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=-2.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,LOTS_OF_MONEY, MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,971aa11c293c3db1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-23 21:54:49 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!195.25.12.36!oleane.net!oleane!jussieu.fr!enst!enst.fr!not-for-mail From: "Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: RE: Ada The Best Language? Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 21:52:56 -0700 Organization: ENST, France Sender: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org Message-ID: Reply-To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: marvin.enst.fr Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: avanie.enst.fr 995950487 68856 137.194.161.2 (24 Jul 2001 04:54:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@enst.fr NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 04:54:47 +0000 (UTC) To: Return-Path: X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <9jha3n$pbe$1@nh.pace.co.uk> Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.4 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: comp.lang.ada mail<->news gateway List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10494 Date: 2001-07-23T21:52:56-07:00 From: Bob Leif To: Marin David Condic et al. Although I like the results of Professor McCormick's experiment, they are clearly insufficient for making billion dollar and national security decisions. One major problem is that, it is virtually impossible to do a double blind experiment where neither the instructor nor the student knew the name of the programming language that was being taught. The concept of a placebo is also totally inappropriate for this type of study. I suspect that the only way to compensate for the lack of these two basic tools is to increase the study size and expense. If we had parallel classes for the languages and selected the students at random for each language, meaningful results could be obtained. In the case of the other languages, we would have to find faculty members who really believed in the other languages and had a level of enthusiasm equal to Professors McCormick, Feldman, Dewar, etc. One way to obtain funding for this type of study is to include gender as a variable. If we can prove that the C class of languages are sexist, we have got it made. I would not be surprised if this were true. -----Original Message----- From: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org [mailto:comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org]On Behalf Of Marin David Condic Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 6:51 AM To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org Subject: Re: Ada The Best Language? One more time with the links because they are *really* worth reading as possibly the *only* "controlled" experiment in software productivity. (Maybe there are others, but this is the only one I know of where we are taling about doing the *same* project more than once with a multitude of developers each taking a stab at it so that it has some statistical significance and the only variable being language.) http://www2.dynamite.com.au/aebrain/ADACASE.HTM http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2000/aug/mccormick.asp MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com Web: http://www.mcondic.com/ "Mark Lundquist" wrote in message news:hhh67.385587$p33.7760908@news1.sttls1.wa.home.com... > > "Larry Hazel" wrote in message > news:3B5655F0.3442DBF1@mindspring.com... > > > Is Dr. McCormic the professor with the software controlling model trains? > If > > so, I believe his data showed an enormous productivity increase over C > (C++ > > ????). > > Yes -- he's the train guy! > -- mark > > >