From: Magnus.Kempe@di.epfl.ch (Magnus Kempe)
Subject: Ada FAQ: comp.lang.ada (part 2 of 3)
Date: 19 Dec 1994 16:54:27 GMT
Date: 1994-12-19T16:54:27+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <3d4ds3$s4b@disunms.epfl.ch> (raw)
Archive-name: Ada/comp-lang-ada/part2
Comp-lang-ada-archive-name: comp-lang-ada/part2
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 19 December 1994
Last-posted: 1 December 1994
comp.lang.ada
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This is part 2 of a 3-part posting.
Part 3 begins with question 9; it should be the next posting in this thread.
Part 1 should be the previous posting in this thread.
5: Organizations that deal with Ada and Ada issues
5.1: Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO)
The AJPO is part of the Department of Defense; it facilitates the
implementation of the DoD's Software Initiative (Ada) throughout the
Services, and maintains the integrity of the Ada language. (The AJPO
sponsors the AdaIC.)
The address is:
Ada Joint Program Office
Defense Information Systems Agency
701 South Courthouse Road
Arlington, VA 22204-2199
703/604-4619 (autovon 664-4619)
fax: 703/685-7019
The current Director and Deputy Directors are:
Acting Director
Donald Reifer
Air Force Liaison
Maj M. Dirk Rogers (rogersd@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu)
Navy Deputy Liaison
Joan McGarity (mcgarity@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Army Deputy Liaison
MAJ Charlotte Lee (leec@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu)
DISA Liaison
David Basel (baseld@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu)
5.2: Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)
The Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC) provides a full spectrum of
information on Ada to anyone interested in finding out more about the
programming language. IIT Research Institute operates the AdaIC for
the Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO).
The address is:
Ada Information Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 46593
Washington, DC 20050-6593
1-800-AdaIC-11 (232-4211), 703/685-1477; fax: 703/685-7019
The AdaIC publishes a quarterly newsletter, which contains current
news, Ada conference reports, announcements from the AJPO Director,
and articles on projects using Ada. If you would like to receive a
copy of the AdaIC newsletter, please call and request a subscription.
There's no charge. The AdaIC also regularly updates and publishes more
than 70 separate information flyers. Flyer topics include:
* Ada Validated Compilers
* Ada News and Current Events
* Ada Usage
* Ada 9X Project
* On-line sources of Ada Information
* Ada Bibliographies
* Ada Compiler Validation and Evaluation
* Resources for Ada Education and Training
* Ada Software, Tools, and Interfaces
* Ada Regulations, Policies, and Mandates
* Ada Historical Information
One of the most commonly requested flyers is the Validated Compilers
List. This list, which is updated monthly, contains Ada compilers that
have been validated by the AJPO. For the most current information on
validated Ada compilers, contact the AdaIC.
Practically all AdaIC flyers are available via anonymous FTP from the
AJPO host, in directory ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public.
5.3: Association of Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Ada (ACM
SIGAda)
SIGAda's bimonthly publication is Ada Letters.
Price for non-members: $55 (Annual ACM membership dues, $82; students,
$25).
Otherwise it costs $20 per year to ACM members; $10 per year to ACM
student members.
The address is:
Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
212/869-7440
SIGAda also has a number of committees and working groups on a variety
of topics.
5.4: ISO Working Group 9 (ISO-IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG9, WG9 for short)
This is a working group that deals with Ada within the International
Standardization Organization. Within WG-9, are several Rapporteur
(rap) groups:
* ARG: Ada Rapporteur Group -- Comments and Interpretations
* CRG: Character Rapporteur Group -- International Character Sets
* IRG: Information Systems Rapporteur Group -- Decimal Arithmetic
* NRG: Numerics Rapporteur Group -- NUMWG packages
* RRG: Real-Time Rapporteur Group -- ExTRA
* SRG: SQL Interfaces Rapporteur Group -- SAMeDL
* URG: Uniformity Rapporteur Group -- Portability through Uniformity
* XRG: Ada 9X Rapporteur Group
Ada Rapporteur Group (ARG):
This is the group responsible for evaluating comments on the
Ada standard. Officially, the group is only developing a
technical report addressing comments and questions concerning
the ISO standard for Ada. (Arcane ISO rules prevent the ARG or
WG9 from issuing "official" interpretations of a standard.) In
practice, when a response to a comment is approved by WG9, the
response is taken into account by the Ada Validation Office and
affects the test suite. The documents containing comments on
the standard and ARG responses are called "Ada Commentaries"
and are given numbers of the form AI-ddddd/vv, where vv is a
version number.
Comments and questions about the Ada standard should be sent to
ada-comment@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu, using the format specified in the
Ada standard. You can receive e-mail notification of an update
to a commentary (optionally including the text of the
commentary) by sending a request to
ada-comment@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu. Commentaries are generally
updated only a few times each year. The text of all
commentaries is available by anonymous FTP from the AJPO site
in the account public/ada-comment. A detailed discussion of ARG
procedures and the format of commentaries can be found in the
ada-comment account in the file arg-procedures.doc. A
reformatted copy of the Reference Manual that includes
WG9-approved commentaries is available from Karl Nyberg
(karl@grebyn.com).
