Re: Ada for a programming newb.

["Luke A. Guest" <laguest@abyss2-nospam.demon.co.uk>]

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:31:46 -0700, Isaac Gouy wrote:

> Kyle Root <kappy044@myrealbox.com> wrote
>> I was wondering if Ada would be suitable for me. 
> 
> Ada has many excellent qualities.
> IMHO a smaller language is a better tool for learning about
> programming.

I disagree. A lot of people have learnt Pascal first, I think that is a
mistake because you get to a point where you are limited by the language.
Ada will give the beginner 1) an excellent introduction to developing
functional code that is easy to read/write and is just nice & 2) will also
provide a language that will not piss you off because it won't do what you
want.

I learned Basic/C/m68k Assembly/C++/Pascal/Ada9X and have dabbled in other
languages since. I didn't like Pascal too much, but Ada is much nicer; so
many features that help rather than hinder.

> Neither Ada nor Oberon-2 will help you to learn about functional
> programming. I don't have any personal experience with Scheme but
> there are several excellent online text books and the Dr Scheme is
> reputed to be excellent. At some point I'd recommend you take a look
> at Clean or Haskell to broaden you're ideas about what a programming
> language can be like.

Forget about about functional/logic programming languages, it's generally
really strange people who *get* these. They're too odd - i.e.
mathematical/formal, which isn't as natural as "normal" programming
languages.
 
>> There doesn't seem to be as much documentation 
> Always try to find language books through the local library - often
> they can get them through inter-library loans from other libraries.

I have Jan Skansholm's book on Ada9X, there is the reference manual online
(www.adapower.com ??)

Luke.