1 comments about ADA PLUS DATA STRUCTURES.

1. As a freshman at an upstate New York state university, this was the textbook for the second sequential computer science course. Of course, the choice was obvious: McCormick being a former professor at the school. At that point, I was a beginning programmer, having already taken basic programming classes. This book, however, is responsible for my now-firm grasp of data structures and algorithms. Both dynamic and static structures, complex and simple, this book is the primer for an understanding of data structures in Ada.

   As an Ada textbook alone, it has its faults: it assumes the reader has a knowledge of the programming language, but from that point teaches a method of programming that enforces good stylistic patterns and strong code. Now, when it comes to algorithm layout in my position as a design engineer, I turn to Ada first for a comprehensible design structure, and then port it to other languages as necessary.

4 comments about Rendezvous with Ada 95, 2nd Edition.

1. I bought the first edition of Rendezvous With Ada many years ago, and with it as my only guide was able to learn this fairly complex language within a few weeks. The flow of the text is excellent, moving from simple to more challenging topics at a good pace. Even better, every aspect of the language, down to the most minute detail, is not only explained, but is demonstrated in one of the many example code segments that lace the book. As an added bonus, the example code is often as humorous as it is lucid. Together with the general enthusiasm conveyed by the prose, the examples not only made learning Ada easier, but genuinely fun. In the second edition of the book Naiditch has included coverage of the newer Ada95 version of the language, not merely by adding a few paragraphs at the end of each chapter, but by a thorough rewriting of the entire book - a rewriting that considerably expanded the book's content, but in no way lost the delightful enthusiasm of the first edition. I've read several other Ada texts since; although all have their merits, none come close to matching this one.



2. I've owned Rendezvous with Ada 95 for about three years and it is still my favorite Ada 95 book. I have purchased other Ada 95 books that I like but none of them is as clearly written as this book by Naidich. It is the first book I loan to friends who want to learn about Ada programming and it is the first book I refer to when I want to explore another capability of this wonderful programming language.



3. Rendezvous with Ada is an excellent introduction to the wide scope and applicability of the Ada 95 language. The book is well written, containing chapters that are fairly self-contained and touch upon all key Ada concepts. One suggestion for a future edition would be inclusion of a chapter on Ada's current use in real-world projects, as well as a status report on Ada bindings to various industry-standard APIs.



4. As a C/C++ programmer, I desired a beginner's Ada book which was fully informative, easy to understand, and inviting to read with sufficient examples both for reviews and exercises throughout the chapters.

   After seeking for a beginner's Ada book for days, I finally decided to settle on "Rendezvous with Ada 95" mainly because of the customer reviews I have previously read on Amazon.com. Yes, there is quite a selection of Ada books, however, it's difficult to select one book worth your time and money, especially if you need to learn Ada FAST!

   So far, "Rendezvous with Ada 95" is extremely informative, very well written, easy to understand and follow and contains sufficient exercises anyone could understand. Overall, this book is an EXCELLENT beginner's book!

   I recommend this as a "first" book for any amateur, intermediate or advanced programmer. Don't look any further, end your search here and settle on "Rendezvous with Ada 95"... it is worth your time and you will definitely comprehend the information and learn the language... you won't be sorry!

2 comments about Real Time Systems and Programming Languages: Ada 95, Real-Time Java and Real-Time C/POSIX (3rd Edition).

1. This book is no good for students, as it has exercises with answers only available to lecturers though a password system.
   The examples are ok but do not help for the exercises so it makes the book imcomplete and very dissappointing, If you need help for real time systems then this is not the book for you, If you just want to read a book this might be ok, but learning is not going to be done.
   (...)



2. This book is great because it covers all the important concepts quite well. I think it is a must for those into real-time programming.

5 comments about Ada As A Second Language.

1. This book is the best Ada 95 book in the market. It covers everything about Ada 95 (core language plus all six specialized annexes). Chapters are presented in a tutorial format. Examples in the book are practical and realistic. Best of all you learn features of Ada 95 with a tremendous clarity. What is unbelievable is the ability of the author to teach you some complex topics in a step by step manner leaving no room for confusion. This book is complete in every way and entertaining. If you are a serious Ada developer this is a MUST BOOK. I use this book to teach adavnced Ada 95 classes.



