Re: Are 'best' universities being targeted for Ada9X

[cis.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!xlink.net!f auern!news.dfn.de!urmel.informatik.rwth-aachen.de!i3!jubo@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Juergen Boerstler)]

In <SRCTRAN.93Jul28233335@world.std.com> srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharoni
an) writes:


->    From time to time there have been lists posted of which universities are
->teaching Ada in the undergraduate curricula, as well as announcements from
->the Ada9X program office confirming these lists of Ada use, and plans by
->the Ada9X office to foster Ada use through academic acceptance. The hope is
->that by having Ada taught early on in the undergraduate career, that somehow
->this will translate into greater acceptance of Ada in the future.
-> 
->    Since no one questions the relevance of these lists and strategies, I
->will offer three reasons why I believe this strategy of Ada academic use will
->have little to no impact on the acceptance of Ada anywhere:
-> 
->		1)  Best universities don't use Ada
->		2)  Pascal taught but not used
->		3)  Who remembers anything from freshman days?
-> 
->    Thus I suggest that the Ada9X office rethink its Ada academic strategy,
->because it could be that a lot of good effort will be to no avail.  What is
->needed first is detailed demographics of academic and industry programming
->language use to see where to best invest Ada9X dollars to have the greatest
->impact on increasing Ada acceptance.
-> 
Perfectly right, but ...

->1)  BEST UNIVERSITIES DON'T USE ADA

There is no must for any university to teach Ada. Any computer science
student should be able to learn Ada in a short amount of time. To do
this it is necessary to learn how to program in general, not in any
special language.

PS: I do not expect the *best* students from *best* universities to
    spend their lives sitting in front of a computer.

[... stuff deleted ...]
-> 
->2)  PASCAL TAUGHT BUT NOT USED
[... stuff deleted ...]
->[... deleted ...] Keep in mind that C/C++, which is barely
->formally taught - is used, has tools, has jobs 50/1 to 100/1 more than both
->Pascal and Ada.
   
Perfectly right, but this language is especially used to produce shit.
Dont`t forget: Programming and Computer Science are not the same thing.
               In general you also do not expect people, who are able
	       to communicate in some language to earn the nobel price
	       in literature.

->	These simple number counts of Ada use are meaningless.  One has to
->examine the influence of the universities on the academic and industrial
->world to be assess significance.  To date, unfortunately, the successes of
->Ada are dubious.
-> 
Right (no but).

->3)  WHO REMEMBERS ANYTHING FROM FRESHMAN DAYS?
[... stuff deleted ...]

This is the point! You *must* teach generic information. A programming
language is only one medium to do so (and, of course some of them are
better mediums, like e.g. Ada). If you teach your students special
programming languages for special machines, without the general how and
why, forget about them.

->	Most knowledge that one manages to retain from academic days is
->what is learned in the junior and senior years of undergraduate life, and
->first two years of graduate school (where your general advanced education
->occurs).  Too many of us drank too much beer and ate too many salted bar
->snacks freshmen and sophmore years to remember much of anything :-)
->Thus freshman and sophmore use of Ada is of questionable long term value,
->when other languages are used in junior and senior courses and projects.
-> 
A definite: NO!
-> 
->-- 
->**************************************************************************
-> Greg Aharonian
-> Source Translation & Optimization
-> P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178

-- jubo
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