Ada e-books

Ada e-books

[Serge Robyns]

I've been searching for e-book version of various Ada material.
So far I've only located an e-book on the ADA 2012 RM, sadly the ARM isn't in e-book format.

Has anybody created an e-book version of the 2012 ARM?

Are there other e-books around?

Serge

Re: Ada e-books

[Paul Rubin]

Serge Robyns <serge.robyns@gmail.com> writes:
> Are there other e-books around?
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Ada_programming_language

Re: Ada e-books

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

On 11/17/2015 03:55 PM, Serge Robyns wrote:
> 
> Are there other e-books around?

There are some at

http://www.adaic.org/learn/materials/

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Little blondes with long hair and short skirts and
boots and big chests and bright, witty, and perceptive."
Play It Again, Sam
128

Re: Ada e-books

[David Botton]

> Are there other e-books around?

http://learnadanow.com

Re: Ada e-books

[Serge Robyns]

On Wednesday, 18 November 2015 00:02:00 UTC+1, Paul Rubin  wrote:
> Serge Robyns <> writes:
> > Are there other e-books around?
> https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Ada_programming_language

This isn't in e-book format.

Besides Ada distilled (thanks David), which I did print months back before I bought an e-book reader (and not a Kindle ...), not much success.  My initial aim was to read the ARM 2012 but couldn't find it.  I'll try to use Calibre to generate it. My first attempt on the HTML files wasn't a great success, as these files are designed to be clicked trough and optimized for online reading.

I'll try either from PDF or through the tools from RTF ....

Re: Ada e-books

[Dirk Craeynest]

In article <2a413f76-f141-48fa-b6b8-76e95d768c13@googlegroups.com>,
Serge Robyns  <serge.robyns@gmail.com> wrote:
[...]
> Besides Ada distilled (thanks David), which I did print months
> back before I bought an e-book reader (and not a Kindle ...),
> not much success.

If you're specificly looking for e-books, then you definitely should
also check the e-book version of John Barnes' latest Ada book:
"Programming in Ada 2012".  See:

http://www.cambridge.org/pl/academic/subjects/computer-science/software-engineering-and-development/programming-ada-2012?format=AR

>My initial aim was to read the ARM 2012 but couldn't find it.  I'll try to use Calibre to generate it. My first attempt on the HTML files
>wasn't a great success, as these files are designed to be clicked trough and optimized for online reading.
>
>I'll try either from PDF or through the tools from RTF ....

Why would you try to generate an e-book version of the Ada 2012
Reference Manual when one is available already?  You already mentioned
in your initial posting that you located it...

Anyway, I quote from an Ada-Europe announcement made mid last year:

  "Moreover, with a view to exploring new media platforms to further
  widen the availability of this important material, Ada-Europe has
  now produced a prototype eBook of the Ada 2012 Reference Manual,
  which can be downloaded from [1].  This eBook should be regarded
  as a draft concept, proposed for the scrutiny of the Ada community 
  at large, for feedback on its perceived usefulness and suggestions
  for improvements.  Returns on this subject should be addressed to
  Ada-Europe at board@ada-europe.org." 

[1] http://www.ada-europe.org/resources/online 

So if you, or anyone else, have feedback about this Ada 2012 RM e-book,
we at Ada-Europe would be most interested!

Dirk
Dirk.Craeynest@cs.kuleuven.be (for Ada-Belgium/Ada-Europe/SIGAda/WG9)

*** 21st Intl.Conf.on Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe'2016
*** June 13-17, 2016 *** Pisa, Italy *** http://www.ada-europe.org ***

Re: Ada e-books

[Steve Johnson]

On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 12:29:43 AM UTC-8, Serge Robyns wrote:
>
> I'll try either from PDF or through the tools from RTF ....

You'll likely get better results from RTF than from PDF.  That's been my experience in the past although I haven't tried it on the ARM specifically.  It's even simpler to get the epub version from Ada-Europe as Dirk suggests.  My opinion after a brief look at it is that it's very usable.  Nitpicks would include lack of margins, which can be annoying and distracting on some e-readers but which can be easily changed by converting from epub to epub (default of 0.5pt margins) in Calibre.  The table of contents is a bit ugly and could also be changed or deleted if it bothers you. 