2. Over two years back, I had to write and test huge amount of code (about 200-330K LOC) in Ada 95 (I had over 8 yrs. Ada 83 experience) in very short time. A colleague suggested to use this book. It has helped me in every way. The book contains very clear explanations about all the new concepts in Ada and it also covers the real-time issues, OOP, low-level multilingual programming, distributed programming etc.

   Although, it was written for the "C" programmers who are new to Ada, I have since then worked on two more major programs and this is the only Ada95 book I am continuously using together with the Ada 95 LRM.




3. Over two years back, I had to write and test huge amount of code (about 200-330K LOC) in Ada 95 (I had over 8 yrs. Ada 83 experience) in very short time. A colleague suggested to use this book. It has helped me in every way. The book contains very clear explanations about all the new concepts in Ada and it also covers the real-time issues, OOP, low-level multilingual programming, distributed programming etc.

   Although, it was written for the "C" programmers who are new to Ada, I have since then worked on two more major programs and this is the only Ada95 book I am continuously using together with the Ada 95 LRM.




4. This is a poor book to learn Ada from. I'll agree that the book is a good reference tool, once you have a firm grasp on the language. I took a course four years ago with 14 other experienced programmers (Ada, C, ...), all of them thought this book was difficult to use as a learning tool. It lacks good examples and is poorly orginized. Go elsewhere if your new to Ada 95.



5. This book is great for people just starting with ADA because it initially goes through the basics of a program and then going through every component in detail. Since I was already proficient in C and C++ it was nice how the book points out how the commands are similar to not only C but also Pascal and COBOL (even though I don't know those two). I really like the format of the book. You get the format definition, then the syntax, and finally a short example of the instruction being used.
   
   If you already know C or some other similar language, you'll probably get annoyed with how much detail it goes into at explaining the simple programs and code it presents, but you can always skip it.
   
   My only complaints are how long the book is and the price. Not only is this the longest programming book I've seen, but it's also the most expensive. However, if you really need to learn ADA it's pretty much worth the price.

3 comments about Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: Prophet of the Computer Age.

1. This book is not about Ada but rather the author's defense of Ada's image and place in history.

   There are gratuitous associations of Ada Lovelace to truly famous geniuses and science. For instance, this part of a letter (page 124) --

   It cannot help striking me that *this* extension of Algebra ought to lead to a *further extension* similar in nature, to the *Geometry of Three Dimensions*; & that again perhaps to a further extension in some unknown region & so ad-infinitum possibly...

   -- leads to this comparison (page 122) --

   In the next series of letters Ada hyposthesized a geometry of the "fourth dimension." Several popular books today deal with this subject: Rudy Rucker's The Fourth Dimension, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, and Philip Davis's Descartes' Dream.

   I don't see any reference in Ada's letter to time. I expect it is simple 4 dimensional geometry she is thinking of.

   There is some incredible gushing over the programming language ADA. This book was written in 1992, when it surely should have been obvious that ADA was not the be-all and end-all. Yet the author has apprently fallen hook, line, and sinker for the party line over the programming language named after her hero. Here are some examples. Note these are the author's words, not Ada Lovelace's.

   Pages 176-177: It is accordingly most fitting that the programming language ADA, developed in the early 1980s by the US Department of Defense, provides the most precise facilities for this software development (specification) task of any general-purpose software language for large-scale problems existing today.

   Add this idolatry to the author's infatuation with Ada Lovelace, and the reuslt is some far-fetched comparisons between Ada Lovelace's documentation and later computer concepts.

   Page 179: Here again, the ADA software language contains somewhat unique facilities corresponding in a sense to Ada's insight... A second unuusual ADA facility, exception handling, reflects in a ! different but related way Ada's vision of the Analytical Engines's superiority over the DIfference Engine...In a sense the ADA language exception handler operates at a level of control above the program itself, confirming Ada's foresight.

   Page 185: One can read into the following quotations the germ of perhaps the most important advance in software development in the past twenty years, an idea variously referred to (in its many forms) as *sbatraction*, *modularity*, *separation of concerns*, *information hiding*, or *object-oriented design*.

   Pages 187-188: In the first excerpt from Note D, Ada commended the use of indices, a now-basic technique for reducing complexity in the processing of regular data structures.

   Page 190: ...Then she expanded the visual image she had of weaving and symmetry to highlight the *cycle*, a conceptual building block of programs for both the Analytical Engine and later the computer.

