We saw a lot of compelling reasons to learn Ada as a first language :
After learning Ada for about more than a year now I can appreciate how
safe Ada is and how good and disciplined Ada code is compared to other
languages. But as a personal experience I would like to point out that I
was not an Ada enthusiast since college times. And none of the web
articles opened my mind to learn it. It was a chance by which I had to
learn the language at professional level.

So from what I have been through I feel that 
> Ada needs to be made popular at college level. Ways can be perhaps
more awareness campaigns in colleges. At least I have seen that working
in colleges in India. Projects can be funded by Ada organizations which
showcase Ada 'edge'. I believe the thrill of programming is highly
infectious at college levels. 

> Ada needs to become visible by its merits. It has many but I think no
one has displayed them in forms a language is expected to show when
competing with others. I was searching the internet to find whether
someone has coded a Kernel in Ada and lo what I found out is a similar
thought about it. Quoting Benjamin Ketcham : 
"I would suggest that a way to
make Ada much more popular, would be to recode the Linux kernel
in Ada.  Perhaps a group of Ada enthusiasts could maintain a port
to Ada of the latest "stable" kernel."
(taken from
http://www.chataboutprogramming.com/Embedded_Keynote_Speaker_Mentions_Ad
a-7822957-739-a.html)
Pardon my ignorance if there is a kernel running on Ada somewhere and do
point me to it.

My reasons for Learning Ada as the first language are:
A) It exemplifies all the programming concepts and is Higly Secure and
Mainainable.
B) It brings in a discipline in programming which ought to be there if
we really care of maturing of Computer Science as an Engineering like
any other Engineering stream.

Apurva Shukla 

-----Original Message-----
From: Team Ada: Ada Programming Language Advocacy (83 & 95)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Botton
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The question at hand:

I am surprised there have been no takers yet (ok, I know, turkey
weekend, but still). I am hoping to use responses to build a better FAQ,
articles, etc. The question was:

Why should any one learn Ada as their first language?

If we can't give a compelling answer to a question like that, we are in
big trouble....

David Botton