Ada Book

Ada Book

[Rob Spray]

Several of the programmers around here are pleased I recommended they 
buy:
   "Ada as a Second Language" by Norman H. Cohen (McGraw-Hill, 1986)

Norm keeps the evangelizing to a minimum and has copious 
examples.

Rob Spray
Electrospace Systems
...{texsun|killer}!escort!spray
killer!escort!spray@ames.arc.nasa.gov

ada book

[dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!ux1.cso.uiuc]

>Someone recently asked about Ada books.  IMHO the following two books are all
>the Ada books someone needs:
>	Programming in Ada plus LRM by JGP Barnes
>	Software Engineering with Ada by Grady Booch
>
 >Barnes' book is a great reference book and also will teach you the basics of
>luage.  Booch's book helps someone new to Ada start thinking like an Ada 
>Software Engineer.

>Good Luck.
>David Tannen
>tannen@tigger.geg.mot.com
 
Try the one from Micheal Feldman and Elliot Koffman  called
Ada, Programming and Problem solving.
A good one to begin with.

Ivan.

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

Re: ada book

[Michael Feldman]

In article <1v2ltjINNi7o@news.u.washington.edu> ivan@byron.u.washington.edu (Iv
an Bronnaly) writes:
> 
>Try the one from Micheal Feldman and Elliot Koffman  called
>Ada, Programming and Problem solving.
>A good one to begin with.
>
Yo, dude! Thanks for the plug, man! Give my best to the UW!

Mike Feldman

Ada Book

[Adam Epstein]

  Is there a "standard" Ada book similar in form and function to K&R?
If not, which books come closest?  Which do you recommend?

  -Thanx
   -Adam

    ase+@cmu.edu

Re: Ada Book

[David M. Tannen]

In article <3g7iff$96i@panix.com>, Adam Epstein <adam@panix.com> wrote:
>  Is there a "standard" Ada book similar in form and function to K&R?
>If not, which books come closest?  Which do you recommend?
This is definitely a IYO type topic, so here is my opinion:
	Programming in Ada pluse LRM, 3rd Edition by JGP Barnes
	Software Engineering with Ada, by G. Booch

-- 
David Tannen (tannend@source.asset.com)                 TeamAda Member
Christian Acronyms: B.I.B.L.E.=Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
                    G.R.A.C.E.=God's Redemption At Christ's Expense
                    F.A.I.T.H.=Forsaking all, I trust Him

Re: Ada Book

[Michael Feldman]

In article <3g7iff$96i@panix.com>, Adam Epstein <adam@panix.com> wrote:
>  Is there a "standard" Ada book similar in form and function to K&R?
>If not, which books come closest?  Which do you recommend?
>
For brevity in bringing experienced programmers into Ada, I like

Naiditch, D.J.  Rendezvous with Ada
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1989. ISBN 0-471-61654-0
  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.


For better or worse, there is no Ada equivalent to K&R. In my opinion,
this is for the better, for two reasons:

(1) K&R was written by the language _designers_, and - like so many
    language books written by the designers, lacks the perspective
    of a more dispassionate author;

(2) K&R was written (originally) before the C standard existed, so
    people had to rely on it not just for a quick intro but for a
    definitive statementon how the language works. This did not happen
    with Ada, as the standard existed before most of the texts did.

Actually, the _real_ equivalent to K&R was, IMHO, Peter Wegner's
text of 1980 (!) which was unfortunately never revised for compatibility
with the 1983 standard and to get rid of the errors. But that book is
a real gem. LONG out of print.

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada Book

[Robert Dewar]

Really Dave, to say that the Ada RM is the equivalent of K&R is not very
helpful, and is really quite false!

The Ada RM is equivalent to the ANSI C standard (or a fairer comparison,
the the proposed ISO C++ standard).

There is no single Ada book that has quite the status of K&R. What happened
here is that the principle designers of Ada 83 (Jean Ichbiah) and Ada 95
(Tucker Taft) and their associates put their energy into producing the
standards documents (I guess Dave this is the sense in which there is an
equivalence), and K&R put their energy into writing an informal non-standard
description.

There are several books that describe pretty much all of Ada and are about
at the same level as K&R. As has been mentioned, John Barnes's book is int
this category, and indeed John was a member of the original Ada design team.

