a good book to start with?

a good book to start with?

[Olivier Laurent]

Hi all,

My background: PERL, JAVA, C++

Sorry if this question is listed in any FAQ.

I was impressed by some tutorials I've seen over the web about ADA.
And most importantly the kind of application you can make with .I
would like to know more, just a hobby .

Is there anybody who could point me to a book about ADA? 
On the linux OS, I know there is a GNU compiler, but is there any nice
ADA GUI tool?

Have a nice day,

Olivier

Re: a good book to start with?

[Stephane Richard]

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"Olivier Laurent" <oliderid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8d63e22a.0310070510.607bd55a@posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> My background: PERL, JAVA, C++
>
> Sorry if this question is listed in any FAQ.
>
> I was impressed by some tutorials I've seen over the web about ADA.
> And most importantly the kind of application you can make with .I
> would like to know more, just a hobby .
>
> Is there anybody who could point me to a book about ADA?
> On the linux OS, I know there is a GNU compiler, but is there any nice
> ADA GUI tool?
>
> Have a nice day,
>
> Olivier

Hi Olivier

I recommend you visit my website (http://www.adaworld.com) and take a look
at the Learning Center / Free Books section.  My first link there is a pdf
file called Ada Distilled (Make explicitely to teach Ada to C++ programmers.

As for GUI you can have a look at http://libre.act-europe.fr/GtkAda/ for a
good GUI library.  and for a tool that uses it, visit
http://glade.gnome.org/

Hope this puts you one the right track :-)
-- 
St�phane Richard
"Ada World" Webmaster
http://www.adaworld.com

Re: a good book to start with?

[Georg Bauhaus]

Stephane Richard <stephane.richard@verizon.net> wrote:
:> Is there anybody who could point me to a book about ADA?
: 
: I recommend you visit my website (http://www.adaworld.com) and take a look
: at the Learning Center / Free Books section.

There are some reviews at
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada95books.html
which is linked from
http://www.adapower.com

Re: a good book to start with?

[Olivier Laurent]

> Hi Olivier
> 
> I recommend you visit my website (http://www.adaworld.com) and take a look
> at the Learning Center / Free Books section.  My first link there is a pdf
> file called Ada Distilled (Make explicitely to teach Ada to C++ programmers.
> 
> As for GUI you can have a look at http://libre.act-europe.fr/GtkAda/ for a
> good GUI library.  and for a tool that uses it, visit
> http://glade.gnome.org/
> 
> Hope this puts you one the right track :-)

Thanks St�phane. Impressive web site!

You look like an ADA evangelist ;-), maybe you can help me: 
Is ESA (European Space Agency) still based its core software
developments on ADA? I read somewhere (on emits.esa.int I think) that
JAVA is emerging as the next ESA's standard language?

Olivier

Re: a good book to start with?

[Stephane Richard]

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"Olivier Laurent" <oliderid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8d63e22a.0310080218.23ffb8be@posting.google.com...
> > Hi Olivier
> >
> > I recommend you visit my website (http://www.adaworld.com) and take a
look
> > at the Learning Center / Free Books section.  My first link there is a
pdf
> > file called Ada Distilled (Make explicitely to teach Ada to C++
programmers.
> >
> > As for GUI you can have a look at http://libre.act-europe.fr/GtkAda/ for
a
> > good GUI library.  and for a tool that uses it, visit
> > http://glade.gnome.org/
> >
> > Hope this puts you one the right track :-)
>
> Thanks St�phane. Impressive web site!
>
> You look like an ADA evangelist ;-), maybe you can help me:
> Is ESA (European Space Agency) still based its core software
> developments on ADA? I read somewhere (on emits.esa.int I think) that
> JAVA is emerging as the next ESA's standard language?
>
> Olivier

Thanks :-)....I try...seems I'm doing something good...:-)  "Reverend Ada
has spoken". ;-).

