Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Learning Ada
Message-ID: <5617@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 9 Aug 89 14:22:58 GMT
References: <2550@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> <6205@hubcap.clemson.edu> <5595@ficc.uu.net> <15126@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 29

[ I sed, Pascal tends to produce simpler error messages than ADA ]

In article <15126@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU>, zuhn@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (david d [zoo] zuhn) writes:
> I disagree there.  Obvious syntax errors are obvious syntax errors.

> and any course which introduces a language doesn't make full use of that
> language.

True, but the compiler does. With real languages like ADA or C where
errors can be buried in a mess of packages, and a typo can produce
a completely weird error message if you don't understand the more
advanced concepts in the language. Or do you just tell them the way
to fix the problem without explaining why they went wrong?

Really, there are reasons to use a language designed for teaching, like
Pascal or Logo. And one of them is that with a smaller universe to deal
with it's much easier for the compiler writer to produce error messages
that will be meaningful to novices.

  10	a = a + b
	  ^-------- Warning: replaced '=' with ':='.
  11	c = 5
	^-------- Warning: missing ';' before this statement.
	  ^-------- Warning: replaced '=' with ':='.
-- 
Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
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