Re: [Ada] made me hate programming

["(see below)" <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk>]

On 01/07/2010 15:14, in article
4c2ca2d2$0$7666$9b4e6d93@newsspool1.arcor-online.net, "Georg Bauhaus"
<rm.dash-bauhaus@futureapps.de> wrote:
 
> Ada provides for a solution to the problem caused by the advanced
> technicalities in error messages, I think, using Ada's language profiles

In my experience there are no such problems in teaching Ada, with GNAT at
any rate. GNAT's error messages are generally of high quality at the moment,
and in my experience quite understandable to beginners.

> ... like Ravenscar, but with a focus on teaching:
> define a profile to be a language subset a la "Teach Packs" in DrScheme.
> Teach packs, IIUC, will let you use, teach, and hence understand just the
> parts of Ada that some programming subject demands.  Compilers that
> are "aware" of the profile can then stop printing what is, in effect,
> gibberish in a teaching situation.
> 
> Instead, compilers diagnose something more easily explained:
> file.ada:123: "X is not supported in This-Teach-Pack"

Why do you think this would be comprehensible to beginners, or even
desirable? It is a message about a pedagogical meta-level that has nothing
whatever to do with the problems of learning algorithmic construction
through the medium of a language.

-- 
Bill Findlay
<surname><forename> chez blueyonder.co.uk