Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[wrp]

Out of the hundreds of Ada books that have been published, only a
handful of recent ones get any attention these days. This is
understandable, since the great majority of existing books were
written for Ada83. It seems a shame, though, that so much intellectual
heritage is just discarded. So, I have combed through the older
titles, looking for books that might still be worthwhile reading for
the Ada95/05/12 programmer.

None of these books are in my library, so I can't comment on them. If
you can offer an evaluation of any, please do. There may be other good
books that I've missed. In 1996, someone posted a long list of
available titles here.

https://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ada/browse_thread/thread/3b7f6ce4e14a4ee7/

--------------------------------------------

Agrawala. Mission Critical Operating Systems.

Buhr. Practical Visual Techniques in System Design with Applications
to Ada.

Ford. Scientific Ada.

Gautier. Software Reuse with Ada.

Gehani. Ada: Concurrent Programming.

Haberman. Ada for Experienced Programmers.

Ichbiah. Rationale for the Design of the Ada Programming Language.

Keeffe. Pulse: An Ada-Based Distributed Operating System.

Le Verrand. Evaluating Ada.

Motet. Design of Dependable Ada Software.

Pyle. Developing Safety Systems: A Guide Using Ada.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Simon Wright]

wrp <i3text@gmail.com> writes:

> Buhr. Practical Visual Techniques in System Design with Applications
> to Ada.

If this is "System Design with Ada", the author created a graphical
representation of every Ada (83) construct.

I was unable to understand how this was supposed to be better than using
Ada directly.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 14/07/2012 23:44, Simon Wright a �crit :
> wrp <i3text@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Buhr. Practical Visual Techniques in System Design with Applications
>> to Ada.
> 
> If this is "System Design with Ada", the author created a graphical
> representation of every Ada (83) construct.
> 
> I was unable to understand how this was supposed to be better than using
> Ada directly.
> 
AFAIR, Buhr's was not a grapical representation for Ada constructs, but
for a design method, based on ASM.

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Simon Wright]

"J-P. Rosen" <rosen@adalog.fr> writes:

> Le 14/07/2012 23:44, Simon Wright a écrit :
>> wrp <i3text@gmail.com> writes:
>> 
>>> Buhr. Practical Visual Techniques in System Design with Applications
>>> to Ada.
>> 
>> If this is "System Design with Ada", the author created a graphical
>> representation of every Ada (83) construct.
>> 
>> I was unable to understand how this was supposed to be better than using
>> Ada directly.
>> 
> AFAIR, Buhr's was not a grapical representation for Ada constructs, but
> for a design method, based on ASM.

There may be two different books, of course. The one I used to have was
definitely about Ada.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[wrp]

On Jul 15, 4:29 am, Simon Wright <si...@pushface.org> wrote:
> "J-P. Rosen" <ro...@adalog.fr> writes:
> > Le 14/07/2012 23:44, Simon Wright a écrit :
> > AFAIR, Buhr's was not a grapical representation for Ada constructs, but
> > for a design method, based on ASM.
>
> There may be two different books, of course. The one I used to have was
> definitely about Ada.

You remember right. From what I read online, it seems Bhur started
with

    Buhr. 1984. System design with Ada.

in which he introduced his graphical notation. I guess he chose Ada
because it was the hip language of the day. Then he refined his system
and downplayed Ada in

    Buhr. 1990. Practical visual techniques in system design: with
applications to Ada.

and finally dropped Ada in

    Buhr. 1995. Use Case Maps for Object-Oriented Systems.

I thought that since Ada was his working language during development,
he might have included features to make his notation more suited to
Ada than UML is.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 14/07/2012 23:13, wrp a �crit :
> None of these books are in my library, so I can't comment on them. If
> you can offer an evaluation of any, please do. There may be other good
> books that I've missed. In 1996, someone posted a long list of
> available titles here.

> Le Verrand. Evaluating Ada.
> 
Forget this one. It's about preliminary Ada (pre-83), and is full of
nonsense.

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Ada novice]

Books I have seen:

1. Haberman. Ada for Experienced Programmers
Compares Ada and Pascal side by side. Programs are given mainly for numerical computations. Felt that it discussed too much of the program implementation in Pascal rather than in Ada. Not that good book for Ada.

2. Ford. Scientific Ada
Much of what is in the book about scientific computations is found in Ada standards. Discusses a few algorithms here and there but otherwise not much interesting.

