Re: How come Ada isn't more popular?

Markus E Leypold writes:
"Jeffrey R. Carter" writes:

Alexander E. Kopilovich wrote:
The original statement (from kevin cline) was:

What makes a programmer
like a new language? Usually, someone comes along and says something
like "Remember that program that we spent two weeks writing in C?
Here's a Perl implementation that I put together in three hours and
one-tenth the code." That's never happened with Ada.
The article
http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2000/08/mccormick.html
presents the case where use of Ada language in very specific circumstances
was much more effective than use of C language in the same circumstances.

The circumstances differed in this respect: The C students were given
60% of the teacher's solution. Initially, the Ada students were given
10% (or maybe less).

So it was not really a comparable situation. One might argue that
already given partial solutions demotivate and that they have dangers
of its own (often draw people on a wrong path of thinking). I've
actually seen people given a partial solution perfoming worse than
those who had to do without.

In the first years of the course, students started with 0% of the code
given to them, and the instructor started giving them parts of the
solution, gradually increasing to 60% over the years, only because all
students failed to complete the assignment. So, your argument about
motivation does not hold.

Mind you, I do not suggest that really is the reason for the
differences found (I haven't even read the study yet), but I see a
problem with a study where the 2 groups compared are not really
starting from the same point. The only different factor should be the
programming language, not the rest of the setup.

After you read the report, you will find that that was indeed the
case. It is premature to comment before you read the report.

--
Ludovic Brenta.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How come Ada isnt more popular?
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  • Re: Ada in teaching
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  • Re: How come Ada isnt more popular?
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  • Re: OO languages
    ... Hire good programmers and train them in Ada using some of the time and money you will save by reducing error density by 75% :-) ... I remember an anecdote told by a US professor of CS who found that those of his graduated students who had studied with Ada as their main language were later promoted quicker in their industrial C/C++ jobs than those who had studied using C/C++ ... Niklas Holsti ...
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  • Re: How come Ada isnt more popular?
    ... That's never happened with Ada. ... presents the case where use of Ada language in very specific circumstances ... So it was not really a comparable situation. ... already given partial solutions demotivate and that they have dangers ...
    (comp.lang.ada)