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!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Ludovic Brenta Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Beginning Ada Programming, by Andrew T. Shvets (2020) Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 14:44:27 +0200 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: <87v9lye0yc.fsf@samuel> References: <87muca3vgd.fsf@nightsong.com> <57d49047-0a61-4d13-8822-d004732a3acc@googlegroups.com> <3b1b248b-43d0-4762-b1f5-1c5460d24c8b@googlegroups.com> <5e222e6c-7afe-4349-ac66-d9b78ca40ec6@googlegroups.com> <27b11294-d628-4118-8328-a4a9a3946937@googlegroups.com> <80bcdfd1-b1e5-4ebf-aa8a-4beaba5ec3c2@googlegroups.com> <98f92454-404b-4500-b5e8-5e3048304f96@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="a85c6b0df67f7848459d422e8ffff497"; logging-data="5466"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+l7XNl8ZLVwzurwSpNepZ3" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:67ZdvaBNkIb3dLuCavIyGgNOgKk= sha1:sZFlUKh7Mm/yZubDsf9Gc8JDRQQ= Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:58393 Date: 2020-04-17T14:44:27+02:00 List-Id: Andrew Shvets writes: > 1 - Well, to look at this another way, bringing in ideas from other > languages can have a benefit as well. After all, just about every > language has its roots in a different programming language. That's very true if your audience consists of language designers; not if your audience consists of end users of a language. > 2 - In regards to the Fortran programmer that wanted to make Fortran > in C, that does happen, but that is not the case with most people. I think the crux of the matter is who you decide your audience to be. If you decide that you want to write a "Ada for Fortran/Pascal/C programmers" then they already know all about control structures etc; and you should dive into the type system upfront. If, on the other hand, you are writing "Ada as a first language" (or even "Ada for Lisp programmers") then yes, by all means, postpone the discussion of user-defined types until after the basics of variables, subprograms and control structures. So I don't think there should be real opposition; both approaches have their merits depending on the audience. -- Ludovic Brenta. The sales manager standardizes the long-range workforce adjustments.