   This exaggeration is also extended to Babbage's Analytical Engine.

   Page 173: Babbage planned to store over 1000 fifty-digit numbers.

   Page 181: It was not until the mid-1960s that the modern computer could store as many digit numbers as did the Analytical Engine.

   Quite wrong; I worked on computers from the 1950s that had more storage capacity.

   Pages 186-187 compare Babbage finding a new use for the Jacquard loom punched card to software reuse: Some predict that the 1990s will be the decade in which software reuse becomes the principal software development mechanism, and that the ADA software language, which simplifies software reuse because of its precise interface specification and generic subprogram facilities, will lead the way.

   Page 189 compares multiple Analytical Engines operating together to current parallel supercomputers, with further comments on ADA supporting this.




2. Toole's book is an excellent introduction to the life and work of the mathematical visionary, Ada Byron King. Toole's treatment allows the reader access to King's luminous mind--no small achievement.

   Although it may not be appreciated by those who clearly clearly wish to argue with issues external to the text, I highly reccomend "Ada" to anyone who enjoys work which is sensitive, illuminating, and well-written.

   There will probably be a richly-deserved resurgance of interest in King's life and work after the wide release of Lynn Hershman Leeson's film "Conceiving Ada," and Toole's book will be a fine resource for all who are inspired or intrigued by this singular figure.




3. I have reviewed most of the books that are readily available on Ada. This book was well written and Dr. Toole is truly the recognized authority of Ada and her life. I found an earlier edition of this book through interlibrary loan and was disappointed that this edition did not offer the same illustrations and pictures. If you are interested in finding out more about Ada especially from her own letters, this is truly one of the best books out there. I would recommend reading at least one other book on Ada Lovlace in addition to this one, for balance, at times Dr. Toole may have been too kind to Ada's memory.

   Ada is a great role model for girls, her life had much turmoil and many obstacles. She fought for her right to do math (and early computer science) in a male society. This book may be a little too steep for early high school reading, a really fabulous young adult book on this subject is Ada Byron Lovelace : The Lady and the Computer (People in Focus Book) by Mary Dodson Wade.

4 comments about Ada 95: Problem Solving and Program Design (3rd Edition).

1. I use this book in several Ada courses that I teach. This book is outstanding! The accompanying CD contains a validated compiler and all the examples in the textbook. The examples are excellent! Mark Oestmann



2. The text is an organized, well written, generously exampled introduction to Ada95 for the novice. It provides a good basis for object oriented programming using Ada95 for generics and privates (ADTs), it does not cover as fully or clearly inheritance and/or polymorphism. This book is apropriate for a 200 level CS class. I personally was disappointed with the amount of clear differentiation between Ada83 and Ada95. The section on tasking dismisses conditional Select entry as being beyond the scope of the book. Variant records are given too large a play. though they are a good intro to the thinking behind Ada polymorphism, in practice (Ada83) they are too code intensive and have serious short comings when used as private data elements. Overall, I think that this is a good, complete Ada95 introductory text. It is NOT an in-depth push the boundaries of the language or a "here's how to go from Ada 83 to Ada 95."



3. Ada 95 is nicely written easy to understand book. I use this book in beginning Ada 95 course that I teach. It explains programming concepts and Ada 95 constructs in a interesting way by citing examples. It comes with a CD which has GNAT Ada95 compiler (for PC/MAC/UNIX) as well as key documentations like ARM, AARM, and Rationale in text, html and postscript format. I highly recommend this book to any one interested in learning Ada 95 from beginning. Great book!!!



4. I purchased this book in the hope that I could use it as a refrence as well as a tutorial for using the Gnat compiler. It failed in both cases. Don't get me wrong, This is a good book if you have time to read it cover to cover. I do not! Further, the book never goes into much depth about the copiler and most of the data on the disk was unaccessable. My conclusion is that if this is your first time with Ada and you have time to spare this book is for you. Every one else should look else where.

5 comments about Programming in Ada 95 (2nd Edition) (International Computer Science Series).

