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: 103376,5258d7a814a6504f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-31 08:06:38 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: rod.chapman@praxis-cs.co.uk (Rod Chapman) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Which language for aerospace engineering freshman? Date: 31 May 2003 08:06:37 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: References: <474f5457.0305310249.6163e00@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.152.53.239 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1054393598 17572 127.0.0.1 (31 May 2003 15:06:38 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 May 2003 15:06:38 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:38218 Date: 2003-05-31T15:06:38+00:00 List-Id: spinningspider@3233.com (Sinning Spider) wrote in message news:<474f5457.0305310249.6163e00@posting.google.com>... > Which language should an aerospace engineering freshman entering > Purdue this Fall 2003 learn now? Ada, C or Java? Very difficult to answer! What languages get taught in CS101 seems to be in a constant state of flux and the subject of near-religious debate in CS education. I'd recommend you keep an open mind and learn as much as you can about as many languages as you can, particularly focussing on the strengths and weaknesses of each language with respect to particular application domains. In recruiting CS graduates here at Praxis, I'd be looking for appreciation of the following application domains, with some fluency in two or three: Dynamic OO: Java, Smalltalk? Design-by-Contract: SPARK or Eiffel Domain specific: MATLAB (seems to be almost ubitquitous now in engineering) Pure functional: Scheme or Haskell maybe? Safety Critical: SPARK Ada, MISRA C Real-Time: Ada95 Ravenscar profile. Historical: ALGOL68, Pascal, Modula-[123], C etc. etc. But that's for CS grads...For an aero-eng grad, I probably wouldn't expect them to know about the functional and historical domains. Don't wory of that seems alot - you've got 4 years, right?!? Oh - For techies, I'd also look for at least some knowledge of at least one modern assembler - many avionics programmes are going to PowerPC for instance - and knowing your low-level stuff can never hurt. (I'm slightly worried that many university CS programmes don't seem to teach low-level architecture and assembler any more at all...) I will now take cover under my desk... :-) - Rod