Re: introdution of Ada

Re: introdution of Ada

[Peter Milliken]

Sorry, I can't agree with the recommendations about the Barnes book. I found
it difficult to read (I used the 2nd edition many years ago, but it doesn't
appear to have changed much with successive revisions). The snippets of code
rarely compile or can be used stand-a-lone. I am working with some engineers
at the moment who are learning Ada and they have expressed a similar opinion
about the latest edition of Barnes' book - how it ever became the icon it
is, is beyond me :-).

My recommendations are:

Ada95 by English (I think the title is correct, I don't have it here, I
loaned it to a friend who gave up on his Barnes edition :-)) - a very
"readable" book that develops real examples as the book progresses.

Rendezvous with Ada95 by Naidatch - again, another very "readable" book.

Then, to top them off, get "Ada as a Second Language" by Cohen - a must for
any Ada programmer, I just wished it was hardback instead of paperback, an
1100+ page book doesn't fair that well when bound any other way.

Good luck
Peter

u7192105@tknet.tku.edu.tw wrote:

> I am raedy to select a language to learn.I have hread some of Ada.I want
> to know the site or books about Ada.
>             Thanks

introdution of Ada

[u7192105]

I am raedy to select a language to learn.I have hread some of Ada.I want
to know the site or books about Ada.
            Thanks

Re: introdution of Ada

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

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u7192105@tknet.tku.edu.tw wrote:
: I am raedy to select a language to learn.I have hread some of Ada.
: I want to know the site or books about Ada.

You should visit <URL:http://www.adahome.com/>. There you can find on-line
resources to learn Ada, as well as reviews of various books on Ada.

Good luck,

Jacob

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--  Jacob Sparre Andersen     --  E-mail: Jacob.Sparre.Andersen@risoe.dk  --
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Re: introdution of Ada

[Frank Ecke]

On Thu, 01 Oct 1998 02:22:17, u7192105@tknet.tku.edu.tw wrote:

> I am raedy to select a language to learn.I have hread some of Ada.I want
> to know the site or books about Ada.

A good starting point is www.adahome.com, which contains a myriad of links to
other Ada-related sites.

   As far as books are concerned, Barnes' ``Programming in Ada 95'' is a
classic.  Documents of utmost importance for every Ada programmer are the
Ada Language Reference Manual and the Ada Rationale (they are both available
online at www.adahome.com).  You might also wish to take a look at the book
section at www.adahome.com/Resources/Books/ada95reviews.html, which contains
useful information about books on Ada.


Hope this helps.


Frank

--
Frank Ecke <franke@minet.uni-jena.de>


       In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates?

Re: introdution of Ada

[Pat Rogers]

>> I am raedy to select a language to learn.I have hread some of
Ada.I want
>> to know the site or books about Ada.


<snipped good reply info>

>As far as books are concerned, Barnes' ``Programming in Ada 95'' is
a
>classic.  Documents of utmost importance for every Ada programmer
are the
>Ada Language Reference Manual and the Ada Rationale (they are both
available
>online at www.adahome.com).

I also recommend Barnes' books for beginners, and the Rationale is
an excellent resource for those new to the language.  However, I
strongly urge you not to (try to) use the language Reference Manual
as a learning tool.  They don't call it a "reference" document for
nothing.

-- pat

Patrick Rogers
progers@acm.org
http://www.neosoft.com/~progers

Re: introdution of Ada

[Tucker Taft]

Pat Rogers (progers@acm.org) wrote:

: ... However, I
: strongly urge you not to (try to) use the language Reference Manual
: as a learning tool.  They don't call it a "reference" document for
: nothing.

One new interesting book is "Ada for Software Engineers" by
M. Ben-Ari, because it can be used as something like a "reader's 
guide" to the Ada 95 Reference Manual.  In each section, it
includes relevant "boxed" quotes from the reference manual, preceded
and followed by quite readable explanations and helpful examples.