Uniformity Rapporteur Group (URG)
Responsible for evaluating Uniformity Issues (UIs). UIs
specify/recommend specific choices for the compiler
implementor, where the language permits implementation freedom.
The "canonical example" is UI-8, on integer types. This UI
recommends that integers be at least 32 bits, and provides
names for the other predefined integer types. The goal of the
URG and the UI's is to further Ada portability by providing
uniform implementations of implementation-dependent features
commonly used by Ada applications.
_________________________________________________________________
6: Tools
6.1: Is there an Ada-mode for Emacs?
There are, in fact, 4 Ada modes for Emacs!
* the most recent one, available by FTP, is in
ftp://cs.nyu.edu/pub/gnat/emacs-ada-mode.
This is still work under development but it is already quite
usable. The main features are:
+ TAB ---> indent (almost always correctly)
+ compile and parse the errors (with the cursor at the right
line AND column)
+ highlight keywords and comments
+ create skeletons for all Ada constructs (both 83 and 9x)
+ goto next (previous) subprogram/package/task
+ goto beginning of syntactic construct
+ name completion (when it is a subprogram defined in the file)
+ untabify, remove trailing spaces automatically before saving
+ C-c TAB ---> format subprogram specs in GNAT style
+ and much more to come...
The 2 main developers are Markus Heritsch (who works under the
direction of Franco Gasperoni at ENST, Paris) and Rolf Ebert
(Munich, Germany).
* a simple ada-mode shipped as part of the emacs distribution (note:
it seems it doesn't work correctly);
* a more elaborate one from Steven D. Litvintchouk of Mitre Corp
called electric-ada (available from?--NO INFORMATION); and
* gnu-ada mode. Here is a small description of the features of this
mode:
Compile programs within emacs
Run compiler as inferior of Emacs, and parse its error
messages. NOTE: I believe that this feature will only
work with VADS, but it might have been tailored to work
with other compilers.
Ada dired
It supplies a form of dired that helps manage the VADS
environment, and it adds ADA vads commands into ada mode.
Unlike a previous dired-ada implementation, this version
uses the existing dired mode functions except where there
is unresolvable conflict. Thus, this is more like a minor
mode to dired. Very important because on actual version
of emacs 19(beta), in fact lemacs (lucid emacs), dired
has changed and we can no longer use gnu-ada mode :-(
you can consult the Ada Language Reference Manual (*) during
parsing error message.
(*)You can get one in e.g. the Public Ada Library.
smart indentation
Tries hard to do all the indenting automatically.
Emphasizes correct insertion of new code using smart
templates.
Smart template commands (bnf)
This is essentially a bnf processor/language-sensitive
editor. The next message will give you an ada bnf file
that you can use within ada-mode to expand nonterminals.
But you can roll your own grammars (e.g., your design
grammar or an ADL) and put them in *.bnf files ... The
BNF rule set is stored as a list of rules.
debugging Ada programs within emacs
A facility is provided for the simultaneous display of
the source code in one window, while using a.db to step
through a function in the other. A small arrow "=>" in
the source window, indicates the current line.
Move from procedure to procedure or package to package
tags Ada
and other things ...
You can find the gnu-ada mode in
ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/infoada/gnu as well as in the PAL,
under directory
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/languages/ada/swtools/emacs/adamode.
6.2: Are there versions of lex and yacc that generate Ada code?
The Arcadia project produced the tools aflex and ayacc, both written
in Ada and producing Ada code. They can be found in directory
ftp://liege.ics.uci.edu/pub/irus (Internet address: 128.195.1.5,
128.195.13.1).
6.3: Where can I get a yacc/ayacc grammar to read Ada code?
A yacc and lex grammar for Ada 83 is available via FTP from the
comp.compiler archives at primost.cs.wisc.edu and via e-mail from the
compilers server at compilers-server@iecc.cambridge.ma.us .
A yacc grammar for Ada 9X is available in
ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/ada9x/rm9x/grammar9x.y
and a lex grammar for Ada 9X is available in
ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/ada9x/rm9x/lexer9x.l.
6.4: What is Anna, and where can I get it?
Anna is a language for formally specifying Ada programs. It extends
Ada with various different kinds of specification constructs from ones
as simple as assertions, to as complex as algebraic specifications. A
whole lot of tools have been implemented for Anna, including:
1. The standard DIANA extension packages, parsers, pretty-printers.
2. Semantic checker (very similar to standard semantic checkers for
programming languages).
3. Specification analyzer -- this is a tool used to test a
specification for correctness before a program based on the
specification is written.
4. Annotation transformer -- this transforms Anna specification
constructs into checks on the Ada program that is developed based
on the specification. This tool is currently in the process of
being enhanced so that it can handle at least all the legal Ada
programs in the ACVC test-suite.
