Ada text for CS2 course

Ada text for CS2 course

[Esmail Bonakdarian]

I am looking at a possible replacement for our current Ada text in use 
for the CS2 class I teach. I currently have been using the 3rd edition 
of "Programming in Ada"  by Barnes, but now am looking for alternatives.
One book that I am considering is "An Introduction to Ada" 2nd edition
by S.J. Young. Anybody use that book as a text?

The Ada course I teach has a prerequisite of one semester of programming
(this is Pascal at this time). Many of my students complain that the 
Barnes book is poorly organized, too wordy and overwhelming with 
details. While I do not agree with all of their complaints I can see
their point of view and I am willing to look at other books.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Esmail

Re: Ada text for CS2 course

[David Eichmann]

bonak@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Esmail Bonakdarian) writes:

>I am looking at a possible replacement for our current Ada text in use 
>for the CS2 class I teach. I currently have been using the 3rd edition 
>of "Programming in Ada"  by Barnes, but now am looking for alternatives.
>One book that I am considering is "An Introduction to Ada" 2nd edition
>by S.J. Young. Anybody use that book as a text?

>Any recommendations?

>Thanks,
>Esmail

Esmail,

   I haven't seen Barnes, but I do have a stack of Ada texts:

J. Skansholm, Ada From the Beginning, Addison-Wesley, 1988.

   This is a basic "Ada as yet-another-programming-language" text.
   Solid, but doesn't properly address algorithms vs. code.

E. Vasilescu, Ada Programming with Applications, Wm. Brown, 1987.

   Same comments as for Skansholm.

D. Volper and M. Katz, Introduction to Programming Using Ada, Prentice Hall,
1990.

   Uses a spiral approach to first work with general conceptual issues
   followed by increasing layers of the language complexity.  Uses a
   robot package ala Karel for most of the initial chapters. (The package
   is available anonymous ftp from the authors, and includes a concurrent
   version with multiple robots controlled by Ada tasks.)

D. Watt, B. Wichmann, and W. Findlay, Ada: Language and Methodology,
Prentice Hall, 1987.

   I just received this, and so haven't looked at it in detail.  At first
   glance it appears to fall somewhere inbetween Skansholm and Volper/Katz.

I've personally used Skansholm and Volper/Katz and much prefer Volper/Katz.
Students with previous programming experience may find the initial
chapters too introductory.  There *is*, I think, sufficient information
to do a second course (other than Intro to alg./prog.) based upon the
programming-in-the-large, generics, and concurrency chapters.

- Dave
---
David Eichmann
Dept. of Statistics and Computer Science
West Virginia University                  Phone: (304) 293-3607
Morgantown, WV  26506                     Email: eichmann@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu

Graphical User Interfaces in Ada

[David Erickson]

Are there any high-level GUI builders available for Ada
applications running under X, Microsoft Windows, or the Macintosh
Desktop Interface?

I am teaching a course in user-interface design, to students who
program mostly in Ada, and who have access to Macintoshes/Meridian Ada, 
PCs/Integrada or AdaZ, and Suns/Verdix Ada.

I want to concentrate on the design aspects, rather than the low-level
programming aspects, but I would like the students to complete a working 
course project.

The kind of functionality I am looking for is a tool which has editors for
each of the standard widgits (I am less interested in having the students
create new, non-standard controls), which generates the event loop and handles 
the low-level details, and calls the appropriate user-supplied Ada procedures.

-Dave Erickson

Re: Ada text for CS2 course

[jncs]

In article <1401@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu>, eichmann@cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (David Eichmann) writes:
>bonak@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Esmail Bonakdarian) writes:
>
>>I am looking at a possible replacement for our current Ada text in use 
>>for the CS2 class I teach. I currently have been using the 3rd edition 
>>of "Programming in Ada"  by Barnes, but now am looking for alternatives.
>
>D. Watt, B. Wichmann, and W. Findlay, Ada: Language and Methodology,
>Prentice Hall, 1987.
>
>   I just received this, and so haven't looked at it in detail.  At first
>   glance it appears to fall somewhere inbetween Skansholm and Volper/Katz.

I have used this one on several semester for the second programming course;
students are assumed to have taken the first programming class using Ada.
I find it solid from, the point of view of Ada syntax and usage. But it is
rather weak on software engineering concepts. It only has one chapter with
addresses software engineering issues (chapter 16), and a case study wich 
includes tasking, thus not adequate for this level. I could only recommend it
for the Ada portion.

I used the Young book several years ago. It was again a purely Ada book, very
little on software engineering per se.

Jaime Nino
Computer Science
University of New Orleans

Re: Ada text for CS2 course

[Larry Carroll]

In article <5253@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> bonak@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Esmail Bonakdarian) writes:
>I am looking at a possible replacement for our current Ada text in use 
>for the CS2 class I teach.

I suggest Norman Cohen's _Ada as a Second Languange_ (despite the title's
presumption of prior experience).  It IS long, but the length is because of
very clear discussions of sometimes difficult topics, and lots of good
examples--I consider examples absolutely essential.  Also, I suggest using half
of the text for one course, and the remainder for a second course. (I think
it's a mistake to try to teach all of Ada in a single course.)

Each chapter has an excellent summary at the end, also good questions and
exercises.  Many of the chapters have sections that are optional, making it 
easier for teachers to skip material they consider too detailed or advanced.

Re: Ada text for CS2 course

[Rob Spray]

In <1991Apr11.231425.29838@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> larryc@puente.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) writes:

>I suggest Norman Cohen's _Ada as a Second Languange_ (despite the title's
>presumption of prior experience). ... 

If the title was Ada as a First Language, what language would
the book be written in?  The title is not "Ada as a Second 
Programming Language".

Seriously though, this is the Ada book I recommend to 
programmers in industry, and I haven't had any complaints.


Rob Spray, Software Quality Manager, CONVEX Computer Corporation
3000 Waterview Parkway,PO Box 833851 MS QAE,Richardson TX 75083-3851 USA
214/497-4110 (o);214/497-4441 (fax);spray@convex.com; ...uunet!convex!spray

Re: Ada text for CS2 course

[Dennis Doubleday]

spray@convex.com (Rob Spray) writes:
larryc@puente.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) writes:
>>I suggest Norman Cohen's _Ada as a Second Languange_ (despite the title's
>>presumption of prior experience). ... 
>
>If the title was Ada as a First Language, what language would
>the book be written in?  The title is not "Ada as a Second 
>Programming Language".

From the preface: "The book is entitled "Ada as a Second Language"
because it is an introduction to the Ada programming language, but not
an introduction to programming.  We assume the reader is familiar with
certain fundamental programming notions...The first language can be
any statement-oriented high-level language.  However, we pay
particular attention to FORTRAN, PL/I, and Pascal."

So he really DOES mean a second *programming* language.


-- 
Dennis Doubleday  (dd@sei.cmu.edu)                     _   /|
Software Engineering Institute                         \'o.O'
Carnegie Mellon University                ACK! PTHFT!  =(___)=
Pittsburgh, PA 15213  (412)268-5873                       U