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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,19e983c5955f75f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-04-04 07:55:06 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!news.tele.dk!195.224.53.60!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!news5-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!news2-win.server.ntlworld.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "chris.danx" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <9af9ao$6ee$1@taliesin.netcom.net.uk> Subject: Re: Learning Ada (newbie) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 15:46:58 +0100 NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.104.126.247 X-Complaints-To: abuse@ntlworld.com X-Trace: news2-win.server.ntlworld.com 986395605 213.104.126.247 (Wed, 04 Apr 2001 15:46:45 BST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 15:46:45 BST Organization: ntlworld News Service Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:6451 Date: 2001-04-04T15:46:58+01:00 List-Id: "Ayende Rahien" wrote in message news:9af9ao$6ee$1@taliesin.netcom.net.uk... > 1. Where can I learn Ada? Preferably a turial on the web. I'm currently > reading (http://www.adahome.com/Ammo/Cplpl2Ada.html) which presents some > very interesting concepts (the fine-grained variables, frex), but it doesn't > really teach much. I used to know Pascal (been several years since I program > in it), and I know C/C++ pretty well. So I don't really need an interduction > to programming, just to Ada itself. You should try the lovelace tutorial, it's great. Do you know www.Adapower.com? if not bookmark it, it's good for all sorts of Ada related stuff. There's a link to the tutorial in there. Also try http://www.diax.ch/users/gdm/pascada.htm by Gautier de Montmollin. It's good too. I might also do an introduction to Ada for programmers soon. The OS developer i work with is considering a switch from C to Ada and he knows Pascal well, so i might do it to help him out. Maybe try http://willow.os-4u.com in the (near?) future. This is my new programming site so be patient. > 2. Can you recommend a good IDE for Ada? Preferably for Windows. AdaGIDE is the best IMO, again you'll find links to it at AdaPower. > 3. I read in Jargon File that "hackers find Ada's exception handling & > inter-process communication particularly hilarious." among other stuff. > Why is that? Dunno, i think exception handling in Ada is simple and powerful. None of that try {} catch {} nonsense. Ada's handling is simple, effective, uniform and less verbose than C++ and Java. > What are the advantages & disadvantages of Ada compare to C or C++ > and other languages? Ada is a standard and a validated compiler has undergone testing with massive test suite. C compilers can't even agree on the size each of the member of integer type family. Ada's advantages over C are numerous, too numerous to go into. You might be interested to know that when I came to Ada initially (just over a year ago), I didn't hold it in such high regard. Now I use it lots and really like it. Hope this helps, Chris Campbell