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: 103376,1e3f2eac5c026e3 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-12-22 10:36:46 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.mathworks.com!wn11feed!worldnet.att.net!207.35.177.252!nf3.bellglobal.com!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Other Ada Standards (was Re: SIGada Conference) References: <468D78E4EE5C6A4093A4C00F29DF513D04B82B08@VS2.hdi.tvcabo> <657ea3e3.0312172255.4869eae5@posting.google.com> <0cOdndZsZbH6W3yiRVn-gg@comcast.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 13:22:15 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.96.223.163 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1072117291 198.96.223.163 (Mon, 22 Dec 2003 13:21:31 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 13:21:31 EST Organization: Bell Sympatico Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3707 Date: 2003-12-22T13:22:15-05:00 List-Id: Nick Roberts wrote: > Russ wrote: >> ... As I said in an earlier thread, I consider myself like a real estate >> agent who tells a seller to clear the junk out of the front yard. No, >> that's not as important as fixing the plumbing and electrical, but it is >> by far the most cost-effective job the seller can do. If you want to >> sell Ada, I think you would help your cause to take this "superficial" >> and "cosmetic" issue seriously. > > Hehe. I often feel that when introducing Ada to someone by presenting them > with a minimal Ada program, e.g.: > > procedure Hello is > Put_Line("Hello World!"); > end; > > it somewhat spoils the effect by adding "Oh, and then we have to put 'with > Ada.Text_IO;' in front of that. And then we have to put 'use Ada.Text_IO;' > as well. But Ada is /really/ simple. Honest." I would suggest that if a new student does not have the stomach for the necessary with and use clauses, then they won't last on the the longer haul anyway. It is best to find this out, up front ;-) You already know that Ada was not designed for use in 3 line programs, but I don't think pandering to students in this way is the best approach. -- Warren W. Gay VE3WWG http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg