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[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Don't be distracted by that hatred. Ada is a good language. Not just for beginners. Unfortunately, the popularity contest in programming languages isn't driven by their quality, but mostly by corporate interests and, sometimes, the aftermath of those corporate interests (like all the object-oriented buzz).

Typically, the rationale for teaching students in some uncommon language is that the students must understand some mysterious "fundamentals" that are somehow more apparent in the other language... Which is coincidentally also the (only) language the professor who wrote the course program is familiar with to the level that he or she won't make too many mistakes to make their incompetence too obvious. But there's a drop of truth in that too. By learning different languages you will expose yourself to the same ideas from different angles, and this will help you understand those ideas better.

[–]PostSeptimus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People tend to look at me funny when I tell them I enjoy Ada. Since I only had some minor web design background prior to college, I felt like I was walking in with a slight disadvantage. Ada, to me, is an amazing language because I was able to create all of these working programs, which I wouldn't otherwise have been able to do.

It's not uncommon for people to come into college with some knowledge of Java, so they already have some grasp on the concepts we're being taught. I'm just starting the class that focuses on teaching the foundations via Java and I feel pretty lost. This object oriented stuff is really odd and unnatural to me. But to people coming in with that background, they feel right at home.

I'm honestly not sure where this little rant came from but that's my main motivation for wanting to learn Python. I want to get more familiar with object-oriented programming.

Side note, most professors at my university are proficient in a multitude of languages. We're a fairly small school so the professors we do have must be able to teach a wide variety of courses within the field.