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=1.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Coyo T Stormcaller Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Ah, Usenet. How I Missed You. Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2016 20:47:01 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: Reply-To: coyo@darkdna.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit Injection-Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2016 01:46:18 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="c06af2c6f3056f381b15db0024074a3b"; logging-data="11451"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1843hAQBqsO0dUdIx/nlVpp2ilNYvm5VNc=" User-Agent: KNode/4.14.10 Cancel-Lock: sha1:qmHIavk5JE+22bExABZyHpEHaHY= Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:32190 Date: 2016-10-28T20:47:01-05:00 List-Id: Good evening, comp.lang.ada. I was chatting about Pascal on IRC one day when someone suggested I explore Ada. Now I am reading Wikipedia's Ada Programming tutorial, and it mentioned this Usenet newsgroup as the primary means of discourse, should I ever feel the need. Since I'm no genius hacker, by any stretch of the imagination, I figured I may as well introduce myself. I will need help while learning to become proficient at Ada programming. According to the Wikipedia article on Ada, the language was designed specifically for military and critical infrastructure purposes, and finds usefulness in aerospace and nuclear applications. Sounds perfect to me. I also read that Ada has builtin support for certain debugging and unit testing functions that would need external toolchains in other languages. I'm not sure how that works, as I have not gotten to that, yet. Either way, so far Ada has both the "retro" cool factor of some of the oldest programming languages, as well as the "underrated" cool factor, of a language that has significant advantages in its intended uses. Yes, I am pretty young. I was not alive to physically witness the "programming" of punch card machines such as the one at IBM. However, among my friends are some that have been there, and done that. While I am young, I look forward to reading the old Usenet archives of this newsgroup, and listening to any guidance or advice you may have to give. I ask that you have a little patience with this young pup, since I was not there to see the fascinating history of computing unfold, as many of you, I'm sure, have. Thank you in advance for your time and patience.