Using subprograms as the main primitive in teaching Ada (abstract only)
Barry Burd · 1985
The use of Ada packages allows us to teach programming using a complete top-down approach. Students begin by calling subprograms whose specifications are visible, but whose bodies are hidden. Using this method, and a rigorous set of naming conventions, the student writes programs which are fully self-documenting. Claims about the soundness of this teaching method are supported using (1) experiential evidence, and (2) formal arguments concerning the closure under syntactic and semantic necessity of certain selections of features in Ada.