Re: Group newbie !

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <441435224wnr@paley.demon.co.uk>, Mike Paley <mike@paley.demon.co.uk> writes:

> God knows why they've chosen Ada - it ain't that popular in the UK!

No doubt you would have learned some more popular language through
other methods :-).

> I suppose I'm looking for an Ada manual or user guide or whatever you 
> wanna call it stuffed with hard facts. All I'm advised to get (by the 
> uni), and books I see in shops are all "flowery"*.
> 
> The sort of thing I'm after is a book with a chapter devoted to Ada 
> statements, one per page (or so), giving an explanation, clear syntax, 
> a couple of examples and a list of related or similar statements. The 
> statements should be listed in alphabetical order as well.
> 
> Any really useful pages to point browsers at would be useful as well, 2 
> (other thread) URLs noted.

www.adahome.com gives pointers to almost everything Ada on the web.

If the books you find reviewed there do not meet your standards,
you might have to be more specific and one of the authors (they all
seem to post here) will write one more to your needs the next time out :-).

Considering that you might not be able to wait that long,
give a try at some of what's there.  The actual statements might
be of less interest than what you currently see as fluff.  After
all, you _know_ that Ada must have an addition operator, and with
a few tries you might even be able to guess what the syntax is for
addition.

But what will happen when you try to add two variables containing
small integers and the compiler tells you they have different types
and cannot be added?  At that point, you really should have the
background on how Ada handles typing (you knew it was strongly typed,
but at some point even the most ardent fan of strong typing will cry
"uncle" without that background information).

Another area you might regard as superfluous at the start is all
that stuff regarding compilation units and packages, etc.  Do not be
fooled.  Ada compilers are well trained to complain bitterly over
many instances of fuzziness that other compilers would let slide.
Once you have got it right, it is really in your best interest
use that piece again later on.  That is where separate compilation
units, and packages, and especially "generics" are important.

In summary, for Ada a lot of the things you will need are those
you probably don't know you need.  For looking up specific items,
the books tend to be well indexed and the on-line aids have hypertext
links everywhere you need.  Many compilers will even quote you the
chapter and paragraph number of your alleged language standard violation,
or even pop your browser into the relevant page.

Larry Kilgallen