From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e486c4cecbbc6a4a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Matthew Heaney Subject: Re: Ada book help Date: 1999/01/23 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 436083403 Sender: matt@mheaney.ni.net References: <36A8FC33.3B4BA48A@virgin.net> NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 11:55:18 PDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-01-23T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Steve Whalen writes: > Matthew Heaney wrote: > [snip] > > : As a first book, I think John Barnes' Programming in Ada95, 2nd ed is > : very good. It broadly covers that language, providing what I think is > : just the right amount of detail. > > [snip] > > Out of curiosity, have you read the reviews of this book on Amazon.com? > Do you think they are inaccurate? Unfair? (4 out of 5 trash it). I like the book, and can't understand the vitriol of some of the reviews of it at amazon.com. Previous versions of the book have been criticized (not by me) because there were only code "fragments," instead of complete examples. But the new 2nd ed of this book rectifies that "flaw" by including a few chapters that have complete, compilable examples. It even comes with a CD, containing all the examples, and even a free compiler. What I want to learn from programming language book are idioms. What "tricks" do you do to solve certain problems? Barnes gives examples like that (like how to use limited, indefinite types to control instance creation; cool iterator idioms). In contrast, many other books are just a rehash of the RM. Every time I read Barnes book, I learn something new. I also like that at various places he cites how AIs how influenced the language in subtle ways; thus, it's a living book. > I'm curious, because I like to keep a list of books to recommend to > people around to encourage interest in Ada95 whenever I encounter > it, but want to be sure that I don't discourage someone by starting > them off with a bad book (and have them turn their disappointment > in the book, in to a dislike for Ada95). > > Most of the other Amazon.com review consensus's (?sp?) for Ada book's > agree with my take on the book, where I have the book to compare. Everyone is different, and probably looks for different things. My reaction when reading Barnes is often, "Wow! That's really cool. I'm gonna try to use that somewhere." It's the wow factor that won me over. Other books just make my eyes glaze over. > I don't have the Barnes' book to look at, and while I'm not the > "language lawyer" others on comp.lang.ada are, I've used Pascal > and Ada for too many years to be able to look at a book from > the perspective of a programmer who's never used / succeeded with > a strongly typed language before. Me too.