Re: Ada Book

[Michael Feldman]

In article <ichbiah.199.2F29C44C@jdi.tiac.net>,
Jean D. Ichbiah <ichbiah@jdi.tiac.net> wrote:

>Mike, You will never cease to surprise me: A book written by the
>authors will have a good chance to convey the SPIRIT of the language.
>This is certainly what myself and my colleagues tried to do in the
>the 1983 Ada Rationale.  In spite of many talentuous followers,
>I still consider it (modestly as usual) as one of the bests ever written
>on Ada.

Naturally, mileages vary. I agree that the Rationale was an excellent
document for conveying the spirit of Ada. Had it been completed and
published somewhere in the neighborhood of 1983, it would have been
recognized more widely for what it was. It helped me a lot. On the
other hand, I was working from an underground copy. Final publication
did not occur till 1986 (or was it 1987), and even then one had to know
where to get it. It never appeared commercially, and it was a couple
more years (the exact date fails me) before it turned up electronically 
on the AJPO machine.

>>(2) K&R was written (originally) before the C standard existed, so
>>    people had to rely on it not just for a quick intro but for a
>>    definitive statementon how the language works. This did not happen
>>    with Ada, as the standard existed before most of the texts did.

>You are certainly weak on history (indeed, your own book credits
>Pascal to Wirth, and Ada ... to the DoD!):  When the 1983 standard
>appeared, there were more than 30 books already on the market.

Yes, that is true. My own book credits not a text but the definitive
document. Indeed there were many texts available before the standard,
but none had the authority for Ada that K&R had for C. As I said above,
the Rationale might have been such an authoritative book, but  it was
more-or-less overtaken by events before the masses knew it existed.

(All you folks out there in Ada-land: Honk if you have a copy of the 
Rationale on your shelf.)

It is also the case that the Rationale cannot be read in isolation from
the LRM, except to get the "flavor" of the language. It is far too
incomplete to serve as an authoritative _text_, which is what K&R was.
(And, indeed, what Wegner was, for all the religious objections to
its coding style.)

>Peter Wegner managed to produce a Fortran introduction written in
>Ada: overlooking completely the issue of readability, sticking to single
>letter identifiers (at times, generously allowing two letters), and full of 
>vague terminology. John Goodenough and myself were so frightened
>by the prospect that the first book on Ada would be so bad that we spent
>long hours with Peter trying  to correct it. But he wanted to be first in 
>print over anything else.  Let  that book rest in peace.

Such things are, of course, a matter of taste. The original questioner
asked if there was an equivalent to K&R for Ada. IMHO, Wegner is the
nearest equivalent. It turned me on to Ada, in 1980. Indeed, he was
first. His book has surely been overtaken by events, but he was there
when we needed him.

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada Book

[David O'Brien]

Michael Feldman (mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu) wrote:
: >Pascal to Wirth, and Ada ... to the DoD!):  When the 1983 standard
: >appeared, there were more than 30 books already on the market.

: Yes, that is true. My own book credits not a text but the definitive
: document. Indeed there were many texts available before the standard,
: but none had the authority for Ada that K&R had for C. As I said above,
: the Rationale might have been such an authoritative book, but  it was
: more-or-less overtaken by events before the masses knew it existed.

: (All you folks out there in Ada-land: Honk if you have a copy of the 
: Rationale on your shelf.)

I hate to admit it, but I have a copy of the underground draft I
photocopied from a co-worker in 1991.  [wonder if I surprised Prof.
Feldman w/this one :-))]

Anyway, my two cents...  Not only was K&R the authoritative text on the
language, but so was the pcc compiler from Bell Labs.  Where the book
was thin, you try the compiler.  Where the two differed you went with
the compiler -- for portability and to see the latest thinking in the C
language as it evolved and K&R got outdated.  C wasn't the only language
like this, I believe Pascal was the same.  Eiffel, Sather and LISP
certainly are.  Ada may in fact be one of the few languages in which
there was a standard so early in its life.  All other languages I can
think of except for maybe Algol-6{0,8}, evolved through implementations
before it was even considered to standardize them.

