Current recommendations for learning Ada?

Current recommendations for learning Ada?

[Paul Rubin]

Is there a currently recommended go-to publication (preferably online)
for experienced programmers interested in using Ada (preferably Ada
2012)?  I've found some introductory articles that were enough to get me
started, and I felt able to write useful code.  But it occurs to me that
I still can't make any sense of most of the discussions on this
newsgroup, which are about more advanced topics than an intro article
would cover (like all this stuff about access types).

I'm not too interested for now in works dissecting the very obscure
points of the language (I think the ARM is the main resource for those),
but I'm seeking something that covers most of the topics that a working
programmer should know about, as opposed to an intro for beginners
that only covers the basics

http://cowlark.com/2014-04-27-ada/index.html is an article I liked a lot
for getting started, but it doesn't go into the depth I'm looking for in
this request:

I also know about the Adacore learning center (university.adacore.com)
which has some pretty good stuff, but a lot of it is Flash videos and
other media that I can't use.  I'm hoping for traditional written
documents.

Thanks for any suggestions and maybe this should be a FAQ.

Re: Current recommendations for learning Ada?

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

On 03/21/2018 11:17 PM, Paul Rubin wrote:
> Is there a currently recommended go-to publication (preferably online)
> for experienced programmers interested in using Ada (preferably Ada
> 2012)?  I've found some introductory articles that were enough to get me
> started, and I felt able to write useful code.  But it occurs to me that
> I still can't make any sense of most of the discussions on this
> newsgroup, which are about more advanced topics than an intro article
> would cover (like all this stuff about access types).

I recommend /Ada Distilled/, available from

http://www.adaic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Ada-Distilled-24-January-2011-Ada-2005-Version.pdf

It's ISO/IEC 8652:2007, but you should be able to learn the differences between 
it and Ada 12 easily.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
07

Re: Current recommendations for learning Ada?

[Jerry]

On Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at 3:17:34 PM UTC-7, Paul Rubin wrote:
> Is there a currently recommended go-to publication (preferably online)
> for experienced programmers interested in using Ada (preferably Ada
> 2012)?

This recommendation ignores two of your requirements. I really, really like Ada as a Second Language, 2nd ed., by Norman H. Cohen. The best language book I've ever seen (but I haven't seen that many :-/). It's Ada 95 and it's "online" at Amazon for about $25. I fill in my 2012 needs with Programming in Ada 2012 by John Barnes, another lovely print book (and remarkably heavy!).

Jerry

Re: Current recommendations for learning Ada?

[Lucretia]

On Wednesday, 21 March 2018 22:17:34 UTC, Paul Rubin  wrote:

> but I'm seeking something that covers most of the topics that a working
> programmer should know about, as opposed to an intro for beginners
> that only covers the basics

While it's Ada95, this is still a good intro:

http://www.adaic.org/resources/add_content/docs/craft/html/contents.htm

Then just add in the extra features from 2005, interfaces, extended return, etc.

Then just add in the extra features from 2012, contracts, expression functions, etc.

...and you're pretty much set.

AFAIK, that book is being updated to 2012, but I don't know when it'll be done or who's doing it.