I heard that too about Java and the ESA.  I'm not one to bring down other
languages for the good of other languages.  But I can't help but wonder how
precise they want (or need) they realtime applications  if they are
considering Java.  Sure Java has a form of Task and Task control mechanism,
but well at last on my PC time differencial benchmarks I've done (for a
music application project of mine, so nothing mission critical per se
however music is all about time precision.  Ada came out much more stable
and regular than java as far as timelaps calculation and the execution of
tasks during the waiting of delays (as in to end a note or play the next
note on a track or multiple tracks.

So Precision wise if it's what they want, they might want to do some serious
benchmarks.  Depends on why they need it I suppose.

Me well I simply prefer Ada for more than one reason.  Mainly because it
still detects more errors at compile time than Java can, which means that by
the time yoru code compiles, there's:
1. a much higher change it will run
2. a much smaller debugging time from the coding to the end of debugging
phase.

It's designed with software engineering in mind and as such offers many
advantage for large scale application development as far as a programming
language goes.

Dont get me wrong, C++, Java probably have their specific place or they
wouldn't be what they are today (popular) but from what I'm seeing, I don't
think all the right reasons went into making them as popular as they are
today.  A lot of the reasons aren't based on language capacities, but on
sheer popularity (a lot of companies go with Java and C++ because other
companies went with Java and C++) that makes Java and C++ popular, but does
it make them better, as languages? I think not :-).

That was my most humble opinion :-)

-- 
St�phane Richard
"Ada World" Webmaster
http://www.adaworld.com

Re: a good book to start with?

[Jean-Pierre Rosen]

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"Olivier Laurent" <oliderid@yahoo.co.uk> a �crit dans le message de news:8d63e22a.0310080218.23ffb8be@posting.google.com...
> You look like an ADA evangelist ;-), maybe you can help me:
> Is ESA (European Space Agency) still based its core software
> developments on ADA? I read somewhere (on emits.esa.int I think) that
> JAVA is emerging as the next ESA's standard language?
>
I don't think that there is any ESA official language anymore. Although a number of
ESA people are still pushing Ada and software engineering in general, the trend is rather
to define requirements from subcontractors, rather than means or tools to achieve these
requirements.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------
           J-P. Rosen (rosen@adalog.fr)
Visit Adalog's web site at http://www.adalog.fr

Re: a good book to start with?

[Olivier Laurent]

"Stephane Richard" <stephane.richard@verizon.net> wrote in message news:<DIRgb.36419$541.30979@nwrdny02.gnilink.net>...

> Me well I simply prefer Ada for more than one reason.  Mainly because it
> still detects more errors at compile time than Java can, which means that by
> the time yoru code compiles, there's:
> 1. a much higher change it will run
> 2. a much smaller debugging time from the coding to the end of debugging
> phase.

Well I'ven't enough experience and knowledge to follow you on that
way. But with  my humble perspective...ADA is "much" easier to read
than C++ family.

Eh...I mean you just need to read it to understand what's going on.


Olivier

Re: a good book to start with?

[Olivier Laurent]

Georg Bauhaus <sb463ba@l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> wrote in message news:<bm0lek$e7d$1@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de>...
> Stephane Richard <stephane.richard@verizon.net> wrote:
> :> Is there anybody who could point me to a book about ADA?
> : 
> : I recommend you visit my website (http://www.adaworld.com) and take a look
> : at the Learning Center / Free Books section.
> 
> There are some reviews at
> http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada95books.html
> which is linked from
> http://www.adapower.com

Thanks Georg, now it seems that I have enough information for upcoming
winter evenings ;-)

Re: a good book to start with?