Haven't seen this one:
Pyle. Developing Safety Systems: A Guide Using Ada

but perhaps it can be close to one of the author's other The ADA programming language : a guide for programmers from 1985, which was a readable and well written book.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Bill Findlay]

On 15/07/2012 14:33, in article
3c8f0f00-14e0-4059-9a3a-66fb2547d7a6@googlegroups.com, "Ada novice"
<shai.lesh@gmx.com> wrote:

> Books I have seen:
> 
> 1. Haberman. Ada for Experienced Programmers
> Compares Ada and Pascal side by side. Programs are given mainly for numerical
> computations. Felt that it discussed too much of the program implementation in
> Pascal rather than in Ada. Not that good book for Ada.
> 
> 2. Ford. Scientific Ada
> Much of what is in the book about scientific computations is found in Ada
> standards. Discusses a few algorithms here and there but otherwise not much
> interesting.
> 
> Haven't seen this one:
> Pyle. Developing Safety Systems: A Guide Using Ada
> 
> but perhaps it can be close to one of the author's other The ADA programming
> language : a guide for programmers from 1985, which was a readable and well
> written book.

If we are talking about ancient artifacts, there is always:

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

... which has one of the original designers of Ada as a co-author, a
placatory foreword by Tony Hoare, and, of course, moi!

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

 

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[wrp]

On Jul 15, 6:33 am, Ada novice <shai.l...@gmx.com> wrote:
> Books I have seen:
>
> 1. Haberman. Ada for Experienced Programmers
> Compares Ada and Pascal side by side.

Yeah. The title should be _A Comparison of Ada and Pascal_. If that is
what you want, a review I read said that Haberman did a good job. The
question is whether the contents are now too dated.

> 2. Ford. Scientific Ada
> Discusses a few algorithms here and there but otherwise not much interesting.

I sometimes see questions from researchers trying to choose Fortran
vs. Ada for numerical work. This seems to be the only book-length
evaluation of Ada in that respect. I wonder how it compares to the
relevant parts of _Ada as a Second Language_ or _Programming in Ada
2005_.

Contents:
1. The Rationale for Ada
2. Ada as General Scientific Language
3. Ada and Fortran
4. Pascal to Ada Conversion
5. Ada and Other Scientific Languages: A Critique
6. Ada: Style and Recommendations
7. Ada: Numerics
8. Ada Packages
9. Ada: Error Mechanisms, Exceptions and Generics
10. Guidelines for the Design of Large Modular Scientific Libraries in
Ada

> Haven't seen this one:
> Pyle. Developing Safety Systems: A Guide Using Ada

Here are some snips from a review. Sounds like it might still have
some useful tidbits.

...The construction of software for critical systems is addressed in
three sections covering requirements analysis, design principles, and
quality assurance...

...The section on design deals with general principles of software
design, static structure using Ada packages, algorithm design in Ada,
and controlling devices in Ada...

...the author has a clear understanding of correctness, formality, and
rigor, concepts that sometimes suffer from poor explanation...

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Patrick]

I bought about 20 Ada books a few months ago and that got too busy with my day job to read them. I bought them from abebooks.com . Many were $1 each, some up to $5. At that price even a good chapter is worth the money

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Randy Brukardt]

"Ada novice" <shai.lesh@gmx.com> wrote in message 
news:3c8f0f00-14e0-4059-9a3a-66fb2547d7a6@googlegroups.com...
> Books I have seen:
...
> Haven't seen this one:
> Pyle. Developing Safety Systems: A Guide Using Ada
>
> but perhaps it can be close to one of the author's other The ADA 
> programming language
> : a guide for programmers from 1985, which was a readable and well written 
> book.

We used to distribute this to our customers that needed an introduction to 
Ada.

The Ada Programming Language, I.C. Pyle (a green cover).

(I just got a copy off of our Ada bookshelf - I never throw anything out.)

We eventually replaced it by:

Ada: An Advanced Introduction, Narian Gehani (a blue cover).

which we thought was more readable. (I'm holding it right now, but I'm not 
going to go read it to see...)

After that, we developed and printed our own introduction to Ada.

I've got at least a dozen other books, most of which I barely remember and 
probably never looked in.

The only ones I really remember was Norm Cohen's "Ada as a Second Language" 
(which sadly someone took home and never returned to RR's library), and 
Do-While Jones "Ada in Action". Both were pretty good for their time.

