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=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,21960280f1d61e84 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How come Ada isn't more popular? References: <5WDth.1154953$084.602591@attbi_s22> From: Markus E Leypold Organization: N/A Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:32:22 +0100 Message-ID: User-Agent: Some cool user agent (SCUG) Cancel-Lock: sha1:np/WilLwATyhXzFnuWd0Qs98id8= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii NNTP-Posting-Host: 88.72.249.33 X-Trace: news.arcor-ip.de 1169767663 88.72.249.33 (26 Jan 2007 00:27:43 +0200) X-Complaints-To: abuse@arcor-ip.de Path: g2news2.google.com!news1.google.com!news3.google.com!newsfeed2.dallas1.level3.net!news.level3.com!newsfeed-00.mathworks.com!news.tele.dk!feed118.news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!news-fra1.dfn.de!newsfeed.arcor-ip.de!news.arcor-ip.de!not-for-mail Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:8575 Date: 2007-01-26T00:32:22+01:00 List-Id: "Jeffrey R. Carter" writes: > Alexander E. Kopilovich wrote: >> The original statement (from kevin cline) was: >> >>>>> What makes a programmer >>>>> like a new language? Usually, someone comes along and says something >>>>> like "Remember that program that we spent two weeks writing in C? >>>>> Here's a Perl implementation that I put together in three hours and >>>>> one-tenth the code." That's never happened with Ada. >> The article >> http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2000/08/mccormick.html >> presents the case where use of Ada language in very specific circumstances >> was much more effective than use of C language in the same circumstances. > > The circumstances differed in this respect: The C students were given > 60% of the teacher's solution. Initially, the Ada students were given > 10% (or maybe less). So it was not really a comparable situation. One might argue that already given partial solutions demotivate and that they have dangers of its own (often draw people on a wrong path of thinking). I've actually seen people given a partial solution perfoming worse than those who had to do without. Mind you, I do not suggest that really is the reason for the differences found (I haven't even read the study yet), but I see a problem with a study where the 2 groups compared are not really starting from the same point. The only different factor should be the programming language, not the rest of the setup. Regards -- Markus