Re: Student views on Ada

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <35kapa$1fqc@watnews1.watson.ibm.com>,
Norman H. Cohen <ncohen@watson.ibm.com> wrote:
>In article <85B31AAE640@annwfn.com>, merlin@annwfn.com (Fred McCall) writes: 
>
>|>                                                            if the
>|> language bashing comment is indeed the true state of affairs, it would
>|> appear to me that learning Ada first may have taught this individual
>|> some 'bad habits' that have led him to rely on the compiler to check
>|> things for him tht he should be aware of himself.  I've seen this happen
>|> frequently when Pascal programmers are first learning C.
>
>This line of reasoning leads to the conclusion that one should never use
>a spelling checker, or that pilots should not be warned of an approaching
>mountainside.  A writer should be aware of correct spelling himself and a
>pilot should be aware of approaching mountainsides himself.

It is certainly a matter of _opinion_ whether a 16 year old kid should
learn to drive first on a car with an automatic shift, power steering
and brakes, and dual air bags, or on a 1953 MG roadster (or VW Beetle)  
with none of the above. Clearly there are advantages both ways.

We have argued for decades in CS education whether students should
learn assembler first, reasoning that they cannot understand languages
until they understand computers. Clearly there is some advantage
to this, but there are (thought to be) more advantages in learning
from a highler level of abstraction down to a lower one.

Undoubtedly you have seen Pascal programmers get into trouble in C 
because they expected too much from the compiler. And I have seen
(many) C programmers get into trouble (or, rather, write lousy code)
in Ada because they never used subtypes to get the ranges checked.

I'm getting a little bored - and I'm sure you must be, too - with the
blatant religious argument, unsupported by facts or controlled studies.
Let's just stipulate that people have preferences. Some like C. Some like
Ada. Some like Scheme. Some like Smalltalk. Think of it like flavors
of ice cream. And let's stop couching preferences in pseudo-factoids
and anecdotes. It's time to cut the endless language war and get back
to work.

How does this relate to the mandate? A bit. DoD pays the piper, so DoD
has the privilege of calling the tune. If DoD prefers Ada, so be it.
Those contractors who don't like this are welcome to find another line 
of work. The ball is in DoD's court to state its preference and make
sure it is getting what our money is paying for.

Mike Feldman
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Michael B. Feldman -  chair, SIGAda Education Working Group
Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University -  Washington, DC 20052 USA
202-994-5919 (voice) - 202-994-0227 (fax) - mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)
NOTE NEW PHONE NUMBER.
"Pork is all that stuff the government gives the other guys."
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