Most the content of these books is covered in modern books like "Ada 
Distilled" and John Barnes' huge "Programming in Ada 2005".

                                         Randy.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Thu, 19 Jul 2012 01:33:23 -0500, Randy Brukardt wrote:

> We eventually replaced it by:
> 
> Ada: An Advanced Introduction, Narian Gehani (a blue cover).

Narain, actually.

> which we thought was more readable. (I'm holding it right now, but I'm not 
> going to go read it to see...)

The best book on Ada ever, IMO.

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

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Brian Drummond]

On Thu, 19 Jul 2012 01:33:23 -0500, Randy Brukardt wrote:

> "Ada novice" <shai.lesh@gmx.com> wrote in message
> news:3c8f0f00-14e0-4059-9a3a-66fb2547d7a6@googlegroups.com...
>> Books I have seen:

> We used to distribute this to our customers that needed an introduction
> to Ada.
> 
> The Ada Programming Language, I.C. Pyle (a green cover).
...
> Ada: An Advanced Introduction, Narian Gehani (a blue cover).
> 
> which we thought was more readable. (I'm holding it right now, but I'm
> not going to go read it to see...)

One not mentioned so far is Grady Booch and Doug Bryan : Software 
Engineering with Ada. I don't know how well it is regarded now, but I 
thought it was good when I read it. Given the Booch Components are still 
around, it may be worth considering.

- Brian

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Simon Wright]

Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk> writes:

> One not mentioned so far is Grady Booch and Doug Bryan : Software
> Engineering with Ada. I don't know how well it is regarded now, but I
> thought it was good when I read it. Given the Booch Components are
> still around, it may be worth considering.

The book discusses the Original Booch Components, at
http://www.adapower.com/original_booch/, not the Ada 95 components at
https://sourceforge.net/projects/booch95/.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Georg Bauhaus]

On 19.07.12 20:46, Simon Wright wrote:
> Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
>> One not mentioned so far is Grady Booch and Doug Bryan : Software
>> Engineering with Ada. I don't know how well it is regarded now, but I
>> thought it was good when I read it. Given the Booch Components are
>> still around, it may be worth considering.
>
> The book discusses the Original Booch Components, at
> http://www.adapower.com/original_booch/, not the Ada 95 components at
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/booch95/.
>

I think there are two different books here, the first by Booch and Bryan,
Software Engineering with Ada (1994 (3rd ed.) and earlier);
the second by Booch: Software Components with Ada (1987).

There is one recurring pattern in the first book, maybe worth
mentioning:

  * Identify the objects
  * Identify the operations
  * Establish the visibility
  * Establish the interface
(* Evaluate the objects )
  * Implement each object

The authors explain these steps in an introductory section
titled "An Object-Oriented Design Method".

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Simon Wright]

Georg Bauhaus <rm.dash-bauhaus@futureapps.de> writes:

> On 19.07.12 20:46, Simon Wright wrote:
>> Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk> writes:
>>
>>> One not mentioned so far is Grady Booch and Doug Bryan : Software
>>> Engineering with Ada. I don't know how well it is regarded now, but
>>> I thought it was good when I read it. Given the Booch Components are
>>> still around, it may be worth considering.
>>
>> The book discusses the Original Booch Components, at
>> http://www.adapower.com/original_booch/, not the Ada 95 components at
>> https://sourceforge.net/projects/booch95/.
>
> I think there are two different books here, the first by Booch and
> Bryan, Software Engineering with Ada (1994 (3rd ed.) and earlier); the
> second by Booch: Software Components with Ada (1987).

You're right as far as the 1987 book is concerned (the big black one),
which is the one I was thinking of.

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Brian Drummond]

On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:34:01 +0200, Georg Bauhaus wrote:

> On 19.07.12 20:46, Simon Wright wrote:
>> Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk> writes:
>>
>>> One not mentioned so far is Grady Booch and Doug Bryan : Software
>>> Engineering with Ada. I don't know how well it is regarded now, but I
>>> thought it was good when I read it. Given the Booch Components are
>>> still around, it may be worth considering.
>>
>> The book discusses the Original Booch Components, at
>> http://www.adapower.com/original_booch/, not the Ada 95 components at
>> https://sourceforge.net/projects/booch95/.
>>
>>
> I think there are two different books here, the first by Booch and
> Bryan,
> Software Engineering with Ada (1994 (3rd ed.) and earlier);
> the second by Booch: Software Components with Ada (1987).
> 
> There is one recurring pattern in the first book, maybe worth
> mentioning:
> 
>   * Identify the objects 
>   * Identify the operations 
>   * Establish the visibility 
>   * Establish the interface
> (* Evaluate the objects )
>   * Implement each object
> 
> The authors explain these steps in an introductory section titled "An
> Object-Oriented Design Method".

