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

Wed Apr 16 09:12:19 CDT 2008

You got distracted and missed the point Bronius. I've never looked at
the IDE myself as I've grown very comfortable with Vim. What's of use in
the package is the libraries and frameworks that you can experiment
around with, that is if you're not content with only learning what you
need to know to complete the lab. Now I think our Computer Science
department's approach to focusing on the theory behind things is a great
approach and I think many of Dr. Burris' labs do a great job of
demonstrating that without too much clutter beyond the theory, but if
the theory behind it seems to be something you were born knowing or
rather that it just flows naturally from what you already do know then
getting the chance to chew on something more makes the class a lot more
rewarding.  Things change so the libraries you use can too, but just as
there's a finite pattern to the structure of a programming language I
think you'll find there are finite patterns to the way common problems
are solved, and not having to waist a bunch of time writing a tedious
subroutine you've likely already written in another language, and that's
going to be implemented in most any professional package, allows you to
spend more time focusing on the bigger picture of what you're doing and
why. It also gives you time to practice those documentation skills.

-Drew

From: shacs-bounces at shsu.edu [mailto:shacs-bounces at shsu.edu] On Behalf
Of Bronius Motekaitis
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 10:15 PM
To: SHACS
Subject: Re: [Shacs] A nod in the direction of our
favoritefedora-wearingfriend...

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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