBD0@brighton.ac.uk>
 <9qk44b$utk$1@news.huji.ac.il> <3BD527A8.93C1F68B@brighton.ac.uk>
 <9r3umu$hvo$1@news.huji.ac.il> <uu1wqf7d8.fsf@gsfc.nasa.gov>
NNTP-Posting-Host: di4-51.dialin.huji.ac.il
X-Trace: news.huji.ac.il 1003870209 682 132.64.14.51 (23 Oct 2001 20:50:09
 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@news.huji.ac.il
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 20:50:09 +0000 (UTC)
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:15101
Date: 2001-10-23T22:46:32+02:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Stephen Leake <stephen.a.leake.1@gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote in message
news:uu1wqf7d8.fsf@gsfc.nasa.gov...
> I think we can all agree that a library intended to be used as a
> teaching example might be simpler than a library intended to be used
> in general.
>


Well, yes and no.
If you look at the current situation, people are saying to themselves (and
some say it out loud), that by using Java, you can teach students how to use
libraries and APIs. APIs even appear as a standard subject in the draft ACM
CS syllabus.

Notice that all this started from thinkin about a STANDARD container library
for Ada. IHaving such a thing will in turn help produce common examples,
text books etc.
This is much better than each teacher building his own set of tools, and
having several Ada text books teaching you how to solve problems you'd most
probably use a standard  library for in Java or C++.

So, yes - if build only for education a libraty can be made very much
simpler, and no - a well desgined  standard library would be one of my
criteria for choosing a language with which to teach design. (Notice that
this is obviously not the only factor, and more important that I am NOT
talking about choosing a first programming language. This is a totally
different issue of course, and one we shouldn't debate in this thread..)

Ehud