One nice thing about Ada (I believe) was that the standard was out
before there were any/many implementations.  Thus everyone was playing
from the same sheet of music.  In a way this was bad though.  I believe
the language designers would have gotten a little insight by first
implementing an Ada compiler before unleashing that job to others.  I
may be wrong, but an Ada compiler can be *quite* hard to implement and
wasn't that way it has taken so long to get good compilers (especially on
small machines like the PC and Mac).

-- David O'Brien	(dobrien@seas.gwu.edu)

Re: Ada Book

[Jean D. Ichbiah]

In article <3gh8t9$cak@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu> dobrien@seas.gwu.edu (David O'Brien) writes:

>[...]  In a way this was bad though.  I believe
>the language designers would have gotten a little insight by first
>implementing an Ada compiler before unleashing that job to others.  I
>may be wrong, but an Ada compiler can be *quite* hard to implement and
>wasn't that way it has taken so long to get good compilers (especially on
>small machines like the PC and Mac).

>-- David O'Brien        (dobrien@seas.gwu.edu)

Actually, my team had had experience developing an ancestor of Ada
(the language LIS) with essentially the same packaging, separate compilation
and representation features.

What  made compilation simpler  is the evolution of machines.  When we 
delivered our first PC compiler (in 1986) the average  machine had 1MB of 
memory so that we had to bundle a 4MB board with the compiler.  Four
years later, this  was no longer  necessary since, with the spread of
Windows, the smallest machine on the market  came  with the
needed 4MB.

Jean D. Ichbiah

Re: Ada Book

[Michael Feldman]

In article <3gh8t9$cak@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu>,
David O'Brien <dobrien@seas.gwu.edu> wrote:

>: (All you folks out there in Ada-land: Honk if you have a copy of the 
>: Rationale on your shelf.)

>I hate to admit it, but I have a copy of the underground draft I
>photocopied from a co-worker in 1991.  [wonder if I surprised Prof.
>Feldman w/this one :-))]

Actually, nothing surprises me in this town anymore. :-)

Further, for the record:

(1) I was NOT the source of that underground copy :-)

(2) I promise not to squeal that you told me you had one :-)

(3) the Rationale, both the Ada 83 and the Ada 95 one, are now
    available above ground... see the AJPO machine or the PAL,
    or the ol' reliable CD-ROM.

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada Book

[DEAN RUNZEL]

David Emery (emery@goldfinger.mitre.org) wrote:
: >  Is there a "standard" Ada book similar in form and function to K&R?

: Sure, there's the Ada standard itself...

: 				dave

Dave,
  Is this really a good answer? I'm sure that the original poster was looking
for a short and sweet Ada book.  Many of us can't read or understand the LRM.
BTW, isw anyone out there working on a good Ada 95 book? Something that us
ordinary people can understand? Before Ada 95 falls into the same pitfalls
that made Ada 83 so intolerable to the masses, we need to apply the KISS 
principle to Ada 95. Keep It Simple, Stupid. The Ada community needs to become
more supportive and tolerant of the language's non-techies if Ada 95 is going
to survive.

Dean R. Runzel

Re: Ada Book

[Robb Nebbe]

In article <3giq8k$ofd@monmouth.edu>, s0222353@moncol.monmouth.edu (DEAN RUNZEL) writes:
|> David Emery (emery@goldfinger.mitre.org) wrote:
|> : >  Is there a "standard" Ada book similar in form and function to K&R?
|> 
|> : Sure, there's the Ada standard itself...
|> 
|> : 				dave
|> 
|> Dave,
|>   Is this really a good answer? I'm sure that the original poster was looking
|> for a short and sweet Ada book.

Actually I think the original poster was asking for a book that would
compliment what he already had. In this case the text from the Ada
standard describing the Ada, Interface and System hierarchy would be
a very good idea.

Robb Nebbe

Re: Ada Book

[Robert I. Eachus]

In article <3ggitn$dvm@felix.seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:

  > (All you folks out there in Ada-land: Honk if you have a copy of the 
  > Rationale on your shelf.)

   Honk, Honk, Honk, Honk!

