Re: Ada for a programming newb.

[igouy@yahoo.com (Isaac Gouy)]

My suggestion was Oberon-2 not Pascal, there is a difference ;-)


"Luke A. Guest" <laguest@abyss2-nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<pan.2003.09.18.19.33.45.156109@abyss2-nospam.demon.co.uk>...
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:31:46 -0700, Isaac Gouy wrote:
> 
> > Kyle Root <kappy044@myrealbox.com> 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.
> 
> I disagree. A lot of people have learnt Pascal first, I think that is a
> mistake because you get to a point where you are limited by the language.
> Ada will give the beginner 1) an excellent introduction to developing
> functional code that is easy to read/write and is just nice & 2) will also
> provide a language that will not piss you off because it won't do what you
> want.
> I learned Basic/C/m68k Assembly/C++/Pascal/Ada9X and have dabbled in other
> languages since. I didn't like Pascal too much, but Ada is much nicer; so
> many features that help rather than hinder.
> 
> > 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.
> 
> Forget about about functional/logic programming languages, it's generally
> really strange people who *get* these. They're too odd - i.e.
> mathematical/formal, which isn't as natural as "normal" programming
> languages.
>  
> >> 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.
> 
> I have Jan Skansholm's book on Ada9X, there is the reference manual online
> (www.adapower.com ??)
> 
> Luke.