Re: Learning Ada83

["Nick Roberts" <nick.roberts@acm.org>]

On 2 Sep 2004 07:23:25 -0700, Jim Gurtner <jgurtner@mindspring.com> wrote:

> I am a Computer Engineering student and am teaching myself Ada95
> using the book "Ada 95: The Craft of Object-Oriented Programming"
> by John English.
>
> I would like to be able to get a job in the defense industry when
> I graduate.  Should I get a book on Ada83 and study it also?  Or
> does studying Ada95 make one automatically fluent in Ada83?

Ada 95 is nearly a true superset of Ada 83, so I think studying Ada
95 will enable you to understand Ada 83 programs well enough. I
doubt that there will be much origination of new software in Ada 83
in any shop anywhere nowadays.

You would probably find it instructive to look at the Ada 83
reference manual. The Ada Information Clearinghouse, at:

    http://www.adaic.org/

has an online copy of the ARM 83 (under the Ada Standards menu).

One significant point about the difference between Adas 83 and 95
is that the really object-oriented features were added in Ada 95.
However, Ada 83 did have packages and generics. It even had type
derivation (but not extension, so it wasn't very useful).

Actually, although learning Ada 95 is a very good idea for several
reasons, you ought to be advised (if you have not already) to learn
some other languages, at least to a basic level. Probably C and one
assembly language (not in detail) would be useful. Probably C++
would also be helpful (again, not necessarily in detail). Possibly
Java (but I'm not sure). Learning a little about some functional
language would also probably be enlightening to you, as would a
little knowledge of typical (relational) database systems.

Best of luck!

-- 
Nick Roberts