EBERARD@ADA20.ISI.EDU (Edward V. Berard) (05/01/87)
Some years ago, when I began offering one of the first hands-on Ada
courses, I invited some of the members of the Ada Joint Program Office
(AJPO) to sit in on the course. Those that accepted my proposition
gave me some interesting feedback. It seem to the AJPO folks that my
Ada courses were severely lacking in software engineering. I was
puzzled. I had incorporated sections on structured programming and
coding style into my notes. What more did they want?
I now know that my first attempt at an Ada course was little more than
a glorified Pascal seminar. I gave short coding examples for labs, and
treated packages, tasks, and generics as "advanced features." There was
little discussion of abstraction, information hiding, and
encapsulation. The message eventually got through to me that a "syntax
course" was a "no no," and that software engineering was much more
than just structured programming. However, there was still a major
problem.
As you know,the software community, as a whole, is initially not very
receptive to software engineering concepts. Managers and programmers
alike are obsessed with code. The sooner you can get down to coding
the more comfortable they feel. Software engineering is mockingly
referred to as "software religion" by many. Management continually
assures me that there may be time to learn something other than coding
"later."
Let me assure you that it takes a great deal of persuasion ("singing
and dancing," cajoling) to get management and the technical staff to
consider software engineering as an important part of Ada training.
Fortunately, I have two things going for me. First, most software
professionals want to do a good job. If I can show them a way which
will make their software products better, and justify my reasoning,
they will generally accept the idea. Second, software types are
extremely goal oriented. Given proper goals, they will work hard to
achieve them.
Unfortunately, there are those Ada trainers who are not as persuasive
as myself. They are easily bullied by their client's management and
technical staff into giving syntax-only courses. Since their clients
are often blissfully ignorant of the impact of poor software
engineering, especially on an Ada project, the clients often see no
immediate benefit from the incorporation of software engineering
technology into an Ada training course.
In a perfect world, software contractors would want to do everything
in their power to produce a quality product. Unfortunately, many DoD
contractors seem to be primarily driven by money and DoD regulations
which must be adhered to to ensure the continued flow of money.
(Don't get me wrong. I am very much a capitalist.) This implies that
one way to improve the current state of Ada education and training
might be some gentle prodding by the DoD. Say, in the form of some
recommendations from the Ada Software Engineering and Education and
Training (ASEET) group.
Two months ago, I received a message from Doug Bryan who, among other
things, teaches an Ada course at Stanford University. I think you will
find his message to be of general interest.
------------------- Message Follows ------------------------
I tried something new (and costly) with my Stanford class this year. Usually
I teach
abstraction -> misc. s/w eng -> OOD -> reuse -> the details of Ada
This year I tried reversing it since "the powers above" wanted it to be
more of a programming class and less of a Software Engineering class. So,
I taught
the details of Ada -> abstraction -> OOD (OOx) -> reuse
I'm now grading some of the final projects and realizing this was
a real mistake. Their code is terrible and it's my fault. Their packages
are best classified as "collections of stuff"; Private types, generic
formal parameters, and decent use of attributes are practically non-existent;
most every subprogram is a procedure, all parameters of which are mode
in out; ... the list goes on and on.
It was costly, but I have seen first hand empirical evidence of what the
Ada community has been telling itself (and others) for years:
Ada without a software engineering foundation is MIL-STD Pascal.
live and learn...
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-- Ed Berard
(301) 695-6960
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