From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 X-Received: by 2002:a05:620a:1092:: with SMTP id g18mr22132441qkk.184.1600241553033; Wed, 16 Sep 2020 00:32:33 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:a37:a187:: with SMTP id k129mr21676063qke.147.1600241552889; Wed, 16 Sep 2020 00:32:32 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.gegeweb.eu!gegeweb.org!usenet-fr.net!proxad.net!feeder1-2.proxad.net!209.85.160.216.MISMATCH!news-out.google.com!nntp.google.com!postnews.google.com!google-groups.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 00:32:32 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <211a3c48-447a-4d23-840d-d868da44f740n@googlegroups.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: google-groups.googlegroups.com; posting-host=143.159.22.37; posting-account=_Sva5AoAAAD2oymju7GDV0zebukPRj7m NNTP-Posting-Host: 143.159.22.37 References: <1dab8412-0ff6-4081-b973-783167a37e6cn@googlegroups.com> <620a8fb2-758c-4bca-b4d3-f2e49fce3703n@googlegroups.com> <871rj2cy61.fsf@nightsong.com> <211a3c48-447a-4d23-840d-d868da44f740n@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <1ab1af46-e561-40c4-ab3a-133a83b25f4bn@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Learning Ada From: Jack Davy Injection-Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 07:32:33 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:60157 List-Id: On Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 8:13:23 AM UTC+1, Jack Davy wrote: > On Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 2:23:21 AM UTC+1, Paul Rubin wrote:= =20 > > Jack Davy writes:=20 > > > seem to be many books on Ada, but there is a very recent one for=20 > > > beginners which I will probably get to fill in the gaps not covered b= y=20 > > > "The Craft". https://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484254271=20 > > I haven't examined that book directly but based on the preview and=20 > > blurb, it does seem to be beginner oriented, thus likely to have gaps o= f=20 > > its own. If you're trying to fill gaps, you probably want something=20 > > more complete and advanced.=20 > >=20 > > I semi-recently got another book that looks very good, though it's stil= l=20 > > sitting around without my having read much of it: Analysable Real-Time= =20 > > Systems: Programmed in Ada, by Andy Wellings and Alan Burns. It is=20 > > basically an updated reprint of an older book by the same authors,=20 > > self-published in paperback, so it is a good value. > @ Gautier, thanks for the links. When I get Windows 7 on VirtualBox I'll = give the LEA editor a try, I'm not so keen on using Wine, it's a bit hit & = miss. Also since I learned Vim a few years ago no other editors really do i= t for me, unless they have Vim bindings ;).=20 >=20 > @ Paul, I was thinking that the beginner's Apress book would fill in the = gaps regarding Ada 2012 specifically, which as I understand it has changed = from previous versions mainly in regard to OOP; I'm assuming I won't need t= o unlearn anything if I learn the basics from an Ada 95 book. The real-time= stuff would be over my head at this point I think, and not really somethin= g I had in mind when considering Ada, although I do have a background in el= ectronics, and see that there is Ada compiler for AVR on adacore.=20 >=20 > The more I look at this language the more I wonder why it isn't more popu= lar. Maybe people just don't like the pascalish syntax, but that never put = me off because I learned Turbo Pascal at Uni (25 years ago) and more recent= ly Free Pascal/Lazarus. Never was much of a fan of the curly bracket langua= ges. I found an impressive list of 'Things to like about Ada' posted by a C/C++ = career programmer on the AVR freaks forum (in reply #13) : https://www.avr= freaks.net/forum/i-didnt-know-you-could-get-ada-avr My main reason for wanting to learn Ada is the last on his list : "Promotes a professional, anti-hacker mentality. By being unforgiving the language promotes the valuable discipline of speci= fying and writing code more exactly, without the temptations of slipping in= to bit-twiddling or other programming habits that subvert (and often break)= the data or code models. When proper programming discipline is not enforce= d by the language then it must be voluntary, and in those cases discipline = can and inevitably will slip, but when the language enforces much of that d= iscipline then there are no easy ways to avoid it, and the resulting code i= s higher in quality and faster to develop." Maybe that's why Ada isn't more popular - being disciplined isn't easy, and= hacking is more fun. But I've learned the hard way that it's actually much= more satisfying when your programs are bug-free and work properly the firs= t time you run them. Any language which enforces more thinking and less tri= al-and-error coding is a winner in my book.