5. Runtime debugger -- The instrumented program output by the
annotation transormer can be run with a special debugger that
allows program debugging based on formal specifications.
All tools have been developed in Ada and are therefore extremely
portable. Anna has been ported to many platforms, details of which can
be obtained from the person who handles Anna releases. You can send
e-mail to anna-request@anna.stanford.edu for answers to such
questions. Actually, there is also a mailing list --
anna-users@anna.stanford.edu. Send e-mail to the earlier address if
you want to get on this list.
One could view Anna and its toolset as a *very* significant
enhancement of assertions that are provided in languages such as C
(using the assert statement). The enhancements are in the form of both
(1) many more high level specification constructs; and (2) more
sophisticated tool support.
However, there are those who would not even wish to compare Anna with
C assertions! :-)
The Anna tools may be found in directory
ftp://anna.stanford.edu/pub/anna.
6.5: What is DRAGOON, and where can I get it?
DRAGOON is a language, implemented as an Ada preprocessor (i.e., it
generates pure Ada). DRAGOON is truly object-oriented, including
complete support for multiple inheritance. A very nice feature of
DRAGOON not found in many OO languages is the concept of "behavioral"
inheritance. This allows you to keep the concurrent behavior of object
separated from the object class hierarchy.
The book by Colin Atkinson, "Object-Oriented Reuse, Concurrency and
Distribution: An Ada-Based Approach" (ACM Press, 1991, ISBN:
0201565277), is very well written and describes the language
succinctly and completely.
For a copy of the preprocessor, contact:
Mr. Andrea Di Maio
TXT Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A.
Via Socrate, 41
20128 Milan, ITALY
phone: + 39-2-2700 1001
6.6: Where can I get language translators?
The AdaIC maintains a Products and Tools Database on its bulletin
board (703/614-0215), and one of the categories is translators. (The
list of products should not be considered exhaustive; if you wish to
suggest additions, please contact the AdaIC.) Besides access to the
database via the bulletin board, you can also call the AdaIC
(800-AdaIC-11 or 703/685-1477) and ask for a customized search.
Should I?
In addition to all the usual caveats, however, it should also be noted
that translation itself is a controversial issue.
When a project makes the transition to Ada from some other language,
one question that arises is whether to translate older code into Ada.
Among the immediate considerations are how much of the code can in
fact be translated by a program intended for that purpose, versus how
much will still require re-coding by hand. And will the translated
code suffer a significant loss in speed of execution? Further, a
project must consider whether the translated code will reflect sound
software engineering and be readily understandable and modifiable. Or
will the translated code be merely "Fortranized Ada" or "Cobolized
Ada", or the like, possibly retaining limitations present in the
earlier code? Portability is also a problem.
The resolution of such issues will require an understanding of the
earlier code, an appreciation of the similarities and differences
between its language and Ada, and an evaluation of the translation
program under consideration.
6.7: What is ASIS?
The Ada Semantic Interface Specification is a layered
vendor-independent open architecture. ASIS queries and services
provide a consistent interface to information within the Ada Program
Library created at compile time. Clients of ASIS are shielded and free
from the implementation details of each Ada compiler vendor's
proprietary library and intermediate representation.
ASIS Version 1.1.0 is the latest version of the ASIS83 1.1 (Ada 83) de
facto industry standard. It differs from the previous ASIS83 Version
1.1 in errata, clarifications, and two new functions in
Asis.Declarations (Implicit_Components and
Implicit_Variant_Components).
ASIS Version 2.0.0 is the Ada 9x version of ASIS, called ASIS9X. As
errors, misunderstandings, and clarifications are discovered, the ASIS
Working Group will release new edited versions of the specification.
The latest working draft for ASIS is ASIS 1.1.0, dated July 1993.
Your comments are welcome, if you wish to see replies to your
comments, please join the e-mail discussion group (discussed below)
first.
6.7.1: How can I find out more about ASIS?
Can I take part in its development? The following electronic mail
forums now exist for the ASISWG.
asiswg-technical@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
technical discussions
asiswg@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
high-level non-technical discussions
To have your email address added to these forums, send e-mail to:
asiswg-technical-request@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
asiswg-request@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Include your preferred e-mail address, name, telephone number, and
surface mail address.
6.7.2: How can I get hold of ASIS?
ASIS 2.0.0, 1.1.1, and 1.1.0 (along with the earlier version 1.1) are
available from directory ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/asis.
If you do not have Internet FTP access, the AJPO host provides
mail-server capabilities. To get more information about the
mail-server, send e-mail to "ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu", and address
your message as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: help
To get a copy of the /public/asis/README file, address your e-mail as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: file-request asis/README
To get a "directory" listing of /public/asis/v1.1.0, address your
e-mail as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: directory asis
To get any of the various files, e.g.,
/public/asis/v1.1.1/asis_1.1.1.asc.ps, address your e-mail as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: file-request asis/v1.1.1/asis_1.1.1.asc.ps
The filename pattern may include the "*" wildcard.
