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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp-feed.chiark.greenend.org.uk!ewrotcd!newsfeed.xs3.de!io.xs3.de!news.jacob-sparre.dk!franka.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!.POSTED.109.57.102.173.mobile.3.dk!not-for-mail From: Jacob Sparre Andersen Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to get Ada to ?cross the chasm?? Date: Tue, 15 May 2018 09:44:09 +0200 Organization: JSA Research & Innovation Message-ID: <87mux1s6ra.fsf@jacob-sparre.dk> References: <1c73f159-eae4-4ae7-a348-03964b007197@googlegroups.com> <87k1su7nag.fsf@nightsong.com> <87po2la2qt.fsf@nightsong.com> <87in8buttb.fsf@jacob-sparre.dk> <3f7a7f76-c5eb-4cba-9051-6b5dfeeb906c@googlegroups.com> <88ae8672-543e-4943-b388-f92ab551198f@googlegroups.com> <5d07d21c-a726-4ebd-9644-c32d14eb0b08@googlegroups.com> <87r2mds7vl.fsf@jacob-sparre.dk> <87zi11wfd7.fsf@nightsong.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Info: franka.jacob-sparre.dk; posting-host="109.57.102.173.mobile.3.dk:109.57.102.173"; logging-data="10502"; mail-complaints-to="news@jacob-sparre.dk" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:wnX/mcmqU5CIj4wytxKet4PYWG8= Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:52356 Date: 2018-05-15T09:44:09+02:00 List-Id: Paul Rubin wrote: > Jacob Sparre Andersen writes: >> If you can find Pascal/Delphi programmers, then the trick is to hire >> them a year or two before you retire, so you can get them started in >> Ada. > > What's that about? The surface syntax is similar but is there not a > lot more going on? I try to imagine my own prospective learning curve > to become good at Ada, and Pascal/Delphi is about 1% of the way there. A part of it is a matter of attitude to software development. Another part is simply not to find the syntax intimidating or annoying. The most recent batch of consultants got a two-day introduction to Ada for Pascal programmers, before they were sent to on-the-job learning. The on-the-job learning involved making reasonably well-specified extensions to existing packages with me and two other experienced Ada developers nearby for answering questions. The one thing I definitely will spend more time on, next time I have to teach Ada to Pascal programmers is the string types in the standard library. I underestimated the need for explaining those. If people have to design APIs or plan large-scale changes, they definitely need more than two days of introduction to Ada, before I will let them near the task, but as a junior developer on a project, you don't need to have read and understood every single page of the LRM. Greetings, Jacob -- Adlai Stevenson said it all when, at an event during the 1956 Presidential campaign, a woman shouted, "You have the vote of every thinking person!" Stevenson shouted back, "That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!"