Ada Tutorials [was:] OT: GUI [was:]Ann: TeXCAD 4.1

[Georg Bauhaus <sb463ba@l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de>]

Randy Brukardt <randy@rrsoftware.com> wrote:
 

:  Another tool that provides the same functionality, but a
: different interface, is a lot harder to use -- and for a novice, might be
: impossible.

By a level of indirection this brings me to Ada tutorials.

(<<may_be_skipped>>The same tool with a different interface is
a lot harder to use not because it is more difficult to use, but because 
(a) it requires learning
(b) it requires that you forget the old ways.
If the interfaces are similar enough, they will introduce another level
of complexity, because you will have to switch between old memories and
fresh memories.)


Short Ada tutorials are (freely) available for different audiences.
I guess some if not all of them are made for programmers with
some experience. Is there one that is both short and suitable for
studying by people with less experience?

When I had an opportunity to introduce people to computers, or to
specific computer programs like text processing programs, it was always
refreshing to see that
(a) people like to learn how things work (e.g. context menues, para styles)
(b) people are capable of using operating system techniques 
   (e.g. folder integration)
But it is somewhat saddening to see that (a) and (b) don't become lasting
skills when there are only the equivalent of "left-mouse-button peers",
and when they are reluctant to RTFM because it *appears* bulky.
Absurd as it may be, when there is a tutorial part in the FM,
the thickness of FMs can hide the good short tutorial part.
It is a BIG mistake from both a pedagogical and economic point of view
not to draw attention to these tutorials because a good tutorial is what
gets you going.  It prevents frustration, it might lead to adoption.
(For example, people get regularly excited when they learn that there
is a mechanism in just about any text processing program that allows for
boxes of text being placed somewhere on the page without having to play
tricks using tables, or worse spaces and tabs... The tutorials introduce
this on one or two pages, conceptually, without listing all the steps
you need not understand in order to see and try out what a frame is.)

Is there a good short hands-on Ada beginners tutorial that does not
talk about Ada's history, safety, the new features, and this and that,
but starts in medias res of programming, just makes you want to write
programs using the nice-simple-powerful facilities of the language that
you have just seen?

So far I have only found Ada presentation slides by R. Dewar (C) 2004 
available from the NYU as "course ware", but I guess they lack spoken
words and exercises.


-- Georg