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,e55245590c829bef X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news2.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!news.mv.net!nntp.TheWorld.com!not-for-mail From: Robert A Duff Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: _Type vs no _Type Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2010 17:10:11 -0400 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Message-ID: References: <86wroy58ff.fsf@gareth.avalon.lan> <86pqup5xfy.fsf@gareth.avalon.lan> <86y69d3rec.fsf@gareth.avalon.lan> <82lj5c5ecm.fsf@stephe-leake.org> <82zktq4n9b.fsf_-_@stephe-leake.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: shell01.theworld.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: pcls6.std.com 1289077812 5492 192.74.137.71 (6 Nov 2010 21:10:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@TheWorld.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2010 21:10:12 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.1008 (Gnus v5.10.8) Emacs/21.3 (irix) Cancel-Lock: sha1:MXvdjEVtlkpBcHDORriFJbHm3tc= Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:16321 Date: 2010-11-06T17:10:11-04:00 List-Id: Jeffrey Carter writes: > On 11/05/2010 04:09 PM, Robert A Duff wrote: >> Jeffrey Carter writes: >> >>> ...Ada is a S/W-engineering >>> language, and most developers are not S/W engineers. >> >> Well, maybe, but how many people will be attracted to >> Ada by sneering at them for being less than true >> engineers? > > I don't want to attract coders to Ada. I reject your dichotomy -- S/W engineers vs. mere coders. There's certainly a wide spectrum of competence among programmers (why, at least half of them are below average!), but many of whom you disparagingly call "coders" are educable. Anyway, the more people who use a given language the better for that language (more money to make compilers, better compilers, more widely available for obscure machines, more textbooks...). That goes for incompetent programmers just as much as the ones you prefer to call "engineers". By the way, one of my profs in college (Bill Wulf, maybe?) said something about how engineering is a way to allow mediocre people to do good work. There's some truth in that, but it also allows the best people to do even better work. >> P.S. My grandfather was a "true" engineer. He drove a train. >> He worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. ;-) > > Cool. Do you try to buy that when you play Monopoly? I haven't played Monopoly in years, but yeah, I'm happy to buy Penn RR for $200.00. ;-) - Bob