Files have been compressed into .zip files. On Unix hosts, you can
uncompress with unzip, and under DOS with PKUNZIP (at least version
2.04).
_________________________________________________________________
7: Bindings
7.1: General
The AdaIC (see question 5.2, above) has a report on "Available Ada
Bindings". It can be ordered in hardcopy as flyer T82, and it can be
downloaded from the AdaIC Bulletin Board (703/604-4624) as
bindings.txt. It is also available by anonymous FTP on the AJPO host
in ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/dev-tool/bindings.txt.
7.2: POSIX/Ada
7.2.1: What is the status of the POSIX/Ada work?
The IEEE approved IEEE Standard 1003.5-1992 in June 1992. This is the
Ada Binding to the facilities defined in ISO 9945-1:1989/IEEE
1003.1-1990, the POSIX System Services.
IEEE Standards Committee P1003.5 is now working on Ada bindings to
IEEE draft standards 1003.4, Real-Time Extensions and 1003.4a, Threads
Extensions. Current plans call for an IEEE ballot in October 1993,
with IEEE approval in September 1995. For more information, contact
the P1003.5 Chairman, Jim Lonjers (lonjers@vfl.paramax.com,
805/987-9457).
7.2.2: How can I get a copy of POSIX/Ada?
You can buy a copy of the standard from the IEEE. The order number is
"SH 15354", and the mailing address is "IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes
Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331". They will accept credit-card orders
at 1-800/678-4333. The cost is $62.50 + $5.00 s/h ($43.75 + $4.00 s/h
for IEEE Members).
7.2.3: Is it available via FTP?
Current IEEE policy prohibits electronic distribution of IEEE
standards. Proceeds from the sale of IEEE standards help support the
IEEE standards program. However, The POSIX P1003.5 committee has been
able to work out an arrangement with the IEEE to make the POSIX/Ada
package specifications available for distribution via e-mail and
anonymous FTP from directory
ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/dev-tool/POSIX. The AJPO files are
also mirrored at the PAL.
7.3: How do I interface X Window System with Ada?
This question turns out to be pretty darn hard to answer easily.
There are at least three variables that need to be filled:
1. platform where you are going to be running.
2. compiler you would like to use.
3. level/flavor of X you would like to run (e.g., just need bindings
to Xlib, want Openlook as opposed to Motif, etc).
Once you fill all three of the above, then you can start to get
answers. In order to keep the answer brief, companies that offer such
products are simply listed, along with locations where free versions
are available.
Before giving you the list, a little history is in order. The first
Xlib bindings that were publically available were done by SAIC for
STARS. This implementation had many bugs, but it was there, and it was
free. This version was eventually withdrawn from the STARS repository,
and has now been replaced with a better one. In addition, SAIC has
done an Xt implementation based on these Xlib bindings (also for
STARS). NOTE: the above description may well be inaccurate,
corrections are welcome.
Now, for the list:
First off, there is a pretty complete list of available bindings
for X as well as other stuff at the AdaIC.
FTP Location:
ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/dev-tool/bindings.txt
Free versions:
STARS: bindings to Xlib and Xt. Available on
source.asset.com.
Note: the ASSET host no longer takes anonymous FTP. To
request an account, contact: info@source.asset.com
Non-free versions:
SERC: bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
contact: well!sercmail@apple.com (Scott Cleveland)
Verdix: bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
(Note that bindings to Xview are included with the SunAda Sun4 compiler)
contact: moskow@verdix.com (Paul Moskowitz)
ATC: bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
contact: ???
TeleSoft (now part of Alsys): bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
(TeleWindows)
(Note that bindings to Xview are included with the TeleSoft Sun4 compiler)
contact: marketng@alsys.com
X-based GUI (Graphical User Interface) Builders:
Objective (OIS): Screen Machine
contact: Phil Carrasco (703/264-1900)
TeleSoft (now part of Alsys): TeleUSE
contact: philippe@telesoft.com
EVB Software Engineering, Inc. : GRAMMI
contact : info@evb.com
or info_server@evb.com with subject "send grammi"
Sun Microsystems: DevGuide
contact: ???
SERC: UIL-to-Ada code generator
(not really a GUI-builder, but works with several builders to
generate Ada instead of other languages).
contact: well!sercmail@apple.com (Scott Cleveland)
_________________________________________________________________
8: Is there a list of good Ada books?
Just for a list of texts, etc. (no evaluations or recommendations),
you might take a look at
ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/public/ed-train/adabooks.txt.
An Annotated Sampling of Ada-Oriented Textbooks
September 1994
Michael B. Feldman
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-5919 (voice)
(202) 994-0227 (fax)
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu
(with contributions from Jack Beidler, Duane Jarc, Suzanne Pawlan Levy,
Mathew Lodge, and David Weller, as indicated by their initials following
their reviews)
As chair of the SIGAda Education Working Group, and a denizen of the
Internet newsgroups, I am often asked to give references for "Ada
textbooks." This list responds to these many queries.