: -- pat

: Patrick Rogers
: progers@acm.org
: http://www.neosoft.com/~progers

--
-Tucker Taft   stt@inmet.com   http://www.inmet.com/~stt/
Intermetrics, Inc.  Burlington, MA  USA
An AverStar Company

Re: introdution of Ada

[Tucker Taft]

Peter Milliken (peter.milliken@boeing.com) wrote:

: ... I can't agree with the recommendations about the Barnes book.
: ... The snippets of code rarely compile or can be used stand-a-lone. 

The latest edition of John Barnes' Ada 95 book (just out) includes a 
number of longer, complete examples.

: ...
: Peter

--
-Tucker Taft   stt@inmet.com   http://www.inmet.com/~stt/
Intermetrics, Inc.  Burlington, MA  USA
An AverStar Company

Re: introdution of Ada

[paulwade]

>
> The latest edition of John Barnes' Ada 95 book (just out) includes a
> number of longer, complete examples.
>
> : ...
> : Peter


There is further information on this new book at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201342936/bibs/
if you are interested in it.
:Paul

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Re: introdution of Ada

[Brian Rogoff]

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Peter Milliken wrote:

> Sorry, I can't agree with the recommendations about the Barnes book. I found
> it difficult to read (I used the 2nd edition many years ago, but it doesn't
> appear to have changed much with successive revisions). The snippets of code
> rarely compile or can be used stand-a-lone. 

The newest edition has six complete example programs, including one
example of a storage allocator using the Storage_Pools facility. I agree
that this is probably not a book to use as an introduction to Ada, though
I like it as a reference.

> My recommendations are:
> 
> Ada95 by English (I think the title is correct, I don't have it here, I
> loaned it to a friend who gave up on his Barnes edition :-)) - a very
> "readable" book that develops real examples as the book progresses.

Yes, the title is "Ada 95: The Craft of Object Oriented Programming". This 
would be my first choice as an introduction to Ada. I have a few nits to
pick with various opinions he puts forth in the book, but they're pretty
minor. http://www.comp.it.brighton.ac.uk/je/adacraft/ will provide more
info.

> Then, to top them off, get "Ada as a Second Language" by Cohen - a must for
> any Ada programmer, I just wished it was hardback instead of paperback, an
> 1100+ page book doesn't fair that well when bound any other way.

Amen to all of that. I think Cohen's book can wait until the programmer
has decided that they'll continue to use Ada; so I'd suggest that the 
poster just get English's book to decide whether they like Ada or not.

-- Brian

Re: introdution of Ada

[alan walkington]

I have a serious problem with ANY of the highly praised Ada95 books I have
seen.
As an experienced Ada programmer, I want something that relates IMMEDIATELY
to class wide programming, and tells me in OO  terms how to accomplish
inheritance,
dispatching, and initialization/destruction. I'm on a project where we are
using the
"REAL THING" and I could use some constructive help.

English doesn't get to it till chapter 14, and Ada as a Second Language
waits until page 500
and something. Neither of the authors seem to approach the subject from a
real OO perspective.
How about a chapter on implementing some common 'Patterns' in Ada?


I would like to see an Ada95 for C++ programmers approach ( or  Java or
Smalltalk programmers,
or any real OO language).

The lexicon chosen by Ada is such that when I try to discuss something with
non-Ada
OO programmers, often neither of us are able to communicate. An abstract
tagged type
with a private declaration doesn't mean much to a Java junky!

Oh well, I am interested if anyone knows of a book out there that doesn't
spend most of
its printed pages tell everyone how to write better Ada83 code in Ada95??