As previously posted two Cambridge Press books on Ada are available as ebooks from ebooks.com, Kobo, Amazon, etc.  Amazon is a bit less expensive if you can deal with azw format.  Calibre can convert that to epub even if you don't have a Kindle with better than acceptable results.  I'll echo a previous recommendation of Programming in Ada 2012 by John Barnes as a very reasonable place to start.

-Steve

Re: Ada e-books

[Hadrien Grasland]

> I'll echo a previous recommendation of Programming in Ada 2012 by John Barnes as a very reasonable place to start.
> 
> -Steve

Let that be a third recommendation then. This book sure is expensive as hell, even by the standards of academic writing (at least in print, don't know ebook pricing standards), but the quality of John Barnes' writing is certainly worth it :)

I'd say it's the OpenGL SuperBible of Ada: not to be confused as a replacement for the spec (which is quite readable anyway), but a very thorough step-by-step introduction to the language.

Hadrien

Re: Ada e-books

[Serge Robyns]

On Wednesday, 18 November 2015 13:16:27 UTC+1, Dirk Craeynest  wrote:
>   "Moreover, with a view to exploring new media platforms to further
>   widen the availability of this important material, Ada-Europe has
>   now produced a prototype eBook of the Ada 2012 Reference Manual,
>   which can be downloaded from [1].  This eBook should be regarded
>   as a draft concept, proposed for the scrutiny of the Ada community 
>   at large, for feedback on its perceived usefulness and suggestions
>   for improvements.  Returns on this subject should be addressed to
>   Ada-Europe at board@ada-europe.org." 
> 
> [1] http://www.ada-europe.org/resources/online 
> 
> So if you, or anyone else, have feedback about this Ada 2012 RM e-book,
> we at Ada-Europe would be most interested!

I did indeed find the LRM e-book and this is why I've been asking for the 2012 AARM (I'll add 2A's to avoid confusion).  I'm interested in the annotated version in e-book format.  I want to try to read it as I've been facing a few issues, miscomprehension, etc. in the hope to understand better some 'particularities' and things like the Rosen trick and others.

I've tried to generate the RTF from the sources but somehow I only generated the 95 version, not the 2012.  The generation tools aren't very user friendly and the doc very brief.  I understand it is used only by a few.

I do agree with another post about the price of Programming in Ada 2012.  However the Kindle format is reasonably priced, but then I don't have a Kindle.

Re: Ada e-books

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

On 11/19/2015 02:41 AM, Serge Robyns wrote:
> 
> I did indeed find the LRM e-book and this is why I've been asking for the
> 2012 AARM (I'll add 2A's to avoid confusion).  I'm interested in the
> annotated version in e-book format.  I want to try to read it as I've been
> facing a few issues, miscomprehension, etc. in the hope to understand better
> some 'particularities' and things like the Rosen trick and others.

The ARM and AARM are available at

http://www.ada-auth.org/arm.html

in HTML, PDF, and text versions. I'm not aware of any e-book versions of the
AARM. Most e-readers can display PDFs.

The title of the document is /Ada Reference Manual/, which is why many of us
refer to it as the ARM and interpret the A in ARM as "Ada". It's sometimes
referred to as the RM or LRM, which naturally lead to the questions, "RM for
what?" and "Which language?", which in this context are both answered, "Ada." So
yes, you need to say AARM here to refer to the Annotated ARM.

> I do agree with another post about the price of Programming in Ada 2012.
> However the Kindle format is reasonably priced, but then I don't have a
> Kindle.

The Kindle app on Android tablets works well. I've heard that Calibre can
convert AZW to EPUB, but unless you've done it before you probably won't want to
buy a book

The Rosen trick is used to gain write access to an in-mode parameter. It was
needed pre-Ada 12 to simulate in-out mode parameters to functions; Ada 12 allows
such parameters so it is not needed as much. An example is the Generator passed
to a random-number function such as Ada.Numerics.Float_Random.Random, specified as

function Random (Gen : Generator) return Uniformly_Distributed;

An example of its use can be found in pkg PragmARC.Threefry_Random:

   type Generator is tagged limited private;

   function Random (State : in Generator) return Unsigned_32;
...
   type Generator_Ptr is access all Generator;

   type Generator_Handle (State : Generator_Ptr) is limited null record;

   type Generator is new Ada.Finalization.Limited_Controlled with record
      Handle  : Generator_Handle (State => Generator'Unchecked_Access);
         -- The Rosen Trick
      Key     : Unsigned_256;
      State   : Unsigned_256;
      Output  : Unsigned_256;
      Counter : Natural;
   end record;

