Re: Beginning Ada Programming, by Andrew T. Shvets (2020)

[Andrew Shvets <andrew.shvets@gmail.com>]

On Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at 12:39:27 PM UTC-5, Optikos wrote:
> On Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at 10:50:40 AM UTC-6, Lucretia wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 3 December 2019 16:26:55 UTC, Optikos  wrote:
> > 
> > > > That's not what I'm saying at all!
> > > > 
> > > > I'm saying to get someone used to the language, there is no problem with starting them off with the
> > > > ready defined types, but explaining ranges a little later on, literally, within pages of themselves.
> > > 
> > > Oh, then I agree with AdaMagica wholeheartedly if restricted to only learning a new language.  I once worked for a long-time Fortran programmer who self-taught himself C; every line of code that he wrote was 110% pure Fortran-think without any resemblance (other than surface syntax) to anything more modern:  
> > 
> > ...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand you missed my point entirely. I said to introduce them to typing concepts after
> > getting them used to the very basics, i.e. first few simple programs adding numbers and printing them
> > out, how the build using the compiler, then handle types and explaining how they're different to
> > something like typedef in C.
> 
> Although I don't have a copy of any of Andrew Shvets books to see how quickly he leaves the rudimentary level of hello-world dip-your-toe-in-the-water content, I took AdaMagica's criticism of the 1st edition as lingering far far far too long in the predefined hello-world dip-toe-in-water stage.
> 
> IMHO, the best pedagogical books always have a chapter 0 (after the Preface) that provides all the hello-world dip-toe-in-water rudimentary this-isn't-scary this-is-actually-accessible content, which would provide also the crash-course whirlwind-handwaving answer to the question of “gee, how do I actually minimally get this to compile on commonplace compilers and commonplace operating systems”.  But then Chapter 1 introduces the topic in the topic's native terms instead of as a play-baby toy.  Then back on say Chapter 11 every detail of the nuances of subtleties of how to make the build system sit up and sing for its supper can be introduced in their full glory, because it is so non-standard and vendor/OS dependent.
> 
> Paul Rubin, btw, I find Alan Burns's & Andy Wellings's 512-page _Analysable Real-Time Systems Programmed in Ada_ (2016; self-published) to be an exemplary book that truly shows off Ada's strong points in full Ada-think, but it is aimed at a different sector of the market than Schvet's introductory/general book, I suspect.

Well, yes.  In the first chapter, I explicitly state that this book will gently guide you into Ada and do a lot of hand-holding, that was the goal of the book.  The appendix details how you can install the compiler from AdaCore (which is very easy).