Thanks Georg,
I was unaware of the second book, but thought the first would be a good 
exposition of the thought process behind them.

The design method he describes has a distinctly ... dated, or perhaps 
classical? feel in these days of "extreme programming" and "test driven 
development". 

Is it still relevant, outside of areas that can afford the full weight of 
formal methods because they *have* to be right?

I believe both ends of the spectrum have their place. "Write only what 
you need to", "compile and test early and often" are appropriate where 
you really don't know what you are doing - perhaps the customer doesn't 
either, or the hardware you are driving is poorly documented.

But where much of the job is clear, I try to follow the basic approach 
here.

- Brian

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Shark8]

On Friday, July 20, 2012 4:05:11 AM UTC-6, Brian Drummond wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:34:01 +0200, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> 
> > On 19.07.12 20:46, Simon Wright wrote:
> >> Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk> writes:
> >>
> >>> One not mentioned so far is Grady Booch and Doug Bryan : Software
> >>> Engineering with Ada. I don't know how well it is regarded now, but I
> >>> thought it was good when I read it. Given the Booch Components are
> >>> still around, it may be worth considering.
> >>
> >> The book discusses the Original Booch Components, at
> >> http://www.adapower.com/original_booch/, not the Ada 95 components at
> >> https://sourceforge.net/projects/booch95/.
> >>
> >>
> > I think there are two different books here, the first by Booch and
> > Bryan,
> > Software Engineering with Ada (1994 (3rd ed.) and earlier);
> > the second by Booch: Software Components with Ada (1987).
> > 
> > There is one recurring pattern in the first book, maybe worth
> > mentioning:
> > 
> >   * Identify the objects 
> >   * Identify the operations 
> >   * Establish the visibility 
> >   * Establish the interface
> > (* Evaluate the objects )
> >   * Implement each object
> > 
> > The authors explain these steps in an introductory section titled "An
> > Object-Oriented Design Method".
> 
> Thanks Georg,
> I was unaware of the second book, but thought the first would be a good 
> exposition of the thought process behind them.
> 
> The design method he describes has a distinctly ... dated, or perhaps 
> classical? feel in these days of "extreme programming" and "test driven 
> development". 
> 
> Is it still relevant, outside of areas that can afford the full weight of 
> formal methods because they *have* to be right?
> 
> I believe both ends of the spectrum have their place. "Write only what 
> you need to", "compile and test early and often" are appropriate where 
> you really don't know what you are doing - perhaps the customer doesn't 
> either, or the hardware you are driving is poorly documented.
> 
> But where much of the job is clear, I try to follow the basic approach 
> here.
> 
> - Brian

Is that the grey book? And did it have a section on "stream-oriented programming" where the idea was to view the program as operating on a stream of info, instead of the 'Stream construct/attribute? (I lost the book and then moved so most of my Ada books aren't available to me ATM.)

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Brian Drummond]

On Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:15:50 -0700, Shark8 wrote:

> On Friday, July 20, 2012 4:05:11 AM UTC-6, Brian Drummond wrote:
>> On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:34:01 +0200, Georg Bauhaus wrote:

>> > I think there are two different books here, the first by Booch and
>> > Bryan,
>> > Software Engineering with Ada (1994 (3rd ed.) and earlier);
>> > the second by Booch: Software Components with Ada (1987).

>> Thanks Georg,
>> I was unaware of the second book, but thought the first would be a good
>> exposition of the thought process behind them.

> Is that the grey book? And did it have a section on "stream-oriented
> programming" where the idea was to view the program as operating on a
> stream of info, instead of the 'Stream construct/attribute? (I lost the
> book and then moved so most of my Ada books aren't available to me ATM.)

Light grey cover, yes. But I can't find anything explicitly about stream-
oriented programming in it (the 3rd edition), nor is the word "stream" 
even in the index.