1. This should be one of your books if you are really serious about Ada. The author was one of the leaders of the small team that actually designed the Ada language and does a great job of presenting the essentials of the language in a easy to read format. While more complete examples would have helped, this is still the book you want to have on your desk when creating an Ada program. It should not, however, be the only book. Ada is a complex and beautiful language - it helps to see it from more than one view. Many reviewers of this book who gave it a poor score appear to be students or people who don't like the language in any case. If you don't see the value of learning Ada, no book will help that much. Some reviewers could not even spell the language (i.e. it is Ada, named after Ada Lovelace Byron, not ADA as in the American Dental Association). Ada is not as highly used as some other languages but is still a very popular language in certain segments and can provide a rewarding career for the serious student. I have been steadily employed for over 10 years using only Ada and have no trouble making a six figure income. I certainly don't see Ada as a 'dead language'!



2. An awful book. I could barely understand anything, as no examples were complete. The object oriented section was incomprehensible at all. I would recommend leaving this book aside and get a real Ada teaching book. ( )



3. This is not a begginers guide, or a "for Dummies" book either. You are not going to be spoon fed here. To get the most from this book you need to do a bit of poking around on the internet concerning the "Hello world" of Ada95, also the structure of Ada programs, interfaces, bodys, then jump in to this work. You will find all you need, but this is not an ARM (annotated reference manual). Be ready to jump around in the text. Use the included Aonix compiler, or the one that comes with Linux. Rememeber this is a small book covering a big subject.



4. Like the Ada language itself, I find this book wordy and repetitive, but complete. It really does seem to have full descriptions of all the language features. I'm not sure, because I have to flip to so many different sections to see one feature described, that I really don't know whether I found everything.

   This book reads like a standards document, designed by commitee. (If you're never read standards, imagine reading 'War and Peace' by selecting pages in random order.) In the bigger standards, any given component tends to make sense only when you've mastered all other system features, so you understand how that component fits the system as a whole. That means the learning curve includes a jump discontinuity, from zero up to where you've absorbed some critical mass of information. That's what this book is like.

   Yes, Ada is a complex language, so a truly brief description is impossible. A better writer knows, though, that brevity (to a point) improves clarity, and that the organization of content is at least as important as the content itself.

   The one real strength in this book is the many examples. They are sometimes over-long for the points they make, but seem to demonstrate most of the important language features.

   If you already know a few languages including at least one with object orientation, you should be able to hack a trail for yourself through this thicket of information - the author has not paved a clear path for you. If you are a beginning programmer, you're likely to have a hard time of it.




5. Man, these Ada books are expensive! But this was 1/2 of most others. The paperback cover is kinda flimsy, but it'll just make me look like a more experienced programmer as it gets doggeard '-)
   
   I'm a long time C++'er but knew nothing about Ada, which 95% of my new job involves. So I needed something to bring me up to speed quickly. I find this book very readable and pretty well organized. The first few chapters teach you the 10% you'll use 90% of the time and the other 90%, if you need it, is covered in depth later in the book. I think those that don't like this book probably don't like Ada (but who does?) because I find this book great, Ada is just a tough language that you just can hack with like C++.
   
   I'm very pleased with this "bargan" book and think it'll be the only Ada book I'll need to buy. Strongly recommend

5 comments about Concurrent and Real-Time Programming in Ada.

1. Ada has been one of few languages which provides facilities for concurrent programming, but readings for the feature had been limited. This book is not only the first but also an excellent guide to the capability of the new Ada standard.

   It covers,

   1.@The Ada Language

   2. The Nature and Uses of Concurrent Programming

   3. Inter-Process Communication

   4. Ada Task Types and Objects

   5. The Rendezvous

   6. The Select Statement and the Rendezvous

   7. Protected Objects and Data-Oriented Communication

   8. Avoidance Synchronisation and the Requeue Facility

   9. Using Protected Objects as Building Blocks

   10. Exceptions, Abort and Asyncronous Transfer of Control

   11. Tasking and System Programming

   12. Real-Time Programming

   13. Object-Oriented Programming and Tasking

   14. Distributed Systems

   15. Conclusion

   Not only Ada programmers, but also all professonal software engineers who design real-time, embedded systems, advanced students of computer science, and even beginners should find it quite useful.

   I've read the original print published in 1995, which has been out-of-print.

   I am so happy to know it is now to be RE-PRINTed, and every programmers would be.




2. By far the best on the subject. Offers complete coverage of any aspect of concurrency with Ada, including real-time and distributed programming issues. Burns and Wellings are the acknowledged experts on this topic.

   The best aspect of the book is the analysis of features and their interactions, providing a depth not available in other texts covering the entire language.

