Re: Why is Ada NOT a good choice for a beginner to programming?

["Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" <aek@vib.usr.pu.ru>]

"David Wright" <davidw@uq.net.au> wrote:
>As a young adult investigating learning programming as a hobby
>(self-teaching on PC, Windows 98), IО©╫ve been lurking for a while and have
>looked at some relevant Ada sites. My purpose is to gradually and thoroughly
>learn  computing constructs and ultimately to apply same and see how far I
>can take this interest.
Well, if your aim is indeed "to gradually and thoroughly learn  computing
constructs and ultimately to apply same" then you have very little choice:
you may choose either Ada 95 or SML. All other more or less popular languages
will significately deviate you from the aim.

> I'm not making a career of it... well not yet anyway.
That's good, because neither Ada nor SML are best boosters for a programmer's
career.

>there are three essential threshold requirements, namely:
>
>1) A free (preferably) downloadable programming environment that is installs
>without fuss and instability
For Ada 95 here is GNAT compiler, which fully satisfies this requirement.

>2) Good online and hardcopy support (tutorials and textbooks) for a BEGINNER
>PROGRAMMER per se, not just beginners with that LANGUAGE
For Ada 95 - no problem with that... although, as a beginner programmer you
should chose a proper textbook among available ones. Perhaps it should be
Michael Feldman's "Ada 95: Problem Solving and Program Design" (3rd edition).

>3) An online community that has a tradition of supporting such beginners to
>programming.
Well, in my personal opinion, Ada 95 is far best of all known programming
languages in this respect.

>BASIC and PASCAL very!! clearly fulfill these criteria and I am tempted to
>start with one of them.
Well, you may have a good start with them, but probably your whole way will
not be too long with such a choice -;)

>Specific Questions:
>1) Am I not giving Ada sufficient credit for being a suitable entry-level
>language for a BEGINNING PROGRAMMER?
Ada assumes that you understand your task *before* programming. For example,
if you decide to solve mathematical equation using Ada, you must know appropriate
mathematical theory beforehand. That is the main restriction imposed by Ada
- Ada do not encourage playing at the program level. So, you may be beginner
as *programmer*, but you should not be beginner in the problem area.

>2) Would you recommend that I immerse myself in either BASIC (QBasic) or
>PASCAL (Borland TP7) for a couple of years (yes, OK... forget BASIC ;D) and
>THEN springboard to Ada?
My answer is definitely NO.

>3) If you were to opt for Ada as an entry point, which particular dialect or
>environment would be the most user friendly from a set up and
>О©╫learning-the-fundamentalsО©╫ point of view.
There are no Ada dialects, all Ada implementations strive to follow the standard.
As for environments, I think you have little choice because you need free
compiler - and there are no (I think) free non-restricted compilers except
GNAT (Aonix has free version, but it is restricted in several respects...
although that may be not significant for a beginner). You may also look at
Janus/Ada (I think it isn't free, but inexpensive).


Alexander Kopilovitch                      aek@vib.usr.pu.ru
Saint-Petersburg
Russia