Re: Object Pascal vs Ada -- which is better for a hobbyist?

[Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP>]

On 2013-08-27, Yannick Duchêne <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> wrote:
> Le Sat, 06 Jul 2013 09:04:12 +0200, Dufr <dufriz@gmail.com> a écrit:
>
>> The reasons you guys gave in favor of Ada are all pretty solid, no  
>> doubt. And yet, I am not fully convinced yet, because:
>>
>> a hobbiyst learner needs a lot of support, and from what I have seen  
>> Object Pascal (in the form of Free Pascal) has a much larger community  
>> of enthusiasts than Ada, with a very active forum.
>
> Free Pascal, whose semantic depends on compile time option? Not sure it's  
> a good bet? (not to mention the documentation which is not always in sync  
> with what the compiler really do).
>

The problem is that the good support is more important to some learners
than a technically better language.

I've had a look at the Free Pascal support channels in the past and they
appear to be very friendly (for the most part) and understanding of what
a person wants to achieve.

Here in comp.lang.ada, people tend to be rather standoffish and can come
out with suggestions (for example, embedded hardware platforms) that are
completely out of touch with what hobbyists are wanting to do.

Such attitudes, which seem to be rather common here, can be _very_
off-putting to people who have decided they want to learn a Wirth type
language as part of a hobby but are not sure which one to choose.

In some ways, the Ada community around here can be it's own worse enemy
at times.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world