Ada 101

Ada 101

[Kenneth Mays]

Greetings,

In my quest for the ultimate Ada83 tutorial book, does
anyone know of a superior training book on teaching nonprogrammers a 
first computer science course on Ada programming? I've scanned many 
Ada books, but none that are as good as some books on C++ (C++ Primer 
Plus).

I need a book that ANYONE can read and understand with minimal 
difficulty. Does such a  book exist for the Ada market?!

Ken (kmays@msn.com)
"Let there be light... and there was light."

Re: Ada 101

[Rush Kester]

Kenneth Mays (KMays@msn.com) wrote:
: Greetings,

: In my quest for the ultimate Ada83 tutorial book, does
: anyone know of a superior training book on teaching nonprogrammers a 
: first computer science course on Ada programming? I've scanned many 
: Ada books, but none that are as good as some books on C++ (C++ Primer 
: Plus).

I'm curious why you want an Ada83 rather than Ada95.  If a student is 
just getting started, why teach the old standard?  An additional benefit 
of Ada95 is a free compiler (GNAT) and tools (GCC, etc.) are available.

: I need a book that ANYONE can read and understand with minimal 
: difficulty. Does such a  book exist for the Ada market?!

The best texts I've found for learning Ada are by John Barnes and
published by Addison Wesley.  
 "Programming in Ada" or "Programming in Ada95"

For other texts check out the list maintained by SIGAda's Education 
Working Group.  http://www.acm.org/sigada/wg/eduwg/eduwg.html
and the list of on-line tutorials and books at
http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/FAQ/learning.html#toc

: Ken (kmays@msn.com)
: "Let there be light... and there was light."

--
Rush Kester
W (301) 640-3632 (in person M-F: 9am-5pm EDST, voicemail any time)
Fax        -4750 or -4940
-- 
Rush Kester
W (301) 640-3632 (in person M-F: 9am-5pm EDST, voicemail any time)
Fax        -4750 or -4940

Re: Ada 101

[Gordon Dodrill]

Kenneth Mays wrote:
> In my quest for the ultimate Ada83 tutorial book, does
> anyone know of a superior training book on teaching nonprogrammers a
> first computer science course on Ada programming? I've scanned many
> Ada books, but none that are as good as some books on C++ (C++ Primer
> Plus).
> 
> I need a book that ANYONE can read and understand with minimal
> difficulty. Does such a  book exist for the Ada market?!

There is a complete Ada 83 tutorial at the site listed below.  You may want
to take a look at it.

Gordon

//       Coronado Enterprises Tutorials - Ada, C, C++, Pascal
//              Learn to program in a modern language
//         All are available at http://www.swcp.com/~dodrill
//                 Gordon Dodrill - dodrill@swcp.com

Re: Ada 101

[Michael Feldman]

In article <319E19DA.78A6@swcp.com>, Gordon Dodrill  <dodrill@swcp.com> wrote:
>Kenneth Mays wrote:
>> 
>> I need a book that ANYONE can read and understand with minimal
>> difficulty. Does such a  book exist for the Ada market?!
>
>There is a complete Ada 83 tutorial at the site listed below.  You may want
>to take a look at it.
>
I took a quick look at this. It's really a pretty nice piece of work,
at a level similar to John Herro's Ada-Tutr. It's a shareware work,
requesting a $15.00 shareware fee. In my opinion, it's worth the fee.
It seems to be well thought-out and well-edited.

I have a couple of friendly suggestions, based just on my very quick
look.

(1) Right at the start, the author describes Ada as a "very large
    language." By comparison, his C++ tutorial - at the same site -
    does not describe C++ in the same terms. Given that C++ and Ada
    are roughly the same "size" these days - C++ has no tasking but
    otherwise modern C++ and modern Ada have very similar features -
    it's misleading and intimidating to describe Ada this way.
    
(2) I think it would be a great idea to insert hyperlinks in the text
    to point to the programs. This wouldn't be hard to do, and would
    let a casual reader explore the tutorial - programs included -
    on the Web.

(3) In the "other resources" section, there are links to SIGAda and
    AdaIC, but none to Home of the Brave Ada Programmers,
    http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/ I hope Gordon will add this.

I hope Gordon will see fit to add the material necessary to teach
Ada 95; Ada 83 is no longer "current". Nice job!

There are now at least 4 web-based Ada tutorials! This is good news!

Mike Feldman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael B. Feldman -  chair, SIGAda Education Working Group
Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University -  Washington, DC 20052 USA
202-994-5919 (voice) - 202-994-0227 (fax) 
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/faculty/mfeldman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Pork is all that money the government gives the other guys.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ada on the WWW: http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/ or http://info.acm.org/sigada/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Ada 101

[Patrick Richard Wibbeler]

On 16 May 1996, Kenneth Mays wrote:

> In my quest for the ultimate Ada83 tutorial book, does
> anyone know of a superior training book on teaching nonprogrammers a 
> first computer science course on Ada programming? I've scanned many 
> Ada books, but none that are as good as some books on C++ (C++ Primer 
> Plus).
> 
> I need a book that ANYONE can read and understand with minimal 
> difficulty. Does such a  book exist for the Ada market?!

Mr. Mays,
I learned Ada -for all practical purposes my first language- using the 
Feldman/Koffman "Ada Problem Solving and Program Design (1993, Addison 
Wesley) text.  This is the best text I have had for any course.  It is 
simple to read, and has really good examples.  I know Michael Feldman 
posts to this group once in a while, so I am sure the name of his text 
will come up, but I figured I'd add my endorsement from a student's 
perspective. The book introduces the "development process" as well as the 
actual coding and finished project.  I have advanced beyond my CS1 class and 
still refer to it as a reference even when I am not programming in Ada.  
	Patrick Wibbeler