The textbooks in the Group 1 are written especially for students without
programming experience, who are learning Ada as their first language.
Most of these can also cover at least part of a typical CS2-level
course. The books in Group 2 use Ada as their language of
discourse but are "subject-oriented:" data structures, file structures,
compilers, comparative languages. The remaining books in Group 3 are
either "Ada books" focusing on the language features or more general
books that use Ada, at least in part, but do not fit obviously into a
standard curriculum "pigeonhole."
I invite you to add to the list. Please write your annotated entry in
the form I have used here and write or e-mail it to me. I will include
it in my next version and credit you as a co-compiler of the list.
Disclaimers: I wrote two of the texts listed here; I hope the
annotations are impartial enough. And any annotated bibliography is
selective and opinionated. Your mileage may vary.
Group 1: Books Suitable for a First Course in Programming
Bover, D.C.C., K.J. Maciunas, and M.J. Oudshoorn.
Ada: A First Course in Programming and Software Engineering.
Addison-Wesley, 1992.
This work is, to our knowledge, the first Ada book to emerge from
Australia, from a group of authors with much collective experience in
teaching Ada to first-year students. A number of interesting examples
are presented, for example, an Othello game. The book is full of gentle
humor, a definite advantage in a world of dry and serious texts. In the
book's favor is the large number of complete programs. On the other
hand, it is rather "European" in its terseness; American teachers may
miss the pedagogical apparatus and "hand-holding" typically found in
today's CS1 books. Generic units are hardly mentioned.
Culwin, F. Ada: a Developmental Approach.
Prentice-Hall, 1992.
This work introduces Ada along with a good first-year approach to
software development methodology. Much attention is paid to program
design, documentation, and testing. Enough material is present in data
structures and algorithm analysis is present to carry a CS2 course. A
drawback of the book is that the first third is quite "Pascal-like" in
its presentation order: procedures, including nested ones, are presented
rather early, and packages are deferred until nearly the middle of the
book. This is certainly not a fatal flaw, but it will frustrate teachers
wishing a more package-oriented presentation. The programs and solutions
are apparently available from the author.
Dale, N., D. Weems, and J. McCormick.
Programming and Problem Solving with Ada. D. C. Heath, 1994.
This book is inspired by Dale and Weems' very successful Introduction to
Pascal and Structured Design, but it is not simply an Ada version. Ada's
more advanced capabilities such as exceptions, packages and generic units
are included in this text. In addition, more than half of the material is
completely new, and the order of the topics is signficantly different. It
also has more of a software engineering focus than the Pascal version. The
only Ada topics not included in this text are tasks and access types.
Procedures and packages are introduced early. Each chapter includes case
studies, testing and debugging hints and excellent non-programming exercises
and programming problems. The text comes with a program disk containing all
the programs given in the book. In addition, a validated Meridian Ada
compiler with complete documentation is available at low cost to students
using this book. (S. P. L.)
DeLillo, N. J.
A First Course in Computer Science with Ada.
Irwin, 1993.
This book is a first in the Ada literature: a version comes with an
Ada compiler, the AETech-IntegrAda version of Janus Ada. Author, publisher,
and software supplier are to be commended for their courage in this.
The book itself covers all the usual CS1 topics. In my opinion, the order
of presentation is a bit too Pascal-like, with functions and procedures
introduced in Chapter 5 (of 15) and no sign of packages (other than Text_IO)
until Chapter 10. Unconstrained arrays and generics are, however, done
nicely for this level, and Chapter 13 is entirely devoted to a single
nontrivial case study, a statistical package. I wish there were more
complete programs in the early chapters, to put the (otherwise good)
discussion of control and data structures in better context.
Feldman, M.B., and E.B. Koffman.
Ada: Problem Solving and Program Design.
Addison-Wesley, 1991.
This work combines the successful material from Koffman's CS1 pedagogy
with a software-engineering-oriented Ada presentation order. Packages
are introduced early and emphasized heavily; chapters on abstract data
types, unconstrained arrays, generics, recursion, and dynamic data
structures appear later. The last five chapters, combined with some
language-independent algorithm theory, can serve as the basis of a CS2
course. A diskette with all the fully-worked packages and examples
(about 180) is included; the instructor's manual contains a diskette
with project solutions.
Savitch, W.J. and C.G. Petersen.
Ada: an Introduction to the Art and Science of Programming.
Benjamin/Cummings, 1992.
This is a straightforward adaptation of the well-known Savitch Pascal
books. Ada is introduced in a Pascal-like order, with subtypes and
packages introduced halfway through the book. This is purely a CS1 book.