   Actually there was a Rationale printed in June 1979 by SIGPLAN with
the Preliminary Ada RM, a version in January 1984 that did not get
wide distribution (my copy is labeled draft for editorial review), and
the final version found on the AJPO machine.  Yes, it would have been
nice if the final version could have appeared sooner, but the earlier
draft is a very nice tutorial.  (The fourth honk is to cover the 9X
Rationale ;-)

 > It is also the case that the Rationale cannot be read in isolation from
 > the LRM, except to get the "flavor" of the language. It is far too
 > incomplete to serve as an authoritative _text_, which is what K&R was.

   Not really.  The original 1979 Rationale did not stand well alone,
but the 1983 version certainly did.  It is not a reference manual and
not intended as one.  I prefer to compare it to Jensen and Wirth,
where a User Manual is combined with a language reference.  Use the
Rationale (User Manual) to learn the language and the Reference Manual
(Report) to look up the answers to questions.


--

					Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...

Re: Ada Book

[Robert I. Eachus]

In article <3gh8t9$cak@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu> dobrien@seas.gwu.edu (David O'Brien) writes:

 > One nice thing about Ada (I believe) was that the standard was out
 > before there were any/many implementations.  Thus everyone was playing
 > from the same sheet of music.  In a way this was bad though.  I believe
 > the language designers would have gotten a little insight by first
 > implementing an Ada compiler before unleashing that job to others.  I
 > may be wrong, but an Ada compiler can be *quite* hard to implement and
 > wasn't that way it has taken so long to get good compilers (especially on
 > small machines like the PC and Mac).

    Gee, you would think that the government would have been smart
enough to require a compiler as part of the langauge development
contract.  (For the humor impaired, read the fifth paragraph of the
Forward to the 83 RM.)

   The problem, and it was a major problem, was that the test
translator was developed on Multics, which was a very different
environment from most systems of the day.  In particular the automatic
support of dynamic binding made the correct implementation of (Ada 80)
libraries easy.  With the wide review as part of the Ada 83
standardization process, the Ada library "evolved" to something easier
to implement on other OS's of the day, but lost a lot of the
functionality of the original.  (For example, Multics "first reference
traps" allowed the order of elaboration of library units to be
determined dynamically during execution.  Ada 83, if you read the RM,
still allows this, but it practice the ACVC tests forbid the most
elegant solution.)

     I hope now that most serious OS's support dynamic linking, some
Ada 95 compilers will take advantage of this and eliminate any linking
or binding step.
--

					Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...

Re: Ada Book

[David Emery]

K&R is an interesting book.  It 'straddles the line' between being the
defining reference (i.e. "standard") for the language, and being an
"introduction to programming in C" book.  In this respect, it's like
Wirth's "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs" book.  

However, many people cite "K&R" as the 'language standard', and for a
long time K&R (and the pcc compiler) were the definitions of the C
language.  For that usage of K&R, the Ada Language Standard fits the
bill. 

				dave

p.s.  I had a copy of Wegner's book, once upon a time...
--
--The preceeding opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
--The MITRE Corporation or its sponsors. 
-- "A good plan violently executed -NOW- is better than a perfect plan
--  next week"                                      George Patton
-- "Any damn fool can write a plan.  It's the execution that gets you
--  all screwed up"                              James Hollingsworth
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Ada Book

[Jack Beidler]

In article <3g7iff$96i@panix.com>, adam@panix.com (Adam Epstein) writes:
|>   Is there a "standard" Ada book similar in form and function to K&R?
|> If not, which books come closest?  Which do you recommend?
|> 
|>   -Thanx
|>    -Adam
|> 
|>     ase+@cmu.edu

As a self study references, I have received the best feedback from 
students and others when they have used,

"Ada as a Second Language" by Cohen (Addison-Wesley)

or

"Introduction to Ada" by J.P. Barnes (forgot the publisher)

Both are excellent references for individuals with good software
development skills.

