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: 103376,3885b7fd66a1db28 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-01-10 01:44:22 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!c03.atl99!news.webusenet.com!news02.tsnz.net!newsfeed01.tsnz.net!news.xtra.co.nz!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.syd.connect.com.au!news.bri.connect.com.au!bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au!not-for-mail From: "David Wright" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Why is Ada a good choice for an ambitious beginner to programming Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 19:45:17 +1000 Organization: University of Queensland Message-ID: References: <5ad0dd8a.0212210251.63b87aba@posting.google.com> <3e140e05.3654845@news.demon.co.uk> <3E1E353A.3EC76758@adaworks.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: d-234-93.stlucia.uq.net.au X-Trace: bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au 1042191860 27037 203.101.234.93 (10 Jan 2003 09:44:20 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@uq.edu.au NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 Jan 2003 09:44:20 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:32872 Date: 2003-01-10T09:44:20+00:00 List-Id: "Richard Riehle" wrote in message news:3E1E353A.3EC76758@adaworks.com... : "John R. Strohm" wrote: : : > MIT uses Scheme in the first-semester freshman programming course. See : > "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", by Abelson and Sussman. : : UC Cal at Berkeley was doing the same for a while. Have not checked recently : to see if they still are. : : The important idea here is that any respectable computer science program should : ensure that students understand both imperative and functional programming. : Scheme, : Haskell, ML, or some other functional language will do just fine for the : functional : language. Ada is probably a good choice for the imperative language. : : Even so, every computer science program should have a class in comparative : programming languages so students get a strong whiff of Smalltalk, Ada, LISP, : C++, Eiffel, and various other languages. : : Richard Riehle It was with enormous pleasure that I read this post. The notion of comparative language instruction was precisely my raw newbie intuition in my message here of 23rd December, 02 ; the subsequent lack of affirmation had me doubting my sanity and, even worse, my common sense! Obviously, the devil is in the detail as to timing, scope and sequence; an *in-depth* comparative analysis would clearly be futile for a complete beginner, perhaps even a 'false beginner'. However, there must be ways of usefully conveying comparative information early, before a beginner (e.g., me!) rushes in to follow the C, C++ or Java crowd and either gets turned off with frustration or hyper-committed and blinkered to any other worthwhile paradigm or language. It seems to me that even the notion of examining different programming paradigms at an "entry" or "beginner" level is anathema or at least a novel idea. For example, Richard Riehle properly distinguishes between imperative and functional languages. Yet neither the MS Computer Dictionary nor Prentice Halls Dictionary of Computing contains an entry for 'imperative'. And even after reading several introduction to programming texts, e.g. Perry, Wang, Dale, Hennefeld, I am none-the-wiser as to the precise meaning of this elementary term and must surmise that it is synonymous with 'structural' and subsumes languages such as Basic, Pascal, Ada, and C. With the self-teaching hobbyist and non-tertiary inclined in mind, would it really be such an invidious task for someone to condescend to write a "Comparative Programming Paradigms and Languages" for (Inquisitive) Dummies? <8-)) Rhetorically yours David Wright