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: 103376,442a61fa28886220 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-09-18 10:31:51 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: igouy@yahoo.com (Isaac Gouy) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada for a programming newb. Date: 18 Sep 2003 10:31:46 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.65.174.97 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1063906309 14451 127.0.0.1 (18 Sep 2003 17:31:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 18 Sep 2003 17:31:49 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:42661 Date: 2003-09-18T17:31:49+00:00 List-Id: Kyle Root wrote > I was wondering if Ada would be suitable for me. Ada has many excellent qualities. IMHO a smaller language is a better tool for learning about programming. Let me suggest Oberon-2. It's a small precise language - you'll be able to learn the keywords and operators quickly and the compiler will tell you exactly where you made a mistake in the program. You'll find it readable. You'll be able to learn about procedural programming and object-oriented programming. After you've mastered Oberon-2, you'll have a sound base for appreciating the additional things that Ada provides. You can download an excellent non-commercial compiler here: http://www.excelsior-usa.com/xdsx86.html Neither Ada nor Oberon-2 will help you to learn about functional programming. I don't have any personal experience with Scheme but there are several excellent online text books and the Dr Scheme is reputed to be excellent. At some point I'd recommend you take a look at Clean or Haskell to broaden you're ideas about what a programming language can be like. > There doesn't seem to be as much documentation Always try to find language books through the local library - often they can get them through inter-library loans from other libraries. best wishes, Isaac