From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,3885b7fd66a1db28 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-01-10 01:32:43 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!kibo.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!not-for-mail From: john@nospam.demon.co.uk (John McCabe) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Why is Ada a good choice for an ambitious beginner to programming Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 09:29:23 GMT Message-ID: <3e1e911f.2494657@news.demon.co.uk> References: <5ad0dd8a.0212210251.63b87aba@posting.google.com> <3e140e05.3654845@news.demon.co.uk> <3e195055.2269693@news.demon.co.uk> <3E1E36DE.57FE296@adaworks.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: assen.demon.co.uk X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 1042191162 10582 158.152.218.101 (10 Jan 2003 09:32:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 09:32:42 +0000 (UTC) X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.21/32.243 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:32871 Date: 2003-01-10T09:29:23+00:00 List-Id: On Thu, 09 Jan 2003 18:58:38 -0800, Richard Riehle wrote: >John McCabe wrote: > >> I agree with this, but you definitely need to go for one of the books >> written especially for teaching Ada *and* programming together. Norman >> Cohen's book, "Ada as a second language", for example is not designed >> to do that yet is (IMO) one of the best Ada books around. Ada comes >> across as being such a large language that, without a good reference >> guide to what you *need* to know, it could be very easy for a >> beginning programmer to get lost in all the stuff you don't need to >> know. > >One reason I wrote Ada Distilled (downloadable from adaic.org >and adapower.com) was to focus on what the newbie needed to >know to get started with Ada without plowing through a massive >amount of prose and long programs. I believe everyone should >have a copy of Norm Cohen's book if they are serious about Ada, >just as they should have a copy of John Barne's book to fill in a >lot of gaps as well as to see some uniquely conceived examples. To be honest, I've never looked at your book - perhaps I should have! Your suggested use of Barnes' book is interesting - in the past I've found it seriously lacking compared to Cohen, but perhaps I should have a closer look at some point. >The feedback I have received on Ada Distilled is that it has made >Ada more immediately accessible to at least some experienced >programmers than those more complete and arguably much better >books by Cohen and Barnes. That seems reasonable. Best Regards John McCabe To reply by email replace 'nospam' with 'assen'