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-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,971aa11c293c3db1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-23 23:47:54 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!news.home.com!news1.rdc1.sfba.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: tmoran@acm.org Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: RE: Ada The Best Language? References: X-Newsreader: Tom's custom newsreader Message-ID: Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 06:47:54 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.7.82.199 X-Complaints-To: abuse@home.net X-Trace: news1.rdc1.sfba.home.com 995957274 24.7.82.199 (Mon, 23 Jul 2001 23:47:54 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 23:47:54 PDT Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10495 Date: 2001-07-24T06:47:54+00:00 List-Id: >clearly insufficient for making billion dollar and national security >decisions. We currently make those decisions with no solid information. Even jello would be better than hot air. >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. Remember we're looking for a substantial effect so sensitivity is not terribly important. If the Hawthorne effect overwhelms the language effect, perhaps we should stop worrying about languages and instead devote our energies to methods of programmer motivation. IIRC after Hawthorne they forgot about their original control variable and instead went on, productively, to study motivation.