🚀 go-pugleaf

From article <5595@ficc.uu.net>, by peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva):
>>     OK; let's imagine.  Student gets syntax error.  [...] Student
>>     shows the program to the local Consultant [who] points out
>>     the obvious error.
> 
> Ever been a consultant at a university comp center? I have. The next
> stage, if the student is working in Fortran, C, or some other production
> language (ADA wasn't around back then), is...
% 
%       Student comes back in 10 minutes with the same error.
% or...
%       Consultant spends 10 minutes explaining error to student, and
%       maybe fails. Meanwhile 6 other students get tired of waiting...

   Yes, I've been a consultant (Purdue University Computing Center);
   however, I seem to have had a much easier time getting the 
   explanation across.  

   "Abstraction is the fundamental mechanism by which the computer
   scientist can combat complexity"; I would much rather consult for 
   Ada than for a language in which it's not possible to show the
   student how to use abstraction to improve the probability that
   the software can be built without errors. 


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu