Re: Considering taking an ADA course at uni

[Mark Lorenzen <mark.lorenzen@ofir.dk>]

wojtek@power.com.pl (Wojtek Narczynski) writes:

> "Zork" <Zork@z.com> wrote in message news:<57e2fa45142078b5f24fed4f75996ae0@news.teranews.com>...
> 
> > Would anyone recommend this ada course?
> 
> Yes, most people, if not all, on this list.
> 
> > Will it help me become a better programmer?
> 
> With all its strong typing and subtyping, modularization, etc., it
> definitely will. Better programmer, or maybe even a better sotware
> engineer! And even if you conclude that Ada sucks, it is good to know
> your then enemy.
> 
> But I'd also recommend learining some basics of each of these:
> - SML or O'Caml (type unions, higher order functions),
> - Haskell (type classes),
> - aldor (first class types),
> - Eiffel (design by contract),
> - VDM / Z / TLA+ (specification languages),
> - LISP (syntax turns out to be of little relevance),
> - prolog (what are your _goals_?),
> - Ruby (need to do some very quick'n'dirty script).
> 
> Regards,
> Wojtek

I am very happy to see SML, VDM, Z and TLA+ on your list. I would of
course like to add RSL and CSP also.

I don't know if anyone is actually using formal methods for real
(Praxis?), but as software engineers we must stand our ground and
fight for the engineering part in "software engineering".

Regards,
- Mark Lorenzen