Can anyone recommend a Good Ada book?

Can anyone recommend a Good Ada book?

[Scott B Moore]

I'm a CS student new to Ada and looking for a good Ada book.  Can anyone
recommend one?  ...thanks

Re: Can anyone recommend a Good Ada book?

[Roy Grimm]

Scott B Moore wrote:
> 
> I'm a CS student new to Ada and looking for a good Ada book.  Can anyone
> recommend one?  ...thanks

I've been using "Programming In Ada, Third Edition" by J.G.P. Barnes and
have loved it.  The book is written as a text book, but I find it is
usefull as a reference book as well.  I used it in a directed study
class when I was in school, and I keep it on my bookshelf at work.  The
only thing I find this book doesn't address is implementation specific,
but those parts are detailed in my development environment
documentation.

I imagine a 4th or even 5th edition has been released since I got the
3rd edition.  My copy does not cover anything about Ada95 (it was
released in 1989), so you probably would want to get the latest release.

-- 
Voicing my own opinion, not speaking as a company representative.

Roy A. Grimm
Rockwell Collins Avionics
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
ragrimm@cca.rockwell.no.spam.com
    (remove the no.spam. to get my real address)

Re: Can anyone recommend a Good Ada book?

[JP Thornley]

In article: <33A5687F.41C6@collins.rockwell.com>  Roy Grimm 
<ragrimm@collins.rockwell.com> writes:
> 
> Scott B Moore wrote:
> > 
> > I'm a CS student new to Ada and looking for a good Ada book.  Can anyone
> > recommend one?  ...thanks
> 
> I've been using "Programming In Ada, Third Edition" by J.G.P. Barnes and
> have loved it.
> 
> I imagine a 4th or even 5th edition has been released since I got the
> 3rd edition.  My copy does not cover anything about Ada95 (it was
> released in 1989), so you probably would want to get the latest 
> release.

A Fourth Edition was published in 1994 which included an overview of
Ada 9X (as it was then).

The Ada 95 version is a new book (called, not surprisingly, Programming 
in Ada 95). This was so the fourth edition of Programming in Ada would 
stay in print. Published 1996 by Addison-Wesley ISBN 0-201-87700-7 and 
equally as recommendable as the Ada 83 book.

If you have any interest in high integrity Ada then you may be 
interested in John Barnes' latest book published earlier this month:

High Integrity Ada - The SPARK Approach
Addison-Wesley 1997, ISBN 0-201-17517-7
approx GPB35.00 in the UK

which includes a CD-ROM with versions of two of the SPARK tools (for 
Win 3.x and 95).

Phil Thornley

------------------------------------------------------------------------
| JP Thornley    EMail jpt@diphi.demon.co.uk                           |
|                      phil.thornley@acm.org                           |
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Can anyone recommend a Good Ada book?

[Alan Brain]

Roy Grimm wrote:
> 
> Scott B Moore wrote:
> >
> > I'm a CS student new to Ada and looking for a good Ada book.  Can anyone
> > recommend one?  ...thanks
> 
> I've been using "Programming In Ada, Third Edition" by J.G.P. Barnes and
> have loved it.  The book is written as a text book, but I find it is
> usefull as a reference book as well.  I used it in a directed study
> class when I was in school, and I keep it on my bookshelf at work.  The
> only thing I find this book doesn't address is implementation specific,
> but those parts are detailed in my development environment
> documentation.

Concur Exactly. Except that I've gone through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
editions. Parallels my own experience, I learnt Ada using 1st edition
back in 83, then kept it and its successors as a reference.
-- 
aebrain@dynamite.com.au     <> <>    How doth the little Crocodile
| Alan & Carmel Brain|      xxxxx       Improve his shining tail?
| Canberra Australia |  xxxxxHxHxxxxxx _MMMMMMMMM_MMMMMMMMM
100026.2014 compuserve o OO*O^^^^O*OO o oo     oo oo     oo  
                    By pulling MAERKLIN Wagons, in 1/220 Scale
See http://www.z-world.com/graphics/z/master/8856.gif for picture

Re: Can anyone recommend a Good Ada book?

[David Wheeler]

: Scott B Moore <sbmoore@cs.buffalo.edu> wrote in article
: <5nope7$b0j@prometheus.acsu.buffalo.edu>...
: > 
: > I'm a CS student new to Ada and looking for a good Ada book.  Can anyone
: > recommend one?  ...thanks
: > 


I'm biased, but I recommend the following book:

"Ada 95: The Lovelace Tutorial" by David A. Wheeler.
The publisher is Springer-Verlag and its ISBN number is 0-387-948-01-5.
It's about 292 pages long and it was published in March 1997.

Here's a quote from the preface that explains its purpose:
"This tutorial explains the basics of the Ada computer programming
 language and assumes that you have had some exposure to some other
 algorithmic programming language (such as Pascal, C, C++, Fortran,
 or BASIC)."

Below is how to order it and what's in it.

============= How to Order the Book ==============

The following are various ways you can order the book:
* You can call Springer-Verlag.
In the U.S., Canada and Mexico their toll-free number is (800) 777-4643.
You can also fax an order to (201) 348-4505 from those three countries.
If you are in another country, contact Springer-Verlag in
Berlin, Germany by phone at 49 30 827 870 or by fax at 49 30 821 4091.

* You can deal with Springer-Verlag electronically.
The web site of Springer-Verlag New York is "http://www.springer-ny.com/".
You can email an order. In the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico send email to
"orders@springer-ny.com", otherwise send email to "orders@springer.de".
 You can order via the web at "http://www.springer-ny.com/ordernew.html".
They take Mastercard, Visa, Discover, or American Express.

* You can order the book electonically through Amazon.com; open URL
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0387948015/".

* You can use the postal service and send a check or money order to
Spinger-Verlag:
   Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
   Attn: Service Center
   333 Meadowlands Parkway
   Secaucus, NJ 07094


============= What's in the Book ==============

Here is a brief outline of the book:
* Lesson 1 - Brief Introduction to Ada.
* Lesson 2 - Basic Ada Structure (Packages).
* Lesson 3 - Ada Lexical Elements.
* Lesson 4 - Procedures and Type Integer.
* Lesson 5 - Statements (if, loop).
* Lesson 6 - Basic Types (Float, Boolean, subtypes, record).
* Lesson 7 - Object-Oriented Programming.
* Lesson 8 - Introduction to String Types.
* Lesson 9 - Basic Input/Output.
* Lesson 10 - Exceptions.
* Lesson 11 - Generics.
* Lesson 12 - Access Types.
* Lesson 13 - Tasks and Protected Types.
* Lesson 14 - Ada-related Information.
* Lesson 15 - Ada Program Structure.
* Lesson 16 - Interfacing to Other Languages (including C and Java).
* Lesson 17 - Miscellaneous Ada Subjects.
* Lesson 18 - Sample Ada Program "Small".
* Appendices - BNF Explanation and Source Code
* Index

The book has questions at the end of each lesson which should
be useful in classroom settings.  It also has diagrams in the
Unified Modeling Language (UML) that describe in detail the example
in lesson 18.


--- David A. Wheeler
    dwheeler@ida.org