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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "J-P. Rosen" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Online conceptual/tutorial material for Ada, was: Re: specification file ads problem Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 15:40:56 +0200 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <831a97d3-fa0b-49d9-980b-46e7eb12c1ee@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 13:40:59 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx05.eternal-september.org; posting-host="23dab0694e4174fdc880833ec67fa650"; logging-data="22854"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19R+QdxvT5bO269xNfg9/7Q" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.6.0 In-Reply-To: Cancel-Lock: sha1:TYvDv00oJU6qxfXI6cmT0QqAmZU= Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:22146 Date: 2014-10-06T15:40:56+02:00 List-Id: 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 2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00 http://www.adalog.fr