The student's choice - 4:1 c++:Ada

The student's choice - 4:1 c++:Ada

[Debora Weber-Wulff]

I posted a plea for "ammo" two weeks ago for my fight with students to
program in Ada. I had lots of answers, many good arguments and
information and ideas. It's too much to post back to the
net, here's the highlights:

* One is in college to learn concepts, not obtain vocational training
[Well, a Technische Fachhochschule does see itsel as a vocationally
oriented college.]
* C++ programmers are a dime a dozen, Ada programmers are seen to
be a rare breed and paid more. I had a number of students testify
to this - getting a job *because* they knew Ada, or finding that
Ada helped learning to program right.
* "Friss oder stirb!" (Eat or die!) I'm the professor, if they
don't like it they sould look for another course :-)
* A wonderful idea (too late to use this semester) is to
make the groups switch code during the implementation! Start
off with an easy exercise, keep adding requirements, and then
have the Ada group maintain the C++ code and vice versa. Have
an assignment where they turn in a written review of the other
group's code.
* Ada is good for you (sort of like cod liver oil), who
knows how long C++ wil be popular (or even be stable, come to
that!)

So what did I do? I used CACM 35(11) Special Section on Ada.
Ed Schonberg, Mark Gerhardt and Charlene Hayden have a
wonderful Ada-in-a-nutshell that I liberally translated (but
a demerit each and two for CACM for not proofreading the
programs) into German. I gleefully used bits of J.P.Rosen's
article on Object orientation in Ada as well, and passed
around a copy of Mike Feldman's "Who's using Ada" list. I
even photocopied my notes (=bribery) and passed them out.
They listened attentively, were impressed that the
exceptions and packages and generics sounded well thought out.

Then my colleague spent 90 gruesome minutes wallowing in C++.
I finally understood some of the messier bits myself. During
the explanation of virtual function initialization in abstract
classes they got worried looks on their faces.

At the end of the day we formed 5 groups, one chose Ada, the
others C++. Why? Ada seemed so clean and easy to learn.
C++ seems to be quite difficult, and so they want to get
a head start on learning it because they'll need it in the
jobs they hope to get next spring... "But it was a great
talk you gave on Ada, lady, thanks for the script."
Next time we will use Ada. Period. Sigh.


-- 
Debora Weber-Wulff, Professorin fuer Softwaretechnik
snail: Technische Fachhochschule Berlin, FB Informatik, 
       Luxemburgerstr. 10, 1000 Berlin 65
email: dww@informatik.tfh-berlin.dbp.de