Re: Ada books for undergraduate computer science

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <SRCTRAN.91Jun1163012@world.std.com> srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) writes:
>
>	I don't know if anyone amentioned a Pascal book that is perfect for
>conversion to Ada. The book is titled "Pascal: An Introduction to the Art
>and Science of Programming" by Walter Savitch (@ UCSD), and published by
>Benjamin Cummings.

Funny you should mention Savitch. Indeed he is writing an Ada version.
I believe it is due for publication in the spring of 1992.

There are rumors that another Pascal best-seller, Dale/Weems, is being
adapted for Ada; I have no idea of a date, but I think the project may be
just getting started, so don't expect it for perhaps 18 months or so.

This means that 3 of the best-selling Pascal/CS1 authors (Koffman, Savitch,
Dale/Weems) are writing or co-authoring Ada adaptations. Doug Cooper
has just done a Modula-2 version of "Oh! Pascal," called, would you
believe, "Oh, My! Modula-2." I don't know if we'll see an Ada version of this. 

All this adaptation of Pascal best-sellers is a good sign, because it shows
publisher confidence in the viability of the Ada market, and also the
Pascal "big names" will help the Ada books get in the door. By this time
next year, 2 of these will be available (Feldman/Koffman, appearing in
September, currently in production) and Savitch. All these books will be
good CS1, based on tried-and-true pedagogy. My guess is that the Ada
community will be pleased with the Ada-ness of these books as well. None
are "quickie" conversions.

So much for CS1. In the CS2 area, we will have an Ada adaptation of
Webre/Stubbs (from Cal Poly SLO), who've been teaching lots of Ada there,
and whose Pascal and Modula-2 data structures books have done well. Also,
John Beidler (Univ. of Scranton) is finishing up an Ada adaptation of
his very nice M2 stuff. I think it's due soon. There's also that Feldman
thing, which you can get now and which will do in a pinch :-)

It would be nice to see an Ada adaptation of Dale/Lilly, too. I don't know
whether this will happen, but you never know...

All us authors talk to each other a lot, especially at SIGCSE meetings.
We compete but we are friendly competitors.

It has taken courage for publishers to dig into Ada this way - take it from
one who's had many long and agonizing discussions with editors...

Mike