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