RHARWOOD@EAST.Pima.edu (Ray Harwood) (12/18/90)
Several recent digests regarding the "New Ada Directive" have mentioned both comical and serious suggestions that Ada training be mandated under certain conditions (I loved the one about ROTC schools!). Seriously: As an instructor at the community college level, I'm keenly aware of a perceived difference in our mission versus that of our more advanced institutions. Community colleges have, as one primary goal, a requirement to supply it's students with the SKILLS they need to perform adequately ON THE JOB. Unfortunately, getting the my full-time compatriots to see the advantage our students might have if we dropped the rather anacronistic PASCAL requirement in favor of a required-core Ada course is like trying to get funding for a classroom of Macintosh IIfxs. (Not to suggest above that full-degree institutions don't provide students with job-related skills... but compiler theory and fundamentals of operating systems design don't show up on too many recruiting requests. I'd like to see EVERY graduate demonstrate programming skills in COBOL, RPG, 2 different assembler languages, C, SmallTalk, AND Ada! I'd be better off proposing Mac II's again!) Ray Harwood Associate Faculty, Pima Community College