Iftach Hyams wrote on 2003-06-11: > > From: Beni Cherniavsky [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > It encourages static-sized array (the one common thing of all > > school programs was ``const N = 100``), AKA "C programmer's > > disease" - except that in Pascal it's even harder to shake it > > off. Statically sized arrays are absolutely useless in the real > > world, except as a dirty optimization. > > > Here we need system to be real-time (=deterministic), critical safe > (=strict types and forcing casts are good), readable (!= C++) and > some level certification (no dynamic allocation for sure, sometimes > no virtual functions). > I sit in front of a linux box. It has tons of programs - browsers, compilers, editors, text processing, graphics, etc. How many of these are real-time and how many need to resize data structures? That's an impressive job you describe but don't tell me it should be the first thing to learn. Besides, this has little to do with teaching - the student doesn't create statically-sized arrays because he has tough requirements but because he wasn't taught good design.
> > Ada is designed by a committee. I never tried it but from what I > > heard it's at least about half C++'s size. That absolutely rules it > > out as a first language in my book. A beginner must be able to > > remember at least 95% of the language, easily. > > > It was American committee who chose from several options. Believe me > - it is hard time to make a buildable code but it runs good and easy > to maintain (even with millions line of code). > > Here are the reserved words : > >[snip] > Too much for me. I'm not going to program this ;-). > You don't need them all for common school tasks. > I still think first langauge should fit *entirely* into one's head (the core language, not necessary for libraries). -- Beni Cherniavsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Premature classification is the superclass of all evil. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
