Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Dufr]

Hi 

I have decided to start learning Ada.
Online I have found a good number of free learning resources, which include:

* the Ada Programming wikibook (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming)
* the Rosetta Code examples (http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Ada) [very useful]
* the Programming in Ada ebook by cengage.com (http://academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/1133190820_323582.pdf)
* Ada Distilled for Ada 2005 by R. Riehle (http://ocw.unican.es/ensenanzas-tecnicas/sistemas-de-tiempo-real/otros-recursos-1/Ada%20Distilled.pdf)

The question now is: do you think that these resources are enough for a beginner, or do you advise me to buy John Barnes' 2005 book as well? I have heard that Barnes' book is very good. That may be so, but it is also somewhat pricey! So I was wondering: would Barnes' book really give a beginner something that is not found in the above resources? If so, what?

Thanks

Dufr

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Georg Bauhaus]

On 09.08.12 14:22, Dufr wrote:
> Hi 
> 
> I have decided to start learning Ada.
> Online I have found a good number of free learning resources, which include:
> 
> * the Ada Programming wikibook (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming)
> * the Rosetta Code examples (http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Ada) [very useful]
> * the Programming in Ada ebook by cengage.com (http://academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/1133190820_323582.pdf)
> * Ada Distilled for Ada 2005 by R. Riehle (http://ocw.unican.es/ensenanzas-tecnicas/sistemas-de-tiempo-real/otros-recursos-1/Ada%20Distilled.pdf)
> 
> The question now is: do you think that these resources are enough for a beginner, or do you advise me to buy John Barnes' 2005 book as well? I have heard that Barnes' book is very good. That may be so, but it is also somewhat pricey! So I was wondering: would Barnes' book really give a beginner something that is not found in the above resources? If so, what?

If the intent is staying with Ada for a longer while, and wanting a
thorough working knowledge of the language, if a quick
introduction for the experienced like Riehle's + the LRM seems
not enough, then a resource like Barnes' book will serve
this purpose well, I think.

More books are listed in the resources section of adaic.org.
Public libraries around here have them for perusal, or trying out.

I like books or other resources that also feature good exercises.

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Patrick]

Hi Dufr

I hope I won't upset anyone here but I do not recommend Barnes book as a first book. I also don't recommend Cohen as a first book.

Both these books are very good but they are huge and are mind crushingly complex for a newbie.

I enjoyed the wikipedia book.

Also try adacraft, it's free online too.

There is also linux Ada programming

I own over 20 Ada books now. I bought a bunch of them at Abebook.com used. Ada 95 books are about $5 and Ada 83 books are about $1

I liked building parallel, Embedded and real-time applications with ada by McCormick and Hugues but it's a bit expensive.

I often start projects and then abandon them.  This might be yet another one but I am actually trying to put together a tiny little book of my own which will be available for free.

I want to call it  "Ada for Pyjama coders"

I am hoping it will be a very simple introduction that will prepare people to read full Ada books which are all quite large and challenging.

I only get to study at 1 or 2 A.M. I don't know how many times I have fallen asleep with an Ada book still in hand.

I think there should have been an easier book for people like me and I hope I can write one

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Patrick]

I hadn't found the http://cengage.com/ book by myself. I am reading it now and it does not seem quite right.

It's saying things like underscores should not be used for programmer defined indentifiers.

It uses all caps like most of the Ada 83 books I have seen.

Ada 83 books are good but I think it's important to read them with the understanding that little things have changed and that some things are not in fashion now.

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Nasser M. Abbasi]

On 8/9/2012 5:05 PM, Patrick wrote:

> It's saying things like underscores should not be used for programmer defined indentifiers.
>

I like underscore in names of variables.  But I do not like at all the current
Ada tradition of using Upper case for first letter as in

       This_Is_An_Identifier

I find this ugly and hard on the eye to read. I like all lower case for
variable names, as it is easier to read. Less variation in texture and
form

       this_is_an_identifier

my 1.5 cents ofcourse.

--Nasser

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Britt]

On Thursday, August 9, 2012 6:05:34 PM UTC-4, Patrick wrote:
> I hadn't found the http://cengage.com/ book by myself. I am reading it now and it does not seem quite right.
> 
> It's saying things like underscores should not be used for programmer defined indentifiers.
> 
> It uses all caps like most of the Ada 83 books I have seen.
> 
> Ada 83 books are good but I think it's important to read them with the understanding that little things have changed and that some things are not in fashion now.

I had't seen that Cengage "book" before either. It reads like some first year assistant professor's course notes converted into an ebook. The following statement in the book:

"The underscore character is not used in programmer-defined identifiers; it is used in “standard” Ada such as TEXT_IO.PUT(. . .). Occasionally, we’ll use
single capital letters for identifiers in quick code fragments."

is just clueless and wrong.

I suggest that the OP look at the Ada Quality and Style Guide from one of the sites below:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Style_Guide
http://www.adaic.org/resources/add_content/docs/95style/95style.pdf

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Dufr]

On Thursday, August 9, 2012 9:39:01 PM UTC+2, Patrick wrote:

> Also try adacraft, it's free online too.

I assume you are referring to John English's book. The latest version of this book I was able to find online is updated only to Ada 95. Is there a more recent version?

Incidentally, this brings up an important question: would a beginner (starting today) be likely to later find himself at a disadvantage if he learns the language from an Ada 95 / 2005 tutorial (instead of the latest 2012 standard)? I am assuming here (as in my case) that the beginner's interest focuses mostly (almost exclusively) on the language's core commands/structures (no advanced features like concurrency, etc are needed). 
In other words, have the basic features of the language (syntax, etc) changed a lot across versions?

Regards,

Dufr

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Patrick]

Hi Dufr

I asked this same question on IRC 6 months ago. No, Ada 95 is a good place to start and even Ada 83 is okay. The revisions are 99% additive. Ada 2005 might just have confusing stuff you don't need right now and i don't think there is a full  Ada 2012 compiler yet so i really would not worry about it.


Yep, I meant John Englishes book.

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Brian Drummond]

On Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:45:17 -0700, Dufr wrote:

> Incidentally, this brings up an important question: would a beginner
> (starting today) be likely to later find himself at a disadvantage if he
> learns the language from an Ada 95 / 2005 tutorial (instead of the
> latest 2012 standard)? 

If the beginner has a background in other OO languages where you can 
write object.method(); calls, he may be more comfortable going straight 
to Ada 2005 which allows both object.method; and method(object); 
rather than un-learning that for Ada(95) and re-learning it later.

Otherwise I agree that Ada-95 is a perfectly good place to start.

- Brian

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Patrick]

Hi Brian

I read Barnes 2005 but I skimmed over some parts. For instance I don't have a solid understanding of interfaces in the OO sense.

Could you tel me what sorts of things I have been replaced in Ada 95 with features in 2005?

Is this method object vs object method the interfaces portion?

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2012 04:40:09 -0700 (PDT), Patrick wrote:

> Could you tel me what sorts of things I have been replaced in Ada 95 with
> features in 2005?

Nothing replaced regarding OO. Ada 2005 added prefix notation for primitive
operations, e.g.

   Method (Object, ...)

and

   Object.Method (...)

are both OK.

> Is this method object vs object method the interfaces portion?

Egh?

Method =
= primitive operation =
= dispatching operation =
= covariant operation =
= [dynamically] polymorphic operation

Interface = type - implementation

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

Re: Free learning resources for Ada (are they good enough?)

[Patrick]

Ah !

Thanks Dmitry