   Assumes you know some Ada, but includes an introduction to the sequential part of the language.

   I own quite a few books on Ada; this is the one to get if you want the details of Ada concurrency.




3. the authors of this book is famous. and the contents of the book do not disappoint me.
   
   i have several references about ada. of course, some of the references are written by the author of this book. But, regard to the acting mechanism of ada task, this book is awesome.
   
   but, if you are the beginner of real-time & embedded system, you should have another reference(s) to fully understand the meaning of the every article of this book.



4. Obviously specifically for Ada but a good resource for any programmer interested in the general concept of concurrent programming. The organization of the chapters and the introduction to concurrency are alone worth the price.



5. Fully harnessing multi-core processors requires concurrent programming, yet most mainstream languages have little support or do so with poor portability. Well-written concurrent Ada programs can be extremely portable and support multi-core and multiple processors automatically. This book explores, in-depth, the concurrent programming ("tasking") part of the Ada language. The authors then show how the concurrent programming facilities of Ada are augmented by the language to support real-time programming. These standard real-time facilities are state-of-the-art, extending, for example, beyond the POSIX real-time facilities in their expressive power.
   
   The book first establishes the necessary foundation for understanding concurrent programming by explaining the possible problems (e.g., deadlocks and race conditions) and highlighting some of the mechanisms traditionally used in concurrent programming, such as semaphores and message-passing.
   
   The tasking part of Ada is then covered in full detail, necessarily including interactions with some other parts of the language, such as exceptions, but also including interactions with the Ada object-oriented language facilities. The implementations of a number of reusable concurrency abstractions serve to illustrate the use of the tasking features.
   
   The authors next lay another foundation, this time for scheduling in real-time systems, and show how Ada directly supports the common approaches. Both fixed-priority and dynamic-priority dispatching are supported by Ada and these are covered in detail. Ada 2005 also defines a number of time-related abstractions, such as a monotonic clock and timing events, and these are also covered completely. As in the concurrent programming part of the book, a number of reusable abstractions are implemented; in this section they illustrate the real-time language facilities. A discussion of the popular Ravenscar Profile, adopted by some other languages, is included.
   
   No language is perfect and Ada is no exception. The tasking part of Ada 83 was particularly controversial in the domain of real-time systems. Ada 95 addressed many of these issues and added some new ones. Ada 2005 does the same. These issues are not ignored in the book.
   
   I own 46 books on Ada (not counting older editions of some of them), gathered over 27 years of applying the language. Some are excellent and some not, but this one is highly prized. I highly recommend it to professionals and students alike.

1 comments about Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: A Selection from the Letters of Lord Byron's Daughter and Her Description of the First Computer (The Pickering Masters).

1. A very pleasant biography in an original format, allowing for a good understanding of the main character. Typical american biography, where few details are untold, and where the author remains "transparent". We have to assume that B.A.Toole likes Ada, since she wrote a book about her, but we can't figure out why: was it beause she was Byron's daughter, or because she was Babbage's assistant, or because she lived an interesting life, or because she worked on early computers, or for any other reason... It might be a quality of good biographers, but as a French guy, I like to feel a greater intimacy between the autobiographer and the central character. A small disappointment: the lack of details regarding Ada's program for computing Bernouilli's numbers. Having computed some of those by myself, I know what an advantage it is to have at one's disposal a good algorithm to shorten fastidious calculations. In Toole's book, those numbers are barely mentioned, and the chapter 12, even though revised by an US Army colonel,doesn't explain why the Dept of Defense has chosen the ADA language. This having ben said, I took a great pleasure in reading a book which taught me a lot, even if Toole is too discreet on "an affair" that young Ada had when she was 17 years old with one of her preceptors (the great Turner?). Again the French side in me would have liked more details on that topic... Iconography is nice and all graphics are useful. All in all, a very good book to be read by all those who feel interested by an extraordinary woman who remains too little known by the general public.

1 comments about Programming in Ada 2005 with CD (International Computer Science Series).

1. This is a definitive work by someone that clearly understands the history, culture and technical aspects of Ada. Thank you (once again) to John Barnes ! This is the Ada textbook you need.
   Main gripe is that, like so much of the Ada community, the author seems loathed to use pictures, instead preferring detailed text. Perhaps this culture comes from the Ada LRM. But it's very well written detailed text !