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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,c406e0c4a6eb74ed X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!proxad.net!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!not-for-mail Sender: malo@0x5358ceb2.boanxx18.adsl-dhcp.tele.dk Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: ADA Popularity Discussion Request References: <49dc98cf.0408110556.18ae7df@posting.google.com> <6F2Yc.848$8d1.621@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net> <1094529422.982635@yasure> <_xl%c.431$xA1.301@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net> From: Mark Lorenzen Date: 08 Sep 2004 08:56:59 +0200 Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: TDC Totalloesninger NNTP-Posting-Host: 83.88.206.178 X-Trace: 1094626619 dtext02.news.tele.dk 184 83.88.206.178:17469 X-Complaints-To: abuse@post.tele.dk Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3462 Date: 2004-09-08T08:56:59+02:00 List-Id: "Richard Riehle" writes: > "Mark Lorenzen" wrote in message > news:m3vfep90v7.fsf@0x5358ceb2.boanxx18.adsl-dhcp.tele.dk... > > > > Why oh why do they continue to teach LISP in the US? They should teach > > ML instead. > > > Lisp continues to be a useful tool for many kinds of applications. > It is, however, important that we understand the limits of each > our tools. We must recognize that Lisp has its virtues, but also > know when to choose a toolset more appropriate for the problem > at hand. Ada developers, those with a lot of experience in > developing software, understand that they must sometimes > combine code from some other language model in their > programs. Fortunately, one of the significant virtues of > Ada is its friendliness to other languages -- something we > cannot acknowledge about many other popular languages. I agree, it is just that I think Lisp is a "strange" language to use in a programming class. > > Also, I would be more inclined to choose CAML or > OCAML than ML at this time in the development of the ML > family. Do you have a reason for eschewing OCAML in > favor of ML? I do not have a special reason. We used ML in my first programming class back at university, and I still think that it is one of the most elegant programming languages I have ever encountered. I used it for nearly all my projects including my thesis. It is an excellent tool for learning programming and especially if data types are emphasized from day 1 on, which they should, in order to give the students a feeling of the difference between math and CS. One of my colleagues calls my a type-Fascist. I take it as a compliment. I do not know enough about OCAML, but maybe it would be a good tool to learn both applicative, imperative and object oriented programming using the same language. > > Richard Riehle - Mark Lorenzen