Re: Online conceptual/tutorial material for Ada, was: Re: specification file ads problem

["J-P. Rosen" <rosen@adalog.fr>]

Le 06/10/2014 15:07, Peter Chapin a écrit :
> On 2014-10-06 08:13, G.B. wrote:
> 
>> Would there possibly be some way of introducing Ada's user defined
>> scalar types earlier?  This would give credit to McCormick's most
>> prominent finding, namely that use of Ada's user defined scalars
>> is a real, non-marketing boost in productivity. In particular, this
>> feature of the Ada language has been found to boost newcomers' results.
> 
> Yes, I'm sure it could be done... just have to reflect a little on the
> best way to present it. I think some students, at least the ones I've
> had, find detailed discussion of types up front rather dry. Of course it
> wouldn't be necessary to talk about every detail and nuance to get the
> important ideas across. In fact, the point of my little tutorial is to
> try and present the core ideas in as minimalistic a way as possible so
> cutting out details is in keeping with that philosophy.
> 

Just a note from a long-long-time teacher:

1) People remember what they see first
2) People reproduce what they remember
3) Disclaimers are not remembered

Therefore, starting with Integer, even with a disclaimer that it's just
for the purpose of small examples, will completely weaken the message
that proper types should be defined.

My advice (and what I do in my own courses):
Introduce very early simple (and easy to understand) types like:
   type Age is range 0..125;
   type Floor is range -5 .. 15;
   type Color is (Black, Red, Green, Blue, White);

and use only these in all examples.

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
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