Ada Primer...

Ada Primer...

[Thomas Hoyt]

In Issue #143, Charles Fineman writes...
>Subject: Ada Primer

>... Both of
>us feel The Haberman & Perry book (Ada for experienced programmers) is
>a WASTE of money. It's defficient in so may areas, I won't even go into
>it.

   After having just suffered through an advanced ada class with this
book, I (and the rest of my classmates) can only agree.  Its treatment of
advanced features was patchy at best, obtuse at worst.  Some chapters were
strictly burn-before-reading stuff...

>I have looked through Programming in Ada by J.G.P. Barnes. It looks 
>pretty good. 

   ...but a bit much as a primer, I think, but a good reference.  Has anyone
seen a really good, concise, clear, introductory programming book for Ada?

   Oh well, back to the LRM....


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Re: Ada Primer...

[Scott Moody]

>    Oh well, back to the LRM....
> 

Check out the "Rational for the Design of the Ada prog lang". I really like it.
You start thinking about some language issue, and then look
in the book and it goes into the history of that same language
issue; how it has been done, and why Ada did it their way.
The Rational is also written very clearly. 

Its still not the end all manual but it fills in the void that the LRM
and any other book leaves out.

- scott

Ada Primer

[Mark Oestmann]

In Info-Ada Digest Volume 89, Issue 146, Darrell Schiebel writes:

> Can anyone recomend a GOOD book to serve as a Primer
> for Ada?
>
> Darrell Schiebel   -   drs@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu
> Concurrent Engineering Research Center
> West Virginia University

I would recommend "Introductory Ada - Packages for Programming" by 
Putnam P. Texel.  The book is an incomplete coverage of Ada, but it
does an excellent job of getting a novice in a proper Ada mind-set.
A second book by Texel covering the remainder of Ada has not yet 
been published.

I would recommend "Ada as a second language" by Norman H. Cohen as a 
reference text or a second book in addition to Texel's book.  Lots of
great examples in this text.

				Mark Oestmann
				School of Engineering and Logistics
				Red River Army Depot
				Texarkana, TX  75507-5000
				
				214/334/3335
				AMXMC-SEL@SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL

-------

Ada Primer

[Darrell Schiebel]

Can anyone recomend a GOOD book to serve as a Primer
for Ada?

Darrell Schiebel   -   drs@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu
Concurrent Engineering Research Center
West Virginia University

Re: Ada Primer

[Charles Fineman]

I have read two books. My officemate has been using another. Both of
us feel The Haberman & Perry book (Ada for experienced programmers) is
a WASTE of money. It's defficient in so may areas, I won't even go into
it.

I have looked through Programming in Ada by J.G.P. Barnes. It looks 
pretty good. Its got good examples and it talks about design decisions
in the language. Most importantly, it covers all the aspects of the 
language which is my main complaint against the Haberman book (it's
*really* bad in that respect).

My officemate is using Ada Concurrent Programming by Narain Gehani. He
says its good if your doing concurrent programming but its not good as
a general reference to the language.

I'd say go for the Barnes book.

	Charlie Fineman

-- 

Re: Ada Primer

[Ron Casselman]

In article <138@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu.edu> drs@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (Darrell Schiebel) writes:
>
>Can anyone recomend a GOOD book to serve as a Primer
>for Ada?
>
>Darrell Schiebel   -   drs@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu
>Concurrent Engineering Research Center
>West Virginia University

Ada As A Second Language by Cohen gives the most complete coverage
of the language that I have seen. It is useful to have around when
the language reference manual is too terse.

If you wish to distance yourself from language particulars and get a feel
for Ada as a software engineering language then I would suggest
"System Design with Ada" by R.J.A. Buhr. It discusses the design of
concurrent systems in Ada using an easy to understand graphical
notation developed by the author.

Ron Casselman
Department of Systems and Computer Engineering
Carleton University, Ottawa Canada
(613) 788-5726