[Shacs] A nod in the direction of our favorite fedora-wearingfriend...

[Bronius Motekaitis]

well... So gnat is an ADA IDE?  I hate to be the one, but I think rich
development environments actually clutter the learning process.  I know as a
lab assistant for one perspective and student for another that Visual C++
was way way overkill for that simple C++ algorithms class... we didn't use
it for anything more than a confusing compiler, and I think that confused a
lot of people.

ADA happens to be the language Burris chooses to teach OOP in; if the
student misses the concept, no IDE will help.

The sell might work for MIS degrees, but give give a guy (or gal, Wendy,
Samira..) a text editor and a compiler, and he (or she) can feel like a real
champ.

(I used to be all about "the perfect graphical interface" and, in fact, they
do have their place, but I don't think it needs to be introduced early on.
They're great for big projects, but when we're programming motors in a car
or astronauts in space for Burris' classes, it's a bit much.)

Side note: I wrote on the bottom of one of [Dr.] Hartness' homework
assignments that I turned in incomplete a litany of why I refused to do the
COBOL assignment, citing, above all, the really hard to understand editor
and compiler I was given to use.  I never learned the language, but I still
like to make fun of it..  And if you think COBOL is cool, try System-Z...
who ever knew it would come back to bite me like this in my current job..

-bronius


On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 3:38 PM, PILLING, ANDREW ALEXANDER <AAP006 at shsu.edu>
wrote:

> So about that GNAT Ada 2005 GAP Package I've been pushing Dr. Cooper and
> you to add to your repertoire as well as the course materials offered to
> students here...
> http://www.adacore.com/home/ada_answers/ada_2005
> http://www.adacore.com/home/ada_answers/resources
> http://www.adacore.com/home/academia
> http://www.adacore.com/home/academia/gap
>
> I really think you'd have a lot more success making lifelong converts to
> the Ada philosophy if y'all pursued this.
> -Drew
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: shacs-bounces at shsu.edu [mailto:shacs-bounces at shsu.edu] On Behalf
> Of David Burris
> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 2:34 PM
> To: 'shacs at shsu.edu '
> Subject: Re: [Shacs] A nod in the direction of our favorite
> fedora-wearingfriend...
>
> Thanks John.
> Now that you mention it, we have several individuals at the project
> manager level or above who learned Ada at your Alma Mater.  I used to
> teach Ada in the summer with emphasis on its multi-tasking abilities and
>
> program coordination abilities (not this silly threading nonsense).
> They have many interesting stories to tell regarding lessons learned
> from those "other" languages.  They do not believe in "Programmer Gump"
> literature adorning the hall ways at present!  They know I would never
> be seduced by the dark, evil side of the force.
>
> Typical labs were to shot down incoming missiles mirving war heads fired
>
> by the evil war lords.  The probability of a successful kill went down
> as a function of the distance at which the missile was detected.  We
> lost a lot of valuable space explorers in attacks by the dark side.  :(
>
> But the survivors fought on to victory with many going to Lockheed, NASA
>
> support groups, and European companies.
>
> You got to love it when your right!!!
> :)  :)  :0  :)  Yea Team!!!
>
> Go Kats!!!
>
> John M. Collier wrote:
> > I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but apparently somebody
> at Lockheed Martin must have
> > studied under Burris...
> >
> >
> http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/15/1554234&from=rss
> >
> > Apparently Ada makes for projects that are on time, under budget, and
> secure to boot.  I saw no
> > mention of "The Great Unwashed", but maybe they're just trying to be
> polite.  If anyone sees
> > Burris dancing down the hall shouting "I told you so...", now you know
> why.  oh, and if anyone is
> > witness to the aforementioned dancing.... please post pictures to
> shacs list.
> >
> > JMC
> > _______________________________________________
> > Shacs mailing list
> > Shacs at shsu.edu
> > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/shacs
> >
>
>
> --
> David S. Burris, Ph.D., CCP, CSP
> SHSU Articulation Coordinator
> Computer Science
> Sam Houston State University 77341-2090
>
> voice: (936)294-1568
> fax:   (936)294-4312
> csc_dsb at shsu.edu
> or david.burris at shsu.edu
>
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