The final chapter covers dynamic data structures. There is minimal coverage
of unconstrained array types; generics are introduced at the halfway
point to explain Text_IO, then continued only in the final chapter. The
authors intended this book to provide a painless transition to Ada for
teachers of Pascal; one wishes they had taken advantage of the chance to
show some of the interesting Ada concepts as well. Program examples from
the text are available on disk, but only as part of the instructor's
manual; a solutions disk is available for a fee from the authors.
Skansholm, J. Ada from the Beginning. (2nd ed.)
Addison Wesley, 1994.
This book was one of the first to use Ada with CS1-style pedagogy.
There are excellent sections on the idiosyncracies of interactive I/O (a
problem in all languages), and a sufficient number of fully-worked
examples to satisfy students. Generics, linked lists and recursion are
covered at the end; there is no tasking coverage, but one would not
expect this at CS1-level. A very interesting addition is the new
Chapter 14, in which OOP in both Ada 83 and Ada 94 is discussed.
This is an especially lucid explanation of OOP in Ada, and makes a real
contribution because it doesn't just discuss tagged types as a "feature"
of Ada 94, but shows very nicely what is possible in Ada 83 (instead
of just what is _not_ possible), and shows how Ada 94 adds functionality.
Smith, James F., and Thomas S. Frank
Introduction to Programming Concepts and Methods with Ada
McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994
This is a well written and easy to use text. The book takes a spiraled
approach to CS 1. The authors do an excellent job integrating Ada into
the book. They take a very direct approach, especially with an early
introduction to the package concept and the traditional Text_IO package.
Faculty who have taught CS 1 with Pascal should like this book. Instead
of making a big fanfare about Ada features, they simply introduce them
as good support for software development concepts. The authors have
carefully chosen the Ada topics they decided to cover in this book in
order to strike a balance between staying true to the CS 1 course while
presenting enough of the programming language. If you teach CS 1 you
might at least want to get a copy of this text just to look at two
chapters, Chapter 7 and Chapter 14. Seven covers program correctness and
run-time event (exception handling) and fourteen is a beautiful presentation
and example of generic packaging. Both presentations are done in an
appropriate manner for CS 1. (J. B.)
Volper, D., and M. Katz. Introduction to Programming Using Ada.
Prentice-Hall, 1990.
This book uses a heavily "spiraled" approach to Ada, and is designed
for a 2-semester course, covering nearly all of Ada eventually. There
are lots of fully-coded examples, and good pedagogical sections on
testing, coding style, etc. If you like spiraling, you'll like this. The
down side is that you can't find all you need on a given subject in one
place. It's at the other end of the scale from the "Ada books" that
follow the Ada Language Reference Manual (LRM) order.
Group 2: Other Books Intended for Undergraduate Courses
Ben-Ari, M. Principles of Concurrent and Distributed Programming.
Prentice-Hall 1990. (OS/concurrency)
In my opinion, this is the best introduction to concurrency on the
market. Ada notation is used for everything, but the focus is on
concurrency and not on Ada constructs per se. I liked the CoPascal
notation of the first edition better, but this book is still great. A
software disk is promised in the preface; I had to work quite hard to
get it from the publisher, which finally had to express-ship it from
England. The software comes with a tiny Ada-ish interpreter, complete
with Pascal source code, adapted from Wirth's Pascal/S via CoPascal.
There are also some real Ada programs, most of which I've tested and
found correct and portable.
Feldman, M.B. Data Structures with Ada.
Addison Wesley, 1993.
(CS2/data structures)
This book is a reasonable approximation to a modern CS2 book: "big O"
analysis, linked lists, queues and stacks, graphs, trees, hash methods,
and sorting, are all covered. The Ada is a bit old-fashioned, especially
the lack of generics; the book was published before compilers could
handle generics. The packages and other programs are available free from
the author. The book is currently under revision with Addison-Wesley and
should appear in 1995.
Fischer, C., and R. LeBlanc. Crafting a Compiler.
Benjamin Cummings, 1988. (compilers)
This book uses Ada as its language of discourse and Ada/CS, a usefully
large Ada subset, as the language being compiled. If you can get the
"plain Pascal" tool software by ftp from the authors, you'll have a good
translator-writing toolset. Skip the Turbo Pascal diskette version,
which is missing too many pieces to be useful. I've used the book since
it came out with both undergrad and graduate compiler courses; it
embodies a good blend of theory and "how it's really done" coding.
Students like it. The authors have recently published a second version,
which uses C as its coding language but retains Ada/CS as the language
being compiled.
Hillam, Bruce. Introduction to Abstract Data Types Using Ada.
Prentice-Hall, 1994. (data structures)
This is a very readable treatment of data structures presented using Ada
that makes good use of Ada features such as generics. It contain many
complete programs and packages. Unfortunately, obvious syntax errors make
it apparent that not all examples have been compiled. The level of
presentation is somewhere between an elementary, CS 2, data structures
course and an advanced, CS 7, course. A subset of first eleven chapters
provide the appropriate topics for a CS 2 course, but not the pedagogy
necessary for a course at that level. (D. J.)