Write access to the State parameter of Random can be obtained though

      S : Generator renames State.Handle.State.all;

The PragmARCs are available at

https://pragmada.x10hosting.com/pragmarc.htm

PragmARC.Threefry_Random is only part of the version for ISO/IEC 8652:2007.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Go and boil your bottoms."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
01

Re: Ada e-books

[Simon Wright]

"Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org> writes:

> The Rosen trick

Randy suggested "technique"; I'd like to suggest "device".

Re: Ada e-books

[Serge Robyns]

On Thursday, 19 November 2015 19:19:49 UTC+1, Jeffrey R. Carter  wrote:
> The Kindle app on Android tablets works well. I've heard that Calibre can
> convert AZW to EPUB, but unless you've done it before you probably won't want to
> buy a book
> 

Precisely!  If I buy it will take the paper version.  I do love paper books but e-books are convenient when you travel.

> The Rosen trick is used to gain write access to an in-mode parameter. It was
> needed pre-Ada 12 to simulate in-out mode parameters to functions; Ada 12 allows
> such parameters so it is not needed as much. An example is the Generator passed
> to a random-number function such as Ada.Numerics.Float_Random.Random, specified as
> 

And I thought I was also used to implement some kind of multiple inheritance with containers.  I'll open a new discussion with why I've been looking into it.

Thanks.

Re: Ada e-books

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

On 11/19/2015 11:35 AM, Simon Wright wrote:
> "Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org> writes:
> 
>> The Rosen trick
> 
> Randy suggested "technique"; I'd like to suggest "device".

Maybe we should ask Rosen.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Go and boil your bottoms."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
01

Re: Ada e-books

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 19/11/2015 21:51, Jeffrey R. Carter a écrit :
> On 11/19/2015 11:35 AM, Simon Wright wrote:
>> "Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org> writes:
>>
>>> The Rosen trick
>>
>> Randy suggested "technique"; I'd like to suggest "device".
> 
> Maybe we should ask Rosen.
> 
I don't mind either way. After all, a trick can be a clever trick...

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Ada e-books

[Randy Brukardt]

"Simon Wright" <simon@pushface.org> wrote in message 
news:lyh9khhm79.fsf@pushface.org...
> "Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org> writes:
>
>> The Rosen trick
>
> Randy suggested "technique"; I'd like to suggest "device".

It originally was known as a "trick", but as it is now an accepted 
programming technique, and we rewrote some of the rules in the Ada Standard 
to ensure that compilers have to allow it, it seems wrong to call it that. A 
"trick" is a clever way to work around the rules -- "tricks" should be 
avoided. OTOH, "techniques" are just non-obvious ways to structure one's 
code (not something to be avoided, necessarily).

"device" to me says something about hardware (a mouse is a device, a printer 
is a device), not software.

                                      Randy.

Re: Ada e-books

[Simon Wright]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:

> "device" to me says something about hardware (a mouse is a device, a
> printer is a device), not software.

But, Duff's device (which, it seems, is not very effective nowadays).

Chambers says

(1) something made for a special purpose, eg a tool or instrument.
(2) a plan or scheme for doing something, sometimes involving trickery
    or deceit.

OED says

(1) A thing made or adapted for a particular purpose, especially a piece
    of mechanical or electronic equipment
(2) A plan, method, or trick with a particular aim

I suppose I was thinking more of sense 2. And using sense 1 for
non-hardware might maybe just possibly be considered
old-fashioned. Perhaps.

Re: Ada e-books

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

On 11/19/2015 02:29 PM, J-P. Rosen wrote:
>>
> I don't mind either way. After all, a trick can be a clever trick...

Or a <<truc>>.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Go and boil your bottoms."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
01

Re: Ada e-books

[Bob Duff]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:

> "device" to me says something about hardware (a mouse is a device, a printer 
> is a device), not software.

Look up "Duff's Device".  (No relation to me, by the way.)

- Bob

Re: Ada e-books

[Steve Johnson]

On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 1:41:48 AM UTC-8, Serge Robyns wrote:
>
> I did indeed find the LRM e-book and this is why I've been asking for the 2012 AARM (I'll add 2A's to avoid confusion).  I'm interested in the annotated version in e-book format.
> [...]
> I've tried to generate the RTF from the sources but somehow I only generated the 95 version, not the 2012.

