Talk:Ada Programming/Archive 3

Sourceforge.
Hi,

I have registered a sourcefoce project for us and I would like to add all contributers a project members there.

--Krischik 06:41, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

OSNews and Ada 2006
We have been mentioned in OSNews. I wonder whether the submitter is a wikibook contributor or we are already famous :) By the way, given that Ada 200Y it is now officially (well officially informally) named Ada 2006 I have renamed Programming:Ada:2005 and the template. Now it is necessary to update the pages to go to the new category. I will be doing it in the future days but any help is appreciated. I tried to use the pywikipediabot but I can't login with it to wikibooks, don't know why. ManuelGR 22:12, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

Organizational comment
Hi all. I've just been browsing this book for the first time, since a co-worker will be joining me on my project and needs to learn Ada. If I were new to the language I would find the ordering of the book confusing and disconcerting. For example, the section on mathematics uses packages before packages have been discussed.

My coworker is a C programmer and has had some difficulties trying to use Ada packages in the same ways as C header and source files. (Isn't it a classic question for the new Ada student to ask how to guard against including a header file multiple times, since there is no preprocessor?)

I think an ordering that would be less confusing would be to start with packages, followed by a discussion on procedures and functions, followed by a discussion on type and variable declarations, and then a discussion on code.

Of course this means going through several chapters without being able to write code. One way to remedy this would be to add a small chapter to the beginning: Start with a discussion on procedures and functions (as main procedures and functions), and in the same chapter a quick overview of procedure calls (enough to call Ada.Text_IO.Put_Line("Hello World");

Then go to a discussion of packages, etc. These following chapters can then make use of material from the first chapter. The point is, in example code, do not use material that has not been covered yet.

James Alan Farrell 16:51, 11 Aug 2005


 * I have made a minor rearrangement so part of your concerns are addressed. But I haven't removed the current division in:
 * 1) Getting Started
 * 2) Language Features
 * 3) Computer Programming
 * 4) Language Summary
 * I'm not sure this is the best division from the point of view of the reader but I don't want to change it before listening the opinion of the remaining authors. Nevetheles I have moved the tips page to the bottom of Language Features (only useful when you know the language), and the mathematical calculations actually belong to the Computer Programming part so I have moved it down (consequently your concern about this topic is resolved). Nevertheless I would merge the Language Features and the Computer Programming sections. By the way, you can sign with the toolbar button or typing ~ by hand. ManuelGR 21:24, 11 August 2005 (UTC)


 * True. It would be interesting to know what the new C programmer will think about the book - maybe he has some ideas for improvement. BTW: This is a WikiBook - if you have the feeling that there are things your new Co-Worker will need to know you are free to add them right here into the Wikibook. Doing so will be good for us (a better Wikibook) and good for you (you don't need to write it all down - you can build on top of what is allready there): --Krischik 11:02, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Programmer's Reference
I would like to propose a dedicated reference section for people with a particular programming background, where the mapping between common constructs from a given programming language to Ada syntax is illustrated (pretty much inspired by http://www.adahome.com/Ammo/Cplpl2Ada.html ). So that migration is simplified, this could be split into sub groups for each language (i.e. C++, Java) and could address a number of fixed issues (function def, classes, types, methods, var decl etc) The preceding comment was written by an anonymous user.
 * I think it's a good idea. If you want to develop it, you are free to start, remember this is a wiki, and it is open to anyone. ManuelGR (talk) 11:52, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Featuring multiple differently structured TOCs for readers with certain backgrounds
This is actually also something that could be rather elegantly addressed by optionally providing differently structured TOCs for people with a particular background, so that certain assumptions can be made regarding background knowledge. OTOH, I am not sure whether wikimedia supports something like this?


 * MediaWiki does support multiple TOCs. The C++ Programming book currently is an example of a book with multiple TOCs. --DavidCary (talk) 06:52, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, so let's try to come up with potential candidates for background-specific TOCs:
 * people completely new to programming in general
 * people with previous programming experience:
 * C programmers
 * C++ programmers
 * Java programmers
 * Python programmers (?)
 * Pascal programmers (?) (possibly interesting due to the relative similarity between Pascal & Ada)

Eventually, this list is supposed to address the most likely audience of the book, so that the various TOCs may reflect making certain assumptions about the reader's background (or lack thereof).

Furthermore, there probably needs to be an agreement concerning the creation, embedding and use of "glue contents" that are meant to level off the playing field for different audiences, i.e. by providing augmentations to existing contents.

Resources:
 * http://www.adahome.com/articles/1997-03/ada_vs_cpp.html

Broken Links
These links are broken in Ada Programming/Installing:

Linux http://libre.adacore.com/GNAT/3.15p/gnat-3.15p-i686-pc-redhat71-gnu-bin.tar.gz http://libre.adacore.com/GNAT/3.15p/florist-3.15p-src.tgz http://libre.adacore.com/GNAT/3.15p/asis/asis-3.15p-src.tgz

Windows http://libre.adacore.com/GNAT/3.15p/winnt/gnat-3.15p-nt.exe http://libre.adacore.com/GNAT/3.15p/winnt/gnatwin-3.15p.exe http://libre.adacore.com/GNAT/3.15p/asis/asis-3.15p-src.tgz --kwhitefoot 20:54, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for reporting it. It seems that after releasing GNAT GPL, AdaCore has deleted the 3.15p version from libre.adacore.com. I have replaced those links by a mirror site. ManuelGR 19:39, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

History of the Ada Project
Is there information available on the history and development of this language? Pedant


 * You can read about that in the article in Wikipedia: Ada programming language. ManuelGR 19:19, 27 September 2005 (UTC)


 * We removed the history chapter long ago - as it was only a duplicate of the Ada programming language article. --Krischik T 06:44, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

New Ada Lovelace picture
We already discussed about a /New Picture for the wikibook. Although is almost the type of image, one of the Lady, I think it might be better. This is a classic picture used several times in relation to the language. What do you think of this picture of Ada Lovelace as the wikibook image? ManuelGR 19:31, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

PDF version
I have made a PDF version of the All Chapters view using htmldoc. Although not all the formating is preserved (htmldoc does not understand CSS), I think it is a better format for printing the book, mainly because the table of contents has page numbers. Do you think is a good idea to upload this book to the sf project? I can make snapshots of the book regularly if we upload it. ManuelGR 16:47, 23 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I finally uploaded a PDF version since it is recommended in Help:Print versions. This version was produced using Mozilla Seamonkey and CUPS PDF instead of using htmldoc. Although the later produces a better quality PDF for reading in a screen (the TOC and web links are clickable), the uploaded one is better because all the formatting is preserved and the URLs are always displayed. The main use for the PDF version will be to be printed so these characteristics will be more useful than the ones provided by htmldoc. ManuelGR 22:51, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

For manually created PDF exports, it might make sense to consider also providing a creation data and revision info, as well. Also, please consider requiring future PDF exports to fully retain internal references/links, so that navigation is simplified.

Tasks states
See Talk:Ada Programming/Tasking. ManuelGR 22:30, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

The Assayer review
Following the links in the discussion Criticisms of Wikibooks I have found this review of "Ada Programming" by the mentioned Ben Crowell. Short but categorical: This is a very nice, complete introduction to the Ada programming language, one of the best books to come out of the Wikibooks project so far. -- ManuelGR 00:