Lomuto, N. Problem-Solving Methods with Examples in Ada.
Prentice-Hall, 1987.(algorithms)
Inspired by Polya's classic How to Solve It, this book can make a nice
addition to an Ada-oriented algorithms course. It makes too many
assumptions about students' programming background to use as a CS1 book,
and doesn't teach enough Ada to be an "Ada book." But it makes nice
reading for students sophisticated enough to handle it. I'd classify it
as similar to Bentley's Programming Pearls.
Miller, N.E. and C.G. Petersen. File Structures with Ada.
Benjamin/Cummings, 1990. (file structures)
Designed for a straightforward ACM-curriculum file structures course,
this book succeeds at what it does. There are good discussions of ISAM
and B-tree organizations. The software can be purchased a low cost from
the authors; it seems to approximate in Ada all those C-based file
packages advertised in programmer-oriented trade publications.
Schneider, G.M., and S.C. Bruell.
Concepts in Data Structures and Software Development (with Ada
Supplement by P. Texel).
West, 1991. (CS2/data structures)
This work is not, strictly speaking, an Ada book; rather, it is a
solid, language-independent approach to modern CS2. The language of
discourse in the book is a Pascal-like ADT language rather like Modula-2
in style; some examples are coded in legal Pascal. The Ada supplement
makes it usable in an Ada-based course, but the supplement is rather too
terse (100 pages of large type) for my taste, and insufficiently well
keyed to the book chapters. The supplement's effectiveness would be
greatly enhanced by full translations to Ada of a large number of the
book's examples.
Sebesta, R.W. Concepts of Programming Languages (2nd ed.).
Benjamin Cummings, 1993. (comparative languages)
If you've been around for a while, you might remember the late Mark
Elson's 1975 book by the same title. This is similar: a concept-by-
concept presentation, with -- in each chapter -- examples taken from
several languages. I include this work in an "Ada list" because I like its
nice, impartial coverage of Ada. I especially like the chapters on
abstraction and exception handling. The book covers -- comparatively,
of course -- most of the lanuages you'd like to see, including C, C++,
Lisp, Smalltalk, etc., with nice historical chapters as well. The book
is readable; my students like it. Our undergraduate and graduate courses
both use it as a base text.
Weiss, M.A.
Data Structures and Algorithms in Ada.
Benjamin/Cummings, 1993.
I think this book reaches its intended market -- data structures courses
(CS7) -- rather well with Ada. There's a good mixture of theory and practice
(ADT design, for example), and coverage of new topics like amortized algorithm
analysis and splay trees. A book at this level should not pay too much
attention to teaching a language; rather it should make good use of its
language of discourse. The Ada version does not attempt to teach either the
language or Ada-style software engineering, but shows good understanding of
the language, uses generic packages quite well and focuses on the theory of
algorithms, as a book at this level should. This is the first, and so far
the only, text in Ada for this course.
Group 3: A Selection of Other Ada-Related Books
Barnes, J.
Programming in Ada. (4th edition)
Addison-Wesley, 1994.
Barnes' work has been one of the most popular "Ada books." Some students
find it hard to see how the pieces fit together from Barnes' often
fragmentary examples; it is difficult to find complete, fully-worked out,
compilable programs. This just-out fourth edition has a 100-page summary of
Ada 9X.
Booch, G.
Software Components with Ada.
Benjamin Cummings, 1987.
This work is an encyclopedic presentation of data structure packages
from Booch's OOD point of view. It is great for those who love
taxonomies. It's not for the faint-hearted, because the volume of
material can be overwhelming. It could serve as a text for an advanced
data structures course, but it's thin in "big O" analysis and other
algorithm-theory matters. The book is keyed to the (purchasable) Booch
Components.
Booch, G. and D. Bryan
Software Engineering with Ada. (3rd edition)
Benjamin/Cummings 1994.
Another of the classical "Ada books." Introduces Booch's OOD ideas. Not
for use to introduce Ada to novices, in my opinion; there are some nice
fully-worked case studies but they begin too far into the book, after long
sections on design, philosophy, and language elements. The earlier chapters
contain too much fragmentary code, a common flaw in books that follow the LRM
order. The third edition contains an appendix describing Ada 9X.
Bryan, D.L., and G.O. Mendal. Exploring Ada, Volumes 1.and 2.
Prentice-Hall, 1990 and 1992 respectively.
This is an excellent study of some of the interesting nooks and
crannies of Ada; it sometimes gets tricky and "language-lawyerly."
Volume 2 takes up tasking, generics, exceptions, derived types, scope
and visibility; Volume 1 covers everything else. The programs are short
and narrowly focused on specific language issues. If you like Bryan's
"Dear Ada" column in Ada Letters, you'll like this book. It is certainly
not a book for beginners, but great fun for those who know Ada already
and wish to explore.
Burns, Alan, and Geoff Davies.
Concurrent Programming.
