Re: Looking for good Ada95 book

[Tom Pastuszak <zak@itd.sterling.com>]

Robert Dewar wrote:

>The Barnes book IS an Ada book. If you don't know how to design >programs, and want to learn, and want to
>learn using Ada, you will find Feldman's book much more appropriate
>than
>Barnes. If you know how to design programs and want to learn >specifically
>about Ada, then the Barnes book is much more appropriate.

It is rather hard to avoid Barnes, for, as I recall, the Ada 95
Rationale is a primarily Barnes' written document (p. iii of the
Rationale).  In the past I have preferred Cohen's first book, using Ada
as a Second Language, although it is a bit large.  I have not yet the
heart to read his recent book, although I've had it checked out of the
library for a month.  Regarding Barnes, I do not understand his
committment to Ada 95, gathering from the introductory sections of his
recent Ada 95 book.  For example, he refers to all this recent focus on
OO as promoting "abstraction leak" -- whatever that means.  
  
I have achieved good success with the following:

1. Read the R. Riele articles in JOOP.  These are surgical introductions
to the important features of Ada 95.  They are on par with what the best
writers on C++ have done for that language.

2. Look at as much Ada 95 code as you can, and cross reference to the
LRM as required.

3.  Start reading the Ada 95 Rationale, and when you run out of wind,
don't fight it -- stop reading and code some examples with the attitude
"what can I do with this"? Don't wait until you have pigged out on a
bunch of information to set down some examples.  I use a random number
generator to determine which section of the Rationale to read each day. 
Otherwise it is rather laborious to plow throught the whole thing.  

4. The Lovelace tutorial can help.  It is good for relieving fear of the
language.

Tom Pastuszak
 
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