The lastest version of Barnes has some Ada95 stuff.
-- 
+----------------------------------------+------------------------+
|John (Jack) Beidler                    ++   beidler@cs.uofs.edu  |
|  Professor, Computing Sciences Dept. ++                         |
|  University of Scranton             ++  (717) 941-7446 (voice)  |
| Scranton, PA 18510                 ++     (717) 941-4250 (FAX)  |
|      WWW site:  http://gopher.cs.uofs.edu/CS/cs.home.html       |
+------------------------------------+----------------------------+

Re: Ada Book

[Michael Feldman]

In article <ichbiah.204.2F2C506B@jdi.tiac.net>,
Jean D. Ichbiah <ichbiah@jdi.tiac.net> wrote:

>What  made compilation simpler  is the evolution of machines.  When we 
>delivered our first PC compiler (in 1986) the average  machine had 1MB of 
>memory so that we had to bundle a 4MB board with the compiler.  Four
>years later, this  was no longer  necessary since, with the spread of
>Windows, the smallest machine on the market  came  with the
>needed 4MB.

Exactly, Jean! The hardware has caught up to Ada. I think Ada was just
slightly ahead of its time.:-)

So now, just when the default PC is (say) 50MHz, (say) 4 mb RAM, and (say)
200 mb HD, for scarcely more than $1000., this is when Rational decides
to abandon its DOS compilers (except for the low-end model sold now
by D.C. Heath). 

Smart. 

At least Alsys is still in the game.

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada Book

[Michael Feldman]

In article <EACHUS.95Jan30111422@spectre.mitre.org>,
Robert I. Eachus <eachus@spectre.mitre.org> wrote:

>   Actually there was a Rationale printed in June 1979 by SIGPLAN with
>the Preliminary Ada RM, a version in January 1984 that did not get
>wide distribution (my copy is labeled draft for editorial review), and
>the final version found on the AJPO machine.  

Yes, of course there was the '79 version, but the Ada adopted in 1983
was different enough that the 79 Rationale would be very confusing.
My point was that the 83 Rationale did not emerge on paper till 86
(my "above ground" copy is copyright 86) and didn't appear in electronic
form till much later (90 or so, I guess).

>   Not really.  The original 1979 Rationale did not stand well alone,
>but the 1983 version certainly did.  It is not a reference manual and
>not intended as one.  I prefer to compare it to Jensen and Wirth,
>where a User Manual is combined with a language reference.  Use the
>Rationale (User Manual) to learn the language and the Reference Manual
>(Report) to look up the answers to questions.

Well, the 86 version I just looked at again is certain a nice tutorial, and, 
as the title suggests, _rationalizes_ a lot of the design decisions.
Jean Ichbiah and his co-authors (Barnes, Firth, and Woodger) did a 
very nice job on this. There really is not enough syntactic detail in
it to show one how to really write a program. Indeed, I don't think there
is a full program anywhere in it, just appropriate fragments. This is in no
way a criticism of the Rationale, merely an assertion that it is nothing
like the combined text/rationale/LRM that K&R was in its time.

The Rationale is a great document for those looking for the _why_ of 
language features. Makes terrific background reading. Indeed, it's
an excellent source for authors to use! (I've used it many times for
that!) I just wish it had appeared a little closer in time to the
83 standard.

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada Book

[David O'Brien]

Jean D. Ichbiah (ichbiah@jdi.tiac.net) wrote:
: In article <3gh8t9$cak@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu> dobrien@seas.gwu.edu (David O'Brien) writes:

: Actually, my team had had experience developing an ancestor of Ada
: (the language LIS) with essentially the same packaging, separate compilation
: and representation features.

Can you tell me more about the language LIS.  Does this mean that LIS is
almost Ada in feel, syntax, etc?

-- David	(dobrien@seas.gwu.edu)

Re: Ada Book

[David O'Brien]

Michael Feldman (mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu) wrote:

: Well, the 86 version I just looked at again is certain a nice tutorial, and, 
: as the title suggests, _rationalizes_ a lot of the design decisions.
: Jean Ichbiah and his co-authors (Barnes, Firth, and Woodger) did a 
: very nice job on this. There really is not enough syntactic detail in
: it to show one how to really write a program. Indeed, I don't think there
: is a full program anywhere in it, just appropriate fragments. This is in no

Oh, so the Barnes Ada book has precidence at this.  :-))

-- David O'Brien

Re: Ada Book

[Norman H. Cohen]

