Re: newbie, Spark 2014 or Ada 2012

[nomadfate@gmail.com]

On Sunday, July 5, 2015 at 3:30:27 PM UTC-10, Paul Rubin wrote:
> nomadlite@gmail.com writes:
> > I am new to Ada.
> > I am choosing my hobby programming language for system programming.  I
> > am doing programming for a hobby. It is going to be Java, python, VB
> > .Net or Ada/Spark.
> 
> Ada is the only one of those suitable for what I usually think of as
> system programming, i.e. close to machine level.  The others are for
> application programming, which is further away from the hardware and
> which are able to automate more of the program's requirements
> (particularly memory management).  That makes them easier to use, at the
> cost of some efficiency and timing determinism.
> 
> Are you new to programming in general?  The first thing I'd want to ask
> is if there are specific types of programs you'd like to write: OS
> kernels, robot control, web servers, or what?
> 
> If you don't have a clear direction yet, I'd say that Ada probably isn't
> the best place to start.  Python doesn't have Ada's high-reliability
> features or its performance, but it's easier to learn and more
> productive for slapping small, non-critical projects together.  Ada is
> for when you need large scale organization and deeper control and
> assurance about what the code is doing.  Those benefits are sometimes
> invaluable, but they don't come for free.  Think of the difference
> between hopping on your bike and riding somewhere (Python) and flying a
> jetliner there, complete with mechanical preparation and preflight
> checklists (Ada).
> 
> > If I learn Ada 2012 then learn Spark 2014, is it often to confused
> > Spark 2014 code with Ada 2012 code when you do programming? 
> 
> No I don't think so.  Spark is basically a subset of Ada with some extra
> annotations to write high-level specifications into your program, and
> then some tools for making sure the program actually matches the spec.
> This can get pretty complicated to use, but it's basically the gold
> standard for high-assurance real time programming.  You probably want to
> know some mathematical logic if you want to use Spark in a sophisticated
> way.  
> 
> If you like the mathematical-logic approach to programming, you might
> also like to try out Haskell.  It's much further "out there" than the
> other languages you've mentioned but brings a cleaner mathematical
> approach.  See:  http://haskell.org for some resources.


Thank you for your reply.
I am not new to programming. I went to basic programming classes when I was in school. I am more interested in micro-controller and electronic stuff.  I have 2 years Electronic A.S. degree. I don't like math so Haskell is not for me. I guess my language choice is going to be Ada, C, or assembly for now. Java have Java ME for embedded systems and Python have Raspberry Pi system so Python and Java are still on my watch list.