Re: Why is Ada a good choice for an ambitious beginner to programming

["David Wright" <davidw@uq.net.au>]

"Bill Findlay" <yaldnifw@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in
message news:BA3D31C9.1840%yaldnifw@blueyonder.co.uk...
: On 4/1/03 22:55, in article
av7olt$gh9$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au, "David Wright"
: <davidw@uq.net.au> wrote:
:
: >
: > "Bill Findlay" <yaldnifw@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in
message
: > news:BA3A5BF1.177F%yaldnifw@blueyonder.co.uk...:
: >
: > : It was interesting to stand in the lab and watch
CS (Ada) and EE (Pascal)
: > : beginners working side by side. One day, about
week 6 of term, the CS
: > : students (using GNAT and AdaGraph) had nearly all
successfully written a
: > : program that animated balls bouncing around in a
box. The EE students (using
: > : Turbo) were nearly all grappling unsuccessfully
with a trivial text-oriented
: > : read-process-output loop.
: >
: > Hi Bill,
: >
: > You've convinced me; but the CS students (using
GNAT
: > and AdaGraph) were enrolled in a formal course ...
:
: So were the EE students.
: In fact, they were enrolled in a programming module
taught by CS.
: (I was not teaching either group BTW).
:
: But I don't want to make too much of this.
: Certainly there were other significant differences
between the groups that
: accounted for much of the disparity, but I'm quite
sure the EE group would
: have made better progress with the easier language
(i.e. Ada).
: That's the irony.
:
: > How can the self-learner find such interesting
: > graphical programming projects in Ada?
:
: Well there is nothing Ada-specific about them.
: The same exercise could have been done in Pascal.
:
: > NB!! Is there a particular text that you would
: > recommend for this particular ball/box exercise and
: > similarly engaging graphical forays?
:
: I'm not a graphics expert, so I would just look to a
basic computer graphics
: text as a source of ideas. Others may be offer a more
concrete suggestion.
: Why not look at LOGO and LogoMotion(?) to see what's
done there & try to
: reproduce it?


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** LogoMATion! You're thinking of the 70's dance hit
LocoMOTion! 8-) **

Do look at the site when you're not in so much of a
hurry. I
guarantee you'll be impressed by its potential (if not
by the clunky site design).

Yes, good idea about reproduction in Ada. Discovery
learning.

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:
: > Incidentally, graphics programming is immediately
: > engaging for a beginner for obvious reasons.
:
: So is audio (especially music) processing, although
the APIs are not well
: supported in beginner-friendly software.
:
: > This is not a plug for LM and I would like to stay
with
: > Pascal or Ada if I can get to grips with some
exercises
: > that inject some colour and fun into the process of
: > learning (e.g., the ball/box graphics exercises).
:
: If you are using GNAT on a Wintel system, all you
need to get going is the
: AdaGIDE IDE and the AdaGraph library package (and
some neat ideas 8-).



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I've downloaded the Aonix Object Ada IDE, which seems
very cool on first impression. I haven't looked at its
graphics potential yet, but I imagine I can do some
interesting graphical things with this software. It
has, among its online helpfile texts, a complete
version of the famous "Ada 95 Problem Solving and
Program Design" M. B. Feldman and E. B. Koffman. So
there is much to be getting on with.

I think that the difficulty is being paralysed by too
many options. When you're self-learning, especially
when it's a hobby, there's no compulsion or even
pressure to adopt any particular programming language
and, because each language camp claims to be 'better
than...', it's relatively easy (for me, at least) to be
seduced away from a prior commitment. It's like being
stuck in dating mode when one's peers have mortgages
and 2 kids. That's why it's important to get some
feedback early on (producing cool, fun things) that one
has made a good choice and that's the language chosen
is worth persisting with.

For example, a very recent newbie post in
comp.programming, asking about which language to start
with, received a reply suggesting Common Lisp! How
ridiculous! A beginning programmer and Lisp! Where are
the *beginner* resources for such a language. Of
course, it's possible - anything is, but I think
experienced programmers forget what a *newcomer* needs
to stay motivated. Sure, Lisp as a second programming
language, but for heavens sake!

I'm risking straying far from the issue so I'll
terminate here.

Bill, thanks again. I really appreciate the lack of
hype in your messages. It kind of adds to your
credibility, if you know what I mean.

David
Down with one-eyed language evangelists and other
misleading sprookers

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