After significant trial and error and poking in the source files (*.MSM plus 03A.MSS which was the cause of the major failure to build from current manual source), I've found the following solution which worked for me.  It may or may not be more fuss than you're willing to put up with at this point.

You may have got the manual source and prebuilt windows tool from http://www.ada-auth.org/standards/ada12.html.  At least that's where I first found it.  Please note that the manual source linked there (ARM_SRC.zip) is much more current and incompatible with the latest prebuilt windows tool (2012-FRM.ZIP).  The simplest way around this issue (assuming that you're on a windows machine in the first place) is to get a previous snapshot, i.e. 2012-SRC.ZIP which should work (it did for me) with with 2012-FRM.ZIP tool.  Alternatives would include building the current tools from source or hacking/patching 03A.MSM to remove the items tripping up the original 2012 build tool.

The most convenient place to retrieve the snapshotted 2012-SRC.zip and 2012-FRM.zip files are at:
   http://www.ada-auth.org/arm-files/

Note that you will get the original version 0 output (i.e. Ada 95) if you don't specify a specific version and something other than "no-changes".  For Ada 2012, you want version 3.

So after creating an empty directory, unzipping both 2012-SRC.zip and 2012-RM.zip into it, and creating an "ouput" subdirectory, you should be able to execute the following commands from the command prompt to produce RTF versions of the ARM (RM.RTF) and AARM (AA.RTF) in the ./output/ subdirectory:

C:\Users\Steve\AARM>arm_form rm rtf new-only 3
C:\Users\Steve\AARM>arm_form aarm rtf new-only 3

With Calibre a simple Add books and then Convert books should get you reasonable epubs.  Of course there are a number of options in the conversion process and you have the option of editing the RTF files (Word or Open/LibreOffice, etc.) before importing if you want.  Additionally there are options inside the original RM.MSM and AARM.MSM files.  You may find that the defaults produce acceptable output.

-Steve

Re: Ada e-books

[Randy Brukardt]

"Bob Duff" <bobduff@theworld.com> wrote in message 
news:87610xd47a.fsf@theworld.com...
> "Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:
>
>> "device" to me says something about hardware (a mouse is a device, a 
>> printer
>> is a device), not software.
>
> Look up "Duff's Device".  (No relation to me, by the way.)

Reading that, I thought of you first, and then of the Simpsons, and then of 
the cake guy on the Food Network. A "device" involving any of the seemed 
pretty humorous to me. So I'm laughing too much to look anything up. :-)

               Randy. 

Re: Ada e-books

[Bob Duff]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:

> "Bob Duff" <bobduff@theworld.com> wrote in message 
> news:87610xd47a.fsf@theworld.com...
>> "Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:
>>
>>> "device" to me says something about hardware (a mouse is a device, a 
>>> printer
>>> is a device), not software.
>>
>> Look up "Duff's Device".  (No relation to me, by the way.)
>
> Reading that, I thought of you first, and then of the Simpsons, and then of 
> the cake guy on the Food Network. A "device" involving any of the seemed 
> pretty humorous to me. So I'm laughing too much to look anything up. :-)

Well, you'll laugh even harder when you read about Duff's Device.

(And I repeat: I did NOT invent Duff's Device.)

- Bob

Re: Ada e-books

[John Smith]

What I do when I get stumped is go here and just find the correct answer:

http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Ada

Re: Ada e-books

[Serge Robyns]

On Sunday, 22 November 2015 04:27:16 UTC+1, John Smith  wrote:
> What I do when I get stumped is go here and just find the correct answer:
> 
> http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Ada

I do that often too.  But not all examples are good.  And it doesn't always explain the "why".  But admittedly it helps to get started.

Re: Ada e-books

[leif.roar]

Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org> wrote:
> "Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org> writes:
> 
>> The Rosen trick
> 
> Randy suggested "technique"; I'd like to suggest "device".

"Idiom"?

-- 
Leif Roar Moldskred

Re: Ada e-books

[Paul Rubin]

Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org> writes:
>> The Rosen trick
> Randy suggested "technique"; I'd like to suggest "device".

A technique is a trick that works twice.