Re: Dr Dobbs dismisses Ada

["REH" <bogus@nowhere.net>]

"cdm" <charlie.mccutcheon@hp.com> wrote in message
news:428DE693.F142BD35@hp.com...
> > Just last week each and every computing student was sent an email with
> > an invitation to a meeting regarding a change from ada to java.  The
> > proposal is to use java as our first language in 1st and 2nd year
> > courses instead of ada.
>
> While I love Ada a programming language, I'd be mad if I specialized in
> something at school and found very few jobs available for me when I
> graduated.
>
> The out of work programmers I know say you need very specific marketable
> skills to get a job nowadays.
>
> Sigh...
>
>

I may be a minority here, but I've never been asked what languages I knew in
an interview.  I've been using Ada in an embedded environment for several
years now, but I hardly knew a lick of it when I started.  I remember being
introduced to it briefly in an undergraduate course (an intro. to algorithms
course, I think) and just as one example how different languages implement
ADTs.

I don't know what types of jobs your friends say they've applied for or what
"specific marketable skills" they think you need.  I only know that when my
company is looking for new hires, they look for people with well-rounded
educations and an aptitude and willingness to learn.  We only look for some
one with a specific skill set on the rare occation that the skill is very
specific and the job must be done yesterday and there is not someone inhouse
that is available with those skills.  Other than that, my company is not
interested in some one whose skills set is narrowly defined.

REH