[Stephane Richard]

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That would be it's first point :-).  I just like to let others mention it
themselves.  hehehe

-- 
St�phane Richard
"Ada World" Webmaster
http://www.adaworld.com


"Olivier Laurent" <oliderid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8d63e22a.0310080744.2d292add@posting.google.com...
> "Stephane Richard" <stephane.richard@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:<DIRgb.36419$541.30979@nwrdny02.gnilink.net>...
>
> > Me well I simply prefer Ada for more than one reason.  Mainly because it
> > still detects more errors at compile time than Java can, which means
that by
> > the time yoru code compiles, there's:
> > 1. a much higher change it will run
> > 2. a much smaller debugging time from the coding to the end of debugging
> > phase.
>
> Well I'ven't enough experience and knowledge to follow you on that
> way. But with  my humble perspective...ADA is "much" easier to read
> than C++ family.
>
> Eh...I mean you just need to read it to understand what's going on.
>
>
> Olivier

Re: a good book to start with?

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

Olivier Laurent wrote:

> You look like an Ada evangelist ;-), maybe you can help me: 
> Is ESA (European Space Agency) still based its core software
> developments on Ada?

It doesn't look like that.  According to my sources (inside a company 
with ESA contracts), all new contracts come with a C mandate.  I have 
had the pleasure of hearing quite a bit of complaints about not being 
allowed to use Ada.

Jacob
-- 
"if a person can't communicate,
  the very least he can do is to shut up!"

Re: a good book to start with?

[Olivier Laurent]

Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@crs4.it> wrote in message news:<3F85AC8E.4050209@crs4.it>...
> Olivier Laurent wrote:
> 
> > You look like an Ada evangelist ;-), maybe you can help me: 
> > Is ESA (European Space Agency) still based its core software
> > developments on Ada?
> 
> It doesn't look like that.  According to my sources (inside a company 
> with ESA contracts), all new contracts come with a C mandate.  I have 
> had the pleasure of hearing quite a bit of complaints about not being 
> allowed to use Ada.
> 
> Jacob

Is there any logic reason for such a diktat? 

Olivier

Re: a good book to start with?

[Colin Paul Gloster]

In article <DIRgb.36419$541.30979@nwrdny02.gnilink.net>, Stephane Richard wrote:
  
"[..]
  
So Precision wise if it's what they want, they might want to do some serious
benchmarks.  Depends on why they need it I suppose.

[..]"

I think nearly thirty vendors of embedded realtime JVMs were assessed
before aicas was decided upon.
HTTP://WWW.AERO-project.org
HTTP://WWW.aicas.com/

"A lot of the reasons aren't based on language capacities, but on
sheer popularity (a lot of companies go with Java and C++ because other
companies went with Java and C++) that makes Java and C++ popular, but does
it make them better, as languages? I think not :-).
  
[..]"

Support for multiple interface inheritance may be one of the main reasons
why Java may be a serious rival to Ada for future ESA Attitude and Orbit
Control Systems ...
HTTP://control.EE.ETHZ.Ch/~pasetti/RealTimeJavaFramework/doc/index.html

Re: a good book to start with?

[Colin Paul Gloster]

In article <sg61mb.lmm.ln@skymaster>, Jean-Pierre Rosen wrote:

"I don't think that there is any ESA official language anymore. [..]"

Agreed.

Re: a good book to start with?

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

Olivier Laurent wrote:
> Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@crs4.it> wrote in message news:<3F85AC8E.4050209@crs4.it>...

>>It doesn't look like that.  According to my sources (inside a company 
>>with ESA contracts), all new contracts come with a C mandate.  I have 
>>had the pleasure of hearing quite a bit of complaints about not being 
>>allowed to use Ada.
> 
> Is there any logic reason for such a diktat?

I haven't been told of any, but there is at least one argument in 
favour: It limits how many programming languages ESA's code reviewers 
have to know. But so would mandating use of Ada or Visual Basic.

Considering that ESA is still paying for the development of Ada 
libraries for their next generation of sattelites, it really seems 
wierd.  And as a tax payer in an ESA member country, I am rather worried 
about the way they spend my tax-money.

Jacob
-- 
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an
air force."                -- not from DoD Directive 2000.12