Re: Eiffel anyone? - Who uses it?

[mheaney@ni.net (Matthew Heaney)]

In article <33C61545.167EB0E7@tower.com>, "ivory@tower.com"
<ivory@tower.com> wrote:

>My friend's son is looking at colleges, and was startled to see
>that RIT appears to have a heavy focus on the language Eiffel for
>the first 2-3 years.  He's using this as a black mark against the
>school.  The thinking is that he'd rather be learning a 'real'
>language that has real-life value on the job market.
>
>He's asked me for my opinion, and I'd have to say that I somewhat
>agree.  I've never met an Eiffel programer, and don't see a lot of
>ads for them in the classifieds.  Note: I'm not debating whether or
>not Eiffel is a good language; that's not the concern.  The concern
>is whether or not the job market will see this as having been time
>well spent.
>
>So, what's the (reality based) counter argument?

Your friend's son doesn't know what he is talking about.

I, a proud Ada programmer, fully endorse teaching Eiffel as a first
language as A Good Thing.

For a cogent discussion of this issue, read Teaching the Method, chapter 29
of Object-Oriented Software Construction (2nd ed), by Bertrand Meyer.

The argument that the Eiffel has no "real-life value on the job market" is
completely specious.  You go to college to LEARN HOW TO THINK, not to learn
programming language syntax.  If you want that, why now just save all your
money and go to a trade school?  Or just pick up a programming book at the
corner bookstore?  Hey, Learn C in 14 Days!

If it were that simple, everybody would be doing it.

Try to convince this person to read Meyer's book.  Guys that just want to
learn a "real" programming language, or would rather spend their time
programming instead of engineering, shouldn't be programming at all.

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Matthew Heaney
Software Development Consultant
<mailto:matthew_heaney@acm.org>
(818) 985-1271