At 10:53 AM 2/2/01 +0000, Jim Briggs wrote:

. . .

>Here at Portsmouth we still teach Ada as the first language to a wide range
>of students on our computer science, software engineering and information
>technology courses. We believe it is the best language to support the
>teaching of the foundations of programming, especially modularity,
>readability and correctness. We use GNAT because it gives students better
>help with error messages than any other compiler we've seen.

It is very refreshing to here there are still a few (your faculty and
Barns' as well) academics who take their work seriouly and reason about
what language to use.

As a (retired) academe let me caution you, however.  Such clear, rational
thinking COULD get you in trouble!  :)

sro
S. Ron Oliver, semi-retired professor of Computer Science and Computer
Engineering.  www.csc.calpoly.edu/~sroliver

caress Corporation is proud to be the U.S. representative for Top Graph'X,
developers of high quality software components, using Ada.  For more
information, check out www.topgraphx.com.

Tired of sucky software! ?  Check out www.caressCorp.com and follow the
links to software sucks and The Oliver Academy.