Re: Improving the first contact with Ada

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

zeta_no writes on comp.lang.ada:
> On May 24, 6:45 pm, Ludovic Brenta <ludo...@ludovic-brenta.org> wrote:
>
>> Which tutorials specifically did you use and which ones were bad?  How
>> would you suggest improving them?
>>
>> Also, do you actually _learn_ anything in tutorials?  I mean, do you
>> learn the underlying concepts, the basic knowledge that empowers you, or
>> do you only skim the surface of things and remain dependent on "experts"
>> to guide you?
>
> I should not point anyone by referring directly to their tutorials,
> but let say a came across a least 3 tutorials about concurrency
> programming with Ada that falls short of providing meaningful insight
> on the true capabilities of Ada in this field.  They present task,
> delays, guard etc but don't put all these concepts in 'imaging'
> situations, which resumes the power of the tasking model.  Those did
> not referred to typical uses of Ada, real problem solving that would
> enlighten its non naive usage.  The offer for tutorials that presents
> a classical introduction to Ada as being a general programming
> language, with enhanced capabilities (tasking model, real-time annex
> etc), is too important.  Many like me would benefit from more
> specialized tutorials, like let say a middle size embedded project,
> covering simply, many or all the main concepts provided by Ada and
> their sound usage.
>
> To be sure you understand my point here, I see this type of tutorial
> as something that can be quite long and involving.  Rarely you can
> find that type of a document, that does not qualify as a book nor as a
> quick and dirty tutorial, as being organized halfway between a master
> thesis and a final year thesis.  It treats a known subject (compared
> with the master thesis), with solid knowledge and neat understanding
> (compared with some final year thesis).  These documents are great
> starters to light up curiosity and understanding to then permit
> austere books to sink in.

Ah, so your problem comes from the prejudice that books must be austere
(forgive me but I have a bad habit of poking where it hurts, without
being too shy about it).  John Barnes' book[1] is anything *but*
austere; I highly recommend it.  Also there was a thread here on
comp.lang.ada this week with several good suggestions of books about Ada
tasking.

Also, have you looked at the free online book "Ada 95: The Craft Of
Object-Oriented Programming"[2] by John English?  Chapter 19 covers
tasking.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Ada-2005-John-Barnes/dp/0321340787
[2] http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/je/adacraft/

Granted, these are not tutorials; they are books.  If the only problem
with books is that they are austere, then surely there must be a way to
turn them into cheery tutorials?

>> It would be constructive if you could be more specific.  In
>> particular I would be very interested in ideas on how to improve the
>> first contact a newbie can have with Ada.
>
> Oh yes, I have ideas!
>
> 1. From my searches, it seems most people active with Ada are
> registered and composed article on Ada Programming (Wikibooks).  Tell
> me if I am wrong?

You are wrong.  Unfortunately, most of the Ada programmers are inactive
on the Internet; they work in stealth (or even secret) mode.  What you
see on the Internet is perhaps 1% of all Ada programmers.  In my view,
this is unfortunate but I can't do anything to change that.

> 2. A stable Ada home should be enforced (it confuses the newbs not to
> know where this month, this year you guys are).  Involved people will
> change. Their effort are precious and you don't want 'tribal' data.
> Wikibooks being an independent Wikimedia Foundation project has low
> risk of vanishing in foreseeable future and anyone can add centralized
> efforts.

That's what you get for being an open ISO standard :) Anyone with enough
understanding (or misunderstandings...) of the language is free to start
their own web site; this has happened several times in the past.  I
consider the Ada Information Clearinghouse[3] to be the "central hub" of
Ada (it has been so for many years).  Other people may have different
opinions but, at least, there is some *funding* for maintaining this
site, so it has some semblance of guarantee for longevity.

[3] http://www.adaic.com

> 3. Gather all interesting internet links on 'tribal' Ada material to
> this page. Next post by newbs asking for Ada resources, be coherent
> and send it to a single HOME.

That's what I do all the time, to people who ask here on comp.lang.ada.
I cannot do anything about web forums, sorry.

> 4. Face lift, in the form of reorganization not visual style, to Ada
> Programming (Wikibooks)! [...]

OK, these are more specific and can result in tangible improvements.
Thanks for that.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.