From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.224.21.1 with SMTP id h1mr2727487qab.3.1378297529120; Wed, 04 Sep 2013 05:25:29 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.49.25.83 with SMTP id a19mr92319qeg.1.1378297529097; Wed, 04 Sep 2013 05:25:29 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.bbs-scene.org!border4.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!j7no253202qai.0!news-out.google.com!p7ni760qas.0!nntp.google.com!j7no253195qai.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2013 05:25:28 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <9ec51e40-081f-4ec7-b17f-7c73dbdcd10a@googlegroups.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=86.173.125.168; posting-account=pmkN8QoAAAAtIhXRUfydb0SCISnwaeyg NNTP-Posting-Host: 86.173.125.168 References: <9ec51e40-081f-4ec7-b17f-7c73dbdcd10a@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <126b453e-d739-440c-b933-a1e3ae12f7e6@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: How (or Where?) to get started on Ada? (Properly) From: Austin Obyrne Injection-Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:25:29 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:17107 Date: 2013-09-04T05:25:28-07:00 List-Id: On Wednesday, September 4, 2013 10:14:55 AM UTC+1, e.s.h...@gmail.com wrote= : > Some general details on my situation (that may be useful or not for the q= uestion; feel free to skip down to the "TL;DR" marker if you don't want to = read them): As a programmer that has spent most of his time in managed envi= ronments so far (Java mostly, with some PHP and Python here and there), I h= ave been trying to get more into "native code" recently, in order to be abl= e to control things like memory layout and get deterministic resource usage= (and thus deterministic run time performance). Initially I started looking= at C/C++, but soon realized that the intricate semantics of C++ were a dea= l-breaker (and not necessary for what I was looking for anyways) and that C= lacked too many libraries (hash tables, file systems, threading, etc.) to = be useful for one-man-projects these days (yes there's things like APR or G= Lib but those are quite a bit of a hassle). Looking at the other options av= ailable currently, Ada seemed like the best one (still actively maintained;= competitive compiler; windows/linux-portability; .. at times I wonder if w= e'd be seeing thing like Rust or Go if Ada didn't still have its Pascal syn= tax...) So here I am, looking into learning Ada.. I have dabbled in it (as = well as Turbo Pascal) at various points in time for school/university cours= es, but those have been very shallow experiences. TL;DR: What I am struggli= ng the most when learning new languages is knowing virtually nothing about = what the syntax actually does. I have tried some online tutorials that mana= ge to walk me through the compilation process and then slowly introduce new= languages pieces through example programs, but (for me at least) that has = been a rather frustrating experience, considering that I'm essentially just= copy-pasting code (and having to ignore irrelevant bits in the code that a= re not relevant yet, but still necessary for it to run).. What I'm looking = for is a text that starts from the other way, i.e. explains the language bl= ocks, the data/object model, etc. first, and only after that goes on to pro= vide full examples of working code. I guess this is something I'll only be = able to find in a book. I did look on Amazon about available books, but all= of them seem fairly dated. "Programming in Ada 2005" by John Barnes did lo= ok interesting judging by the reviews, yet I'm not sure of how helpful it w= ill be in covering all details that are relevant to writing useful software= these days (things like utf8, interfacing with C, etc.). Do you have any r= ecommendations for me? Hi, I=92m a retired Engineer and I was first introduced to Ada-83 some 25 years= ago =96 I liked the package concept of Ada and I liked also the kind of in= tuitive way the source code is written =96 I always resolved that I would l= ater on learn more about the Ada programming language. When my retirement = came it was well into Ada-95 by that time and PC=92s were well established = to everyone but not to me =96 I was familiar with Ada through a main frame = piece of directory and I was completely lost with getting started on Ada ag= ain via a PC this time. I had huge difficulty and I sent off for some books (had to get some else t= o do it from me I was that green) =96 the person ordered the wrong book and= I could well have quit at that point but I sent off again for this second = book below and it prove to be my salvation. There is a rather simplistic model of a Spider program that he uses for any= body that needs that kind of thing but in fairness it is a very good book. = I like the pedagogic style and he assumes nothing about the reader =96 he = expands everything as the Ada enthusiast that he really is and everything i= s backed with worked examples for you to repeat. The book comes with compilers that load very easily for Windows, Macos and = Linux. I recommend it and welcome you to the fold. =93Ada-95 Problem Solving and Programme Design=94 (hope it is still available) Feldman/Koffman Includes Ada 95 Compilers ISBN 0 =96 201 =96 36123 =96 X Good Luck with your studies =96 I hope you will not find this too simplist= ic given your background. Austin O=92Byrne. adacrypt.