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From: SaraL on 21 Feb 2006 10:44
Hi!

Brainbench is a provider of high-quality, secure, online, certification
tests using computer adaptive testing (CAT). We provide skill-based
tests that measure a person's core knowledge in a specific field. I
have currently put an Ada95 certification test into our Beta phase.

We are in great need of Ada95 experts to take this version of our test
so we can gain valuable qualititative as well as quantitative feedback
on our test items. The test will not take long, and it could be a fun
way to challenge yourself and your Ada95 friends to a contest to see
who knows more! Please help by taking our test. To do so:

you can go directly to the brainbench beta page by clicking:
http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/common/testcenter/betatests.xml

or by navigating from www.brainbench.com to the beta test page. Ada95
is the first test on the list.

We appreciate your effort to help us make our Ada95 certification test
the best it can possibly be!

Thanks!
The Brainbench Team

From: Anonymous Coward on 21 Feb 2006 20:10
On 2006-02-21, SaraL <sara.lambert(a)brainbench.com> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> We appreciate your effort to help us make our Ada95 certification
> test the best it can possibly be!

Any chance you'll remove the registration form requiring names and
addresses so beta testers won't be deterred?
From: jimmaureenrogers@worldnet.att.net on 21 Feb 2006 22:23

SaraL wrote:
> We appreciate your effort to help us make our Ada95 certification test
> the best it can possibly be!

This test looks like an Ada translation of a test for some other
language.

Many of the questions reveal a distinctly non-Ada approach to
programming.

For instance, the question about how to make a global variable.
Globals provide an amazing opportunity for coupling and side effects,
both of which are contrary to the spirit of Ada.

The indentation style of the code examples is difficult to read.
The variable names for the examples are normally single character.

Terminology used in the test is odd.

There is a heavy emphasis on examples with discriminant types.

The headings for questions are not well matched with the content
of the questions. This is unnecessarily misleading.

Many negative questions, such as "which answer is not true" are
asked. Negative logic is always less direct than positive logic.

The questions cover very little of the Ada language, while
concentrating
on areas including discriminants and nesting.

The questions about visibility do not adequately cover the Ada concepts
of scope and visibility. They also demonstrate coding styles that would
fail any decent code review.

The questions about pass by value or pass by reference are only
truly appropriate for compiler developers. Ada programmers do not
spend time fretting over the passing mechanism of procedure
parameters.

While there was one question dealing with protected types and tasks
it dealt only with priority issues. Protected types deserve a much more
in-depth treatment, including entries, procedures, functions, and
re-queuing.

There was no question about the select command, Ada rendezvous, or
asynchronous transfer of control.

There were no questions about the use of floating point numbers.
One question implied that fixed point numbers are superiour to
floating point numbers. That is clearly false. Each has its own proper
use.

There were no questions concerning subtypes.

One example of types was clearly syntactically wrong, which
invalidated the entire question. It has language similar to the
following:

type T is private;

type B is T;

Ada syntax requires the declaration of B to be either:

subtype B is T;

or

type B is new T;

One question dealt with interfacing a C function to Ada.
It requires knowledge of C and Ada, which is not appropriate
for an Ada test. Furthermore, none of the multiple choice
answers is correct. The C function requires an array of char.
Most likely that is a C string, which is null terminated, while
corresponding Ada strings are not. The example makes no
use of Interfaces.C.Strings.

I suggest that you hire an experienced Ada programmer to
develop the test. The person who developed the test does not
understand Ada well enough. The test should not be some
clone of a C++ or Java test.

Jim Rogers

From: SaraL on 22 Feb 2006 12:02
We are currently working on this. I realize it makes people quit the
process and have requested that a change be made so that participants
can go directly to the beta test. I apologize for the inconvenience.
The process is actually much quicker than you think though, please
still give it a shot! Thanks!

From: Randy Brukardt on 22 Feb 2006 20:43
<jimmaureenrogers(a)worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:1140578611.155506.80290(a)o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
....
> I suggest that you hire an experienced Ada programmer to
> develop the test. The person who developed the test does not
> understand Ada well enough. The test should not be some
> clone of a C++ or Java test.

They posted here for such a person. The problem was that they weren't
willing to pay the real price of such talent. If you pay only peanuts,
you're only going to get inexperienced amateurs...

(I considered taking on such work, but essentially the wanted it done for
free. If I'm going to work for free, I'll work on something fun...)

Randy.


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