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-Thread: 103376,751d508677a5add1 X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "(see below)" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: [Ada] made me hate programming Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:11:44 +0100 Message-ID: References: <8f469661-370c-4484-82d8-f1b365455e0f@w12g2000yqj.googlegroups.com> <98aa58b3-50fc-418d-9f72-524b5a23c89d@t10g2000yqg.googlegroups.com> <4c2bd5e5$0$2366$4d3efbfe@news.sover.net> <4c2ca2d2$0$7666$9b4e6d93@newsspool1.arcor-online.net> <4c2cb60f$0$7651$9b4e6d93@newsspool1.arcor-online.net> <4c2d0fec$0$6877$9b4e6d93@newsspool2.arcor-online.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net auQJvmEAw0WaN1n0P7OqXQha+WjQZN66lzQetJEZNQPbkoUyMT Cancel-Lock: sha1:Wd5gxn2qYINBaD4nfHxgShmLsT4= User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/12.23.0.091001 Thread-Topic: [Ada] made me hate programming Thread-Index: AcsZamOx5jRPl+JH6EaagtpukTPhCg== Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:12113 Date: 2010-07-01T23:11:44+01:00 List-Id: On 01/07/2010 23:00, in article 4c2d0fec$0$6877$9b4e6d93@newsspool2.arcor-online.net, "Georg Bauhaus" wrote: > On 7/1/10 8:54 PM, (see below) wrote: > >>> language profile that disallows overloading. >> >> So you lose Ada.Text_IO and all the arithmetic operators? > > > I'd be using a different library. What about +_*/ ? > One use case is when output should > be as simple as possible. I learned that working with just > digits seems to be a good way to get started with programming > in Ada. [...] I think this is all totally unnecessary. > Is it possibly good instructions that have made it unlikely > for students to stumble into advanced features? > > Does good teaching require a good understanding > - of the independent features of Ada > - of the independence of features of Ada > - of how to combine them and when? In other words: a good knowledge of Ada, and a good understanding of effective teaching methods? Of course. How could you think that that might not be the case? > An then, when a teacher has different assorted backgrounds, picking > up the language of the day because that seems required, has he/she > got a chance to see all this clearly? And to form instructions > accordingly? You'd have to ask them. > Mentioning Ada and teaching 16 year olds has quite reliably provoked > laughter among teachers others and I have met. I can't imagine that > this laughter is caused by knowledge of how the language can be used > in teaching. What about compiler messages then, if these teachers start > teaching Ada from their own perspective, which may seem plausible to > them, but not to experienced Ada teachers? The design of Ada can hardly be held responsible for subjecting students to incompetent or untrained teachers. -- Bill Findlay chez blueyonder.co.uk