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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM,
	REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 103376,3885b7fd66a1db28
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-01-02 05:49:22 PST
Path: 
 archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.mathworks.com!cyclone.swbell.net!bos-service1.ext.raytheon.com!bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Wes Groleau <wesgroleau@despammed.com>
Reply-To: wesgroleau@despammed.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US;
 rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826
X-Accept-Language: en,es-MX,es,pt,fr-CA,fr
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Why is Ada NOT a good choice for a beginner to programming?
References: <au0nld$b0$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au>
 <mailman.1040449452.29831.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>
 <15FN9.2313$c6.2612@bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com>
 <mailman.1040664961.4038.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>
 <au7kqt$uum$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au>
 <mailman.1040671026.6867.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>
 <wccd6nsjuzu.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com>
 <d7ch0vsi7ek3n1occ3l6ulve15j1qmatj6@4ax.com>
 <wccfzso9rbb.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <BrXQ9.2323$c6.2543@bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 08:47:48 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 151.168.133.155
X-Complaints-To: news@ext.ray.com
X-Trace: bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com 1041515361 151.168.133.155 (Thu,
 02 Jan 2003 08:49:21 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 08:49:21 EST
Organization: Raytheon Company
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:32445
Date: 2003-01-02T08:47:48-05:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


>>Remember what Dijkstra said:
>>"It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to
>>students that have had prior exposure to BASIC; as potential
>>programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."
>>( Professor Edsger Dijkstra )
> 
> I don't much like Dijkstra's style.  I mean, if you're trying to
> convince someone who only knows BASIC that there are better languages,
> the above hyperbole would just annoy the person.  If usenet had existed,
> it would start a silly flame war.  (Didn't Dijkstra's also say teaching
> BASIC should require a prison sentence?  Or was that some other

Dijkstra was also the guy who condemned various features of
Ada--features that have since been shown to be very valuable.
And finished his comments by accusing the designers of
incompetence and dishonesty.