Re: confusion with string initialization

[Alex Mentis <asmentis@gmail.com>]

> BTW: John Barnes Ada 2005 Book is truly excellent, however I think I also need a more
> "Practical Ada 2005 Programming" book as well. The titles I see on Internet book sellers
> are mainly Ada95 and I'm unsure if they have any relevance to learning Ada 2005. Any
> Suggestions ??

The Barnes book is one-stop shopping for a comprehensive text that is
a half-step easier to read than the ARM.  It's an Ada "bible" that
every serious Ada programmer should have on their shelf, but I would
never give it to a novice programmer to learn from.  It doesn't appear
to be intended for that.  I often lament the availability of good
beginner books that cover the new features in Ada 2005.

If you just want to learn the essential basics of procedural
programming in Ada, then the Ada 95 text offerings out there are
(mostly) equally applicable to Ada 2005.  Two good introductory books
are _Ada 95: Problem Solving and Program Design_, 3rd ed. by Feldman
and Koffman and _Programming and Problem Solving with Ada 95_, 2nd ed.
by Dale, Weems, and McCormick.  I personally like the sequential
progression and explanation style in Dale better, but the Feldman text
is a bit more comprehensive, getting into more advanced topics like
variant records, generics (templates), access types (pointers) and
tasks.  A good (and free) book you can find online is _Ada 95: The
Craft of Object-Oriented Programming_ by John English.  I'd put it
between Dale and Feldman - English covers more advanced topics than
Dale, but it's laid out a bit more clearly than Feldman.  Plus, it's
free, so you should definitely at least get that.

At an intermediate level, or as a supplemental text to those above,
one of my personal frequently-used books is _Rendezvous With Ada 95_,
2nd ed. by Naiditch.  This book goes into much further detail than the
ones above on generics, exceptions, access types, input/output, and
tasks.  It also adds a section on low-level programming and
representation clauses.

The English, Naiditch, and Feldman texts all cover object-oriented
programming for Ada 95, but if you want to learn OO in Ada 2005, skip
these sections and buy _Ada Plus Data Structures: An Object Oriented
Approach_, 2nd ed by Dale and McCormick.  This text covers the updated
object oriented features of Ada 2005 and picks up where _Programming
and Problem Solving_ leaves off by covering generics and access
types.  I don't have the book in front of me right now, but I seem to
remember there also is an example that uses fixed and unbounded string
manipulation extensively.

Finally, practice using the Ada Reference Manual.  It's really hard to
start your learning with it, but being able to use it is an essential
skill for Ada programmers.

HTH

Alex