- Brian

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Shark8]

On Sunday, July 22, 2012 5:55:10 AM UTC-6, Brian Drummond wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:15:50 -0700, Shark8 wrote:
> 
> > On Friday, July 20, 2012 4:05:11 AM UTC-6, Brian Drummond wrote:
> >> On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:34:01 +0200, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> 
> >> > I think there are two different books here, the first by Booch and
> >> > Bryan,
> >> > Software Engineering with Ada (1994 (3rd ed.) and earlier);
> >> > the second by Booch: Software Components with Ada (1987).
> 
> >> Thanks Georg,
> >> I was unaware of the second book, but thought the first would be a good
> >> exposition of the thought process behind them.
> 
> > Is that the grey book? And did it have a section on "stream-oriented
> > programming" where the idea was to view the program as operating on a
> > stream of info, instead of the 'Stream construct/attribute? (I lost the
> > book and then moved so most of my Ada books aren't available to me ATM.)
> 
> Light grey cover, yes. But I can't find anything explicitly about stream-
> oriented programming in it (the 3rd edition), nor is the word "stream" 
> even in the index.
> 
> - Brian

Hm, Thank you. I might be misremembering, it has been a while and I lost the book after my initial skimming, but prior to really reading. :(

The concept seemed fairly intriguing, and when I google it up I always get the 'Stream attribute (and related functions).

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[Georg Bauhaus]

On 14.07.12 23:13, wrp wrote:
> Ichbiah. Rationale for the Design of the Ada Programming Language.

This one is the first in an ongoing series, and available online at

http://archive.adaic.com/standards/83rat/html/ratl-TOC.html

The full list of authors seems to be
J. Ichbiah
J. Barnes.
R. Firth
and M. Woodger

Re: Pre-Ada95 books still worth reading

[wrp]

On Jul 14, 2:13 pm, wrp <i3t...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...I have combed through the older
> titles, looking for books that might still be worthwhile reading for
> the Ada95/05/12 programmer.

It turns out that somebody around here did have some of these books,
so I've been able to review them.

Ford. 1986. Scientific Ada.
    Although scientific computing is not my area, I found this book
really interesting. It gives an in-depth discussion of issues in
creating numerical libraries and the use of Ada 83 for that purpose.
Several of the contributors worked on NAG libraries in Fortran or
Algol 68, so they had a lot of practical knowledge to draw on. They
were writing at a time when people thought that Fortran was going to
fade away and soon everyone would be using Ada, so they spent a lot of
time discussing aspects in which they thought Ada wasn't as good as
Fortran. Their biggest complaint was about access types, but I think
later Ada answered those complaints. They have several other concerns
that still seem relevant, though.
    For the general programmer, Ch. 5 "Ada and other Scientific
Languages: A Critique", will be the most interesting part. It briefly
compares Ada 83 and Fortran 77. In short, they say Ada is much nicer
for general programming but much worse for numerics. Of course, modern
Fortran is little like F77.

Gautier. 1990. Software Reuse with Ada.
    This is about 200 pages of small print, containing contributed
papers from a workshop on the subject of the title. The content is for
the most part general observations you could find in any text on
software engineering. About half the book describes usage of
particular Ada features. While the information may be some use, my
impression was that most of the advice was obvious to an experienced
programmer. There are also many criticisms of Ada, but they seem to be
things that were addressed in Ada 95.

Gehani. 1984. Ada: Concurrent Programming.
    Well, writing is choppy, coverage is sketchy, code is old-style,
and he uses some obsolete features, but Gehani occasionally presents
an idea more clearly than do Burns & Wellings in _Concurrent and Real-
Time Programming in Ada_. Some interesting references in the annotated
bibliography.

Habermann. 1983. Ada for Experienced Programmers.
    The goal of this book is to present major features of Ada to
experienced Pascal programmers. To that end, it has 16 chapters,
following the format 1) present a problem, 2) discuss how to solve it
in Pascal, 3) discuss how to solve it in Ada. The writing is not
polished and explanations are minimal. Even if I knew Pascal well, I
wouldn't choose this book to learn anything about Ada. Also, the
quality of the Ada code doesn't seem great, maybe because it's pre-Ada
83.

Keeffe. 1985. PULSE: An Ada-based Distributed Operating System.
    This is a sketchy description of a project to create a Unix-like
distributed operation system with Ada. They fudged quite a bit on the
Ada part, as they wrote the kernel in C for efficiency reasons. There
are only two subjects on which they get into interesting detail. First
is their distributed file system, which turned out to give very poor
performance relative to Unix. The other is their great dissatisfaction
with Ada's tasking model, which they discuss in a 35-page appendix. I
think, but am not sure, that Ada 2005 dealt with their issues.