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From: cjames@envisionet.net
Subject: Re: No top schools use Ada
Date: 1995/04/18
Message-ID: <NEWTNews.2736.798272420.cjames@cec-services-01>#1/1
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references: <D79HGD.Bo0@nntpa.cb.att.com>
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Date: 1995-04-18T00:00:00+00:00
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In article <D79HGD.Bo0@nntpa.cb.att.com>, <ka@socrates.hr.att.com> writes:
> Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
> Path: 
nsgate.envisionet.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.c
om!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!gw2.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail
> From: ka@socrates.hr.att.com (Kenneth Almquist)
> Subject: Re: No top schools use Ada
> Message-ID: <D79HGD.Bo0@nntpa.cb.att.com>
> Sender: news@nntpa.cb.att.com (Netnews Administration)
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> Organization: AT&T
> References: <3mq0jd$r10@kaiwan009.kaiwan.com>
> Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 02:55:25 GMT
> Lines: 16
> 
> jmartin@kaiwan009.kaiwan.com (Jay M Martin) writes:
> > Lets look at which languages the top CS department use for their first
> > class:
> 
> According to the full list (summarized by Richard Pattis in comp.edu),
> the most widely used language for CS1 is Pascal (36%).  Ada is in second
> place with 17.5%, C is fifth with 8.6%, and C++ is sixth with 6.5%.  The
> fact that none of the nine schools listed by Jay Martin use Ada for their
> first class is not statisticly significant.
> 
> The use of C, however, is statisticly significant (P <= 0.05, barely).
> If one wants to try to read anything into this preference for C, it is
> important to keep in mind that the CS departments listed by Jay Martin are
> the ones with top ranked *graduate* programs.  Graduate program rankings
> mainly reflect the quality of the research done at the department.
> 				Kenneth Almquist
> 

Any discussion of statistical significance here is meaningless without stating the 
number of subjects of interest, ie, the Sample Size.