Re: Looking for good Ada95 book

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <dewar.846630258@merv>, Robert Dewar <dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>Fran Post says

>This seems like a type error to me (comparing values of different types).
>The Feldman books are not Ada books, they are CS1/2 books that happen to
>use Ada, and I find them well written for this purpose (I stil don't like
>the horrible non-standard keyword/identifier style, but other than that ...:-)

Your characterization of the books is correct, Robert, though I think
it's going too far to describe the lexical style as "horrible." It
does what it is intended to do.

>The Barnes book IS an Ada book.

In the sense that it is intended for experienced programmers interested
in learning the language, per se. For this purpose, I agree that it is
an excellent book. My only quibble - which I've had since the first
edition back in the early 80's - is that it is full of fragmentary bits
of code, with VERY few full programs. Even experienced programmers
(in my experience teaching industry courses) get trapped by the 
"what-goes-where" problem and really value seeing full, compilable
programs. For full programs, I think Cohen's book, and Naiditch's,
do a better job.

>If you don't know how to design programs, and want to learn, and want to
>learn using Ada, you will find Feldman's book much more appropriate than
>Barnes. If you know how to design programs and want to learn specifically
>about Ada, then the Barnes book is much more appropriate.

I agree wholeheartedly. We have written for different sets of readers.
The biggest risk in practitioners using books like mine is that there
are _big_ chunks of the language that I don't breathe a word about.
With a 700 or 800 page limit, something's gotta give.:-)

Mike Feldman
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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
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       Pork is all that money the government gives the other guys.
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WWW: http://www.adahome.com or http://info.acm.org/sigada/education
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