Alan Walkington
walky@netmagic.net

Peter Milliken wrote in message <3612B151.2A43E9FC@boeing.com>...
>Sorry, I can't agree with the recommendations about the Barnes book. I
found
>it difficult to read (I used the 2nd edition many years ago, but it doesn't
>appear to have changed much with successive revisions). The snippets of
code
>rarely compile or can be used stand-a-lone. I am working with some
engineers
>at the moment who are learning Ada and they have expressed a similar
opinion
>about the latest edition of Barnes' book - how it ever became the icon it
>is, is beyond me :-).
>
>My recommendations are:
>
>Ada95 by English (I think the title is correct, I don't have it here, I
>loaned it to a friend who gave up on his Barnes edition :-)) - a very
>"readable" book that develops real examples as the book progresses.
>
>Rendezvous with Ada95 by Naidatch - again, another very "readable" book.
>
>Then, to top them off, get "Ada as a Second Language" by Cohen - a must for
>any Ada programmer, I just wished it was hardback instead of paperback, an
>1100+ page book doesn't fair that well when bound any other way.
>
>Good luck
>Peter
>
>u7192105@tknet.tku.edu.tw wrote:
>
>> I am raedy to select a language to learn.I have hread some of Ada.I want
>> to know the site or books about Ada.
>>             Thanks
>
>
>

Re: introdution of Ada

[David C. Hoos, Sr.]

alan walkington wrote in message <6vcd5s$d87$1@usenet41.supernews.com>...
Here are two titles that may help:

Ada 95 for C and C ++ Programmers (International Computer Science Series)
by Simon Johnston
Paperback - 400 pages Bk&Cd Rom edition (September 1997)
Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN: 0201403633 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.84 x
9.21 x 6.80

Object-Oriented Software in Ada 95
by Michael A. Smith, Mike A. Smith Our Price: $34.95
Paperback (December 1995)
International Thomson Publishing; ISBN: 185032185X ; Dimensions (in inches):
0.92 x 9.40 x 7.44


David C. Hoos, Sr.

Re: introdution of Ada

[dewarr]

In article <6vcd5s$d87$1@usenet41.supernews.com>,
  "alan walkington" <walky@netmagic.net> wrote:
> I have a serious problem with ANY of the highly praised Ada95 books I have
> seen.
> As an experienced Ada programmer, I want something that relates IMMEDIATELY
> to class wide programming, and tells me in OO  terms how to accomplish
> inheritance,
> dispatching, and initialization/destruction. I'm on a project where we are
> using the
> "REAL THING" and I could use some constructive help.
>
> English doesn't get to it till chapter 14, and Ada as a Second Language
> waits until page 500
> and something. Neither of the authors seem to approach the subject from a
> real OO perspective.
> How about a chapter on implementing some common 'Patterns' in Ada?
>
> I would like to see an Ada95 for C++ programmers approach ( or  Java or
> Smalltalk programmers,
> or any real OO language).


That definitely sounds useful.

P.S. I would stay away from using the term "real OO language". It is highly
provocative, and in particular, almost no one would apply this term to C++ :-)
OO is a design approach, for which it is useful to have language support. For
some people "real OO" means that this is the ONLY design approach that is
acceptable in the language. Whether this is a good idea, is an endless
discussion, whose utility causes a constraint error at the negative end of
any reasonable discrete type.

But the basic idea of an Ada book that started at this level, in particular
aimed at C++ programmers, is an interesting one. Actually it is surprising
this has not been done yet ???

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Re: introdution of Ada

[Marc A. Criley]

dewarr@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> 
> In article <6vcd5s$d87$1@usenet41.supernews.com>,
>   "alan walkington" <walky@netmagic.net> wrote:
> >
> >  <snips>
> >
> > I would like to see an Ada95 for C++ programmers approach ( or  Java or
> > Smalltalk programmers,
> > or any real OO language).
> 
> That definitely sounds useful.
> 
>   <snips 2>
>
> But the basic idea of an Ada book that started at this level, in particular
> aimed at C++ programmers, is an interesting one. Actually it is surprising
> this has not been done yet ???
> 

How about... "Ada 95 for C and C++ Programmers" by Simon Johnston, 1997
             ISBN 0-201-40363-3


-- 
Marc A. Criley
Chief Software Architect
Lockheed Martin ATWCS
marc.a.criley@lmco.com
Phone: (610) 354-7861
Fax  : (610) 354-7308