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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,f96ca9a3c3a350c8 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-05-23 08:15:51 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: tatebll@aol.com (Bill Tate) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Grabbing Mindshare in the Student Population for Ada Date: 23 May 2002 08:15:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: References: <3CE92722.BB45D087@baesystems.com> <3CEB102E.75D7D32@adaworks.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 152.163.194.208 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1022166951 6196 127.0.0.1 (23 May 2002 15:15:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 23 May 2002 15:15:51 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:24581 Date: 2002-05-23T15:15:51+00:00 List-Id: Richard Riehle wrote in message news:<3CEB102E.75D7D32@adaworks.com>... [snip] > After that class, students began to tell other students > about how much fun Ada was. We are ever so > gradually making progress at increasing mind-share, > as the caption put it. > .... > My class is called, Ada As A Second Language, so the > students have almost all suffered through the horrors > of C++ by the time they get to me. The sign on my > office door says, "C++ Is Its Own Virus" and few > of my students disagree with that sentiment. > ... > At lunch today, with a group of Marines from one of my other > classes, and one Marine visitor, the visitor mentioned how > some project was being converted from Ada to Java. I said, > "That's a pretty stupid decision." He asked, "What would be > better?" I replied, "Ada 95." He said that everything he had > heard about Ada was pretty negative. This is an indication > that there is still a lot of ignorance out there in the decision > loop. > The posts above make a number of good suggestions but I would strongly advise backing up even earlier. I would point to the objectives of the Python community's CPE (Computer programming for everyone) initiative. It seeks to get people exposed to computer programming well before they reach college. If Ada is going to achieve "greater" mindshare (for all the right reasons), it would seem to me that you have to deal with the difficult problem of overcoming some really bad software development habits learned by programmers very early on, e.g., pre-college. Ada strongly encourages greater discipline in the "engineering" of software; not the kind of attitude typically exhibited by those of the "hacker" and "design-by-keyboard" persuasion (to my great disappointment - I include no small number of CS graduates in this crowd). Mix that with a seemingly endless supply of individuals who believe themselves to possess "god-like" abilities when it comes to their software development prowess and everything points to the need for early intervention. Of course, there is the "cold turkey" approach of throwing 100K SLOC of C++ code in front of potential adopters and telling them to "maintain it." :>)