Re: ADA Popularity Discussion Request

["Richard Riehle" <adaworks@earthlink.net>]

"jayessay" <nospam@foo.com> wrote in message
news:m3oekuf050.fsf@rigel.goldenthreadtech.com...
> "Richard  Riehle" <adaworks@earthlink.net> writes:
>
> > also know some C++.   My class is a multi-language class in
> > which students are learning Ada, C++, Lisp, and a little bit
>
> Please, please tell me you are not telling them that Lisp is a
> functional language which only has recursion for looping and only has
> symbols and lists for data representation.
>
> And please say you never use examples like:
>
> (setq foo '(a b c))
>
Good question, Jay.  Actually, whenever possible,
for the Lisp unit in this class, I invite one of our
other professors, a Lisp advocate and Lisp expert,
to guest lecture a few sessions.   For Prolog, I do
the same.  In each case, those guest lecturers
illustrate the capabilities of those languages with
large, real-life applications they have actually
deployed.  The combination of their experience
and their enthusiasm for their preferred language
encourages students to consider such alternatives
when they need to make a choice.

One of my goals, in this course, is to broaden the
perspective of the students so they will understand
the benefits of the choices available to them when
they are confronted with real-world problems.

Richard Riehle