In article <3glltv$fet@gopher.cs.uofs.edu>, beidler@guinness.cs.uofs.edu
(Jack Beidler) writes: 

|> In article <3g7iff$96i@panix.com>, adam@panix.com (Adam Epstein) writes: 
|> |>   Is there a "standard" Ada book similar in form and function to K&R?
|> |> If not, which books come closest?  Which do you recommend?
|> |>
|> |>   -Thanx
|> |>    -Adam
|> |>
|> |>     ase+@cmu.edu
|>
|> As a self study references, I have received the best feedback from
|> students and others when they have used,
|>
|> "Ada as a Second Language" by Cohen (Addison-Wesley)
|>
|> or
|>
|> "Introduction to Ada" by J.P. Barnes (forgot the publisher)

Actually, you forgot both publishers. :-)  "Ada as a Second Language" is
published by McGraw-Hill.

--
Norman H. Cohen    ncohen@watson.ibm.com

Ada Book

[Edgar Green]

I am looking for a simple strait forward book on Ada.  I had a book on
C++ called Instant C++. I need a book like that one on Ada this book was
to the point short, lots of examples etc

Ada book

[Edgar Green]

I am looking for an easy strait forward book to Ada95.  I had the book
Instant C++ this was the best programming book.  Does any one know of a
simmilar book for Ada.  Direct to the point, good examples, Short, Able
to woek through in less than a month.

Ed

Re: Ada book

[t_mjb]

In <335E515A.5ED4@dlep1.ti.com>, Edgar Green <Edgar.Green@dlep1.ti.com> writes:
>I am looking for an easy strait forward book to Ada95.  I had the book
>Instant C++ this was the best programming book.  Does any one know of a
>simmilar book for Ada.  Direct to the point, good examples, Short, Able
>to woek through in less than a month.
>
>Ed

I'm using the book by John English entitled _Ada 95: The Craft of Object-Oriented Programming_.
I find that it is quite concise and provides good examples, especially in the OOP department (I
know, BIG surprise considering the title <grin>).

In contrast, I found the Smith book (_Object-Oriented Software in Ada95, Michael A Smith) to
be very wanting (you get it with the Aonix ObjectAda compiler). It suffers from trying to cover
too much in too little space. Another thing I DON'T like about it is that it goes over Ada83 AND
Ada95 where I would rather just see the new/changed features. If I want to know about Ada83
I'll go out and buy an Ada83 book. Somewhat light on the OOP/tagged types area.

Just my two cents,

Marc Bejerano

Re: Ada book

[David Wheeler]

Edgar Green (Edgar.Green@dlep1.ti.com) wrote:
: I am looking for an easy strait forward book to Ada95.  I had the book
: Instant C++ this was the best programming book.  Does any one know of a
: simmilar book for Ada.  Direct to the point, good examples, Short, Able
: to work through in less than a month.

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)."

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

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
worked through in lesson 18.


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

Re: Ada Book

[Rich Maggio]

I would recommend Professor Feldman's book Problem Solving
with Ada 95.  I took a class last semester for which I needed to
learn Ada, and learn it fast.  I am a seasoned 'C' programmer,
so the logic required to design a program was old hat for me -
I needed something that explained the ways of Ada in a clear,
concise manner.  I found this book to be very helpful in that
regard.  I struggled with a book by John Barnes called
Programming in Ada 95 first.  This book is very good as well,
but not for the beginner IMHO.  After I had the concepts in
Prof. Feldman's book under my belt, I could make sense of
what the Barnes book had to offer.  I found it frustrating
understanding some of the basic paradigms in Ada's library,
packages, etc.  This book cleared a lot of that up for me.
IMHO - Problem Solving with Ada 95 is a great book for 
someone either totally new to programming, someone totally
new to Ada, or both.  It is also chock full of working
examples - something Barnes' book is missing.

Plus, as a bonus, Feldman's book comes with a compiler.
I had borrowed the book from my professor last semester,
but I ordered my own copy recently when I discovered that
it had the Object Ada compiler packaged with it.  The point
being I found it useful enough to have my own copy around
for future reference.

I hope this information helps.

Rich Maggio

Edgar Green wrote:
> 
> I am looking for a simple strait forward book on Ada.  I had a book on
> C++ called Instant C++. I need a book like that one on Ada this book was
> to the point short, lots of examples etc