From: "Peter C. Chapin" <pchapin@sover.net>
Subject: Re: Textbooks (Was: Decline?)
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:39:45 -0400
Date: 2008-03-14T07:39:45-04:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <47da6400$0$1774$4d3efbfe@news.sover.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <yge8x0l64az.fsf_-_@hugsarin.dmusyd.edu>
Jacob Sparre Andersen wrote:
> How does Burns' and Wellings' "Concurrent and Real-Time Programming in
> Ada" compare to "Programming in Ada 2005" as a textbook?
I don't think the Burns/Wellings book would make a good textbook... at
least not in a first course on Ada. It is too specialized and doesn't
spend much time talking about the non-tasking aspects of the language.
It would probably be wonderful for a correspondingly specialized course
but for a general course on Ada, it isn't really what one would want.
I'm teaching Ada this semester and I am *not* using the Barnes book as
the text book. I considered doing so. However, the problem is that the
Barnes book is a bit too detailed; it contains all kinds of information
that my first time Ada programmers would probably find distracting
and/or confusing. I did show them the book in class and said, "If you
are interested in going further with Ada you should definitely get a
copy of this book." A couple of them wrote down the ISBN but I'm not
sure if any of them did buy it.
For a text book in my class I've been using some free resources such as
the Wikibook and "Ada Distilled." However, I haven't been entirely
satisfied with that. The problem is that those resources present the
material in an order that isn't compatible with my approach to teaching.
Specifically they tend to throw moderately advanced topics into the
middle of discussions on more elementary topics. Thus I have to tell my
students, "read sections x, y, and z, but skip subsections x.3, y.5, and
the material on blah." These instructions are more complicated than
necessary and I'm sure they make the readings seem a bit disconnected.
I'm working with second year students so a nice textbook would be
helpful. When I teach the seniors I usually just say, "This material is
covered in the book," and leave it to them to figure out where. In that
case a carefully organized textbook is less necessary.
Peter
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2008-03-14 11:39 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2008-03-12 13:44 Decline? Thomas
2008-03-12 15:00 ` Decline? gpriv
2008-03-12 15:23 ` Decline? Ludovic Brenta
2008-03-12 15:25 ` Decline? Thomas
2008-03-13 0:42 ` Decline? Ludovic Brenta
2008-03-13 6:34 ` Decline? Thomas
2008-03-13 10:08 ` Decline? VilleWitt
2008-03-13 10:28 ` Upsurge? (was: Decline?) Ludovic Brenta
2008-03-13 12:04 ` Upsurge? Thomas
2008-03-13 12:13 ` Upsurge? Alex R. Mosteo
2008-03-14 14:45 ` Upsurge? Ludovic Brenta
2008-03-14 15:26 ` Upsurge? Thomas
2008-03-15 11:41 ` Ada i Danmark (Was: Upsurge?) Jacob Sparre Andersen
2008-03-15 16:22 ` Thomas
2008-03-15 21:19 ` Ada i Danmark Jacob Sparre Andersen
2008-03-17 12:09 ` Upsurge? Poul-Erik Andreasen
2008-03-17 14:58 ` Upsurge? Thomas
2008-03-17 14:35 ` Ada UK, was: Upsurge? Simon Clubley
2008-03-18 11:29 ` Ludovic Brenta
2008-03-18 12:11 ` Dirk Craeynest
2008-03-15 7:39 ` Upsurge? Stephen Leake
2008-03-20 5:51 ` Upsurge? DScott
2008-03-20 8:21 ` Upsurge? Thomas
2008-03-20 20:06 ` Upsurge? DScott
2008-03-21 9:44 ` Upsurge? Thomas
2008-03-13 18:00 ` Decline? Gene
2008-03-13 19:50 ` Decline? Georg Bauhaus
2008-03-14 16:29 ` Decline? Eric Hughes
2008-03-14 1:46 ` Decline? Randy Brukardt
2008-03-14 7:57 ` Decline? Stefan.Lucks
2008-03-14 9:30 ` Textbooks (Was: Decline?) Jacob Sparre Andersen
2008-03-14 11:39 ` Peter C. Chapin [this message]
2008-03-14 13:56 ` Georg Bauhaus
2008-03-15 23:38 ` adaworks
2008-03-16 0:25 ` Peter C. Chapin
2008-03-16 7:38 ` Textbooks Jacob Sparre Andersen
2008-03-16 19:51 ` Textbooks adaworks
2008-03-17 13:16 ` Textbooks John McCormick
2008-03-22 16:11 ` Textbooks (Was: Decline?) stefan-lucks
2008-03-12 18:02 ` Decline? Dmitry A. Kazakov
2008-03-12 19:24 ` Decline? Jeffrey R. Carter
2008-03-13 9:01 ` Decline? Jerry
2008-03-15 23:18 ` Decline? adaworks
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