Prev: When a conditional expression is static, where can it be used?
Next: Design problem: generic package vs tagged subtype
From: Simon Wright on 2 Jul 2010 14:56
Colin Paul Gloster <Colin_Paul_Gloster(a)ACM.org> writes:

> On Fri, 2 Jul 2010, Georg Bauhaus sent:
> |--------------------------------------------|
> |"On 03.07.10 10:35, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:|
> | |
> |[..]" |
> |--------------------------------------------|
>
> It is not yet July 3rd, 2010. Many recent posts by Dmitry A. Kazakov
> with bogus timestamps are not being shown by two news servers which I
> use.

eternal-september.org certainly doesn't show them. Perhaps they will
mysteriously appear in due course!
From: Georg Bauhaus on 2 Jul 2010 15:00
On 02.07.10 19:52, Non scrivetemi wrote:
>> The design of Ada can hardly be held responsible for subjecting students
>> to incompetent or untrained teachers.
>
> Indeed, Michael Feldman, one of the more famous professors advocating and
> teaching Ada appears to me to be extraordinarily good at what he does. I
> have one of his early textbooks and it's positively outstanding for clarity
> and cleanliness.

Is there a connection? A book may take the lead.
A compiler follows the lead:

Michael Feldman's books are structured in a certain way.
He selects topics, introduces subjects, and suggest a style
of programming. Other authors have done this, too,
some books are outstanding, demonstrating teaching qualities
and being selected for introductory course work for a reason(*).

Imagine a compiler that diagnoses student's early programs
such that messages use words known after reading early
chapters 1, 2, and 3, but that try to rephrase messages
requiring knowledge of chapter 8 to understand them.
That could be a friendly rejection, possibly with pointers
to other chapters.
The technique seems possible, some existing compilers
include references to the LRM in their diagnostic messages.

My hope is that profiles can help with this to some extent.


Btu I'm missing the match!
__
(*) I have not always been sure that teachers had had
the time to look into a few books before recommending one,
though.
From: Warren on 2 Jul 2010 16:03
Kulin Remailer expounded in news:6KDPK04Y40360.2153472222(a)reece.net.au:

>> I remember this when I was young. For some reason, students
>> get real hung up on compile time errors. It's like they are
>> horses bouncing around inside the gate, waiting for the door
>> to open.
>
> That was the questionable thinking behind a hilarious variant of PL/I
> called PL/C, Cornell University's PL/I compiler. Students just want
> their programs to compile and run, don't bother them with details like
> whether it's correct or not. Not a good assumption but...it was enough
> for somebody or some group of people to put out a pretty interesting
> compiler and get it out there in academia, circa late 70s early 80s
> timeframe.
>
> The purpose of PL/C was to take almost any input and hammer it until
> it looked like a PL/I program, compile it, and generate an executable
> from it. It certainly may not do what you intended, but by george, the
> damn thing will almost always start running. What happens
> next...nobody knows.

Wow- that's quite the response to the issue!

Warren
From: Warren on 2 Jul 2010 16:30
Simon Wright expounded in news:m2fx03xahe.fsf(a)pushface.org:

> Georg Bauhaus <rm.dash-bauhaus(a)futureapps.de> writes:
>
>> I had seen messages like
>> file, l.N, Syntax error
>> or
>> Syntax error at end of file
>
> My favourite was "Syntax error at line 0" (a Telelogic compiler from long
> ago).

That narrows it down to:

a) No line was in error (no line zero).
b) The first line was in error (starting at zero).
c) Or the whole program was in error.

;-)

Warren
From: Colin Paul Gloster on 5 Jul 2010 08:40
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010, Georg Bauhaus sent:

|----------------------------------------------------------|
|"[..] |
| |
|[..] |
|__ |
|(*) I have not always been sure that teachers had had |
|the time to look into a few books before recommending one,|
|though." |
|----------------------------------------------------------|

In Dublin City University we were lectured by someone who did not even
read the parts of the book which he assigned to us.
First  |  Prev  |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Prev: When a conditional expression is static, where can it be used?
Next: Design problem: generic package vs tagged subtype