Addison-Wesley, 1993, ISBN 0-201-54417-2
Solid book covering all aspects of writing concurrent software. Uses
a version of Pascal called FC-Pascal (available for free through the
Internet). The FC means "Functionally Concurrent". It has constructs
that are similar to Ada 9X, and this is by no accident -- the authors
frequently point out that the implementations in FC-Pascal are taken
from Ada 9X's Tasks and Protected Types. Covers lots of low-level problems
by gradually building up from simple examples. Highly recommended for a
Concurrent Programming class. Exercises and Further readings are provided
at the end of each chapter. (D.W.)
Burns, Alan and Wellings, Andy
Real Time Systems and their Programming Languages
Addison-Wesley 1990. (ISBN 0-201-17529-0)
This is an excellent and unique book. Basic concepts and terminology are
explained before moving on to explain the major aspects of real time design.
"Real world" examples are presented in Ada, Modula-2 and occam 2, though
Ada is clearly the authors' language of choice and gets the most coverage.
Topics covered include reliability and fault tolerance, concurrency,
synchronisation, scheduling, message passing, atomic transactions, resource
control, distributed systems and low-level device control. Efficiency is not
neglected, and Ada support here is particularly strong with detail on the
CIFO package. Several case studies are also presented. The only failing of
the book is that it needs updating to cover Ada 9x and its real-time annex,
Modula-3 etc. However, the basic concepts that the authors convey so clearly
are independent of implementation language. (M. L.)
Cohen, N. Ada as a Second Language.
McGraw Hill, 1986.
This book is a quite comprehensive exploration of Ada which
follows the LRM in its presentation order. My graduate students like it
because it is more detailed and complete than alternative texts. It's an
excellent book for students who know their languages and want to study
all of Ada. There are good discussions of "why's and wherefore's" and
many long, fully-worked examples.
Gauthier, M. Ada: Un Apprentissage (in French).
Dunod, 1989.
I found this an especially interesting, almost philosophical approach
to Ada. The first section presents Ada in the context of more general
laguage principles: types, genericity, reusability. The second section
introduces testing and documentation concerns, as well as tasking; the
third considers generics and variant records in the more general context
of polymorphism. For mature Ada students in the French-speaking world,
and others who can follow technical French, this book can serve as a
different slant on the conventional presentations of the language. An
English translation would be a real contribution to the Ada literature.
Gehani, N. Ada: an Advanced Introduction (2nd edition).
Prentice-Hall, 1989.
I've always liked Gehani's literate writing style; he knows his
languages and treats Ada in an interesting, mature, and balanced
fashion. This book comes with a diskette sealed in the back of the book,
which is advantageous because the book has numerous nontrivial, fully-
worked examples.
Gehani, N. Ada: Concurrent Programming (2nd edition).
Silicon Press, 1991.
This is a less formal, more Ada-oriented presentation of concurrency
than the Ben-Ari work. I use both books in my concurrency course; its
real strength is the large number of nontrivial, fully worked examples.
Gehani offers a nice critique of the tasking model from the point of
view of an OS person. The preface promises the availability of a
software disk from the publisher.
Naiditch, D.J. Rendezvous with Ada
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1989.
A nice, relatively quick survey of the language for experienced
programmers. Warning: there are not too many complete programs here, at
least at the beginning. But overall, this is a good choice, less overwhelming
than, say, Cohen, for "learning the language" quickly.
Nyberg, K. (editor) The Annotated Ada Reference Manual.(2nd edition)
Grebyn Corporation, 1991.
This is the definitive work on Ada legalities, because it presents not
only the full text of the LRM but also the official Ada Interpretations
as prepared by the Ada Rapporteur Group of Working Group 9 of the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and approved by
that organization. These commentaries, interleaved with the LRM text,
are promulgated by the Ada Joint Program Office, the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) agent for Ada, in the Ada Compiler Validation
Suite (ACVC). They are thus binding upon compiler developers. I recommend
this book as an essential volume in the library of every serious Ada
enthusiast.
Shumate, K. Understanding Ada. (2nd edition)
John Wiley, 1989.
This would make a CS1 book if it included more overall pedagogy,
independent of language constructs. Otherwise it is a nice introduction
to Ada in fairly gentle steps. Lots of completely worked examples, right
from the start. Doesn't follow the LRM order, which is great.
Watt, D.A., B.A. Wichmann, and W. Findlay. Ada Language and Methodology.
Prentice-Hall, 1987.
This work presents some interesting programming projects, and the
coverage of design and testing--at the level of a first-year student--is
quite good. The first third of the book concentrates heavily on
classical control and data structures, leaving exceptions, packages and
even procedures until the "programming in the large" material in the
second third. CS2 teachers will find too little concentration on
algorithm analysis. On the other hand, tasking and machine-dependent
programming are covered. Like the Shumate work, this book would make a
suitable introduction to Ada for students with a semester or so of
programming experience; it "jumps in" too quickly to satisfy the needs
of neophytes and is not well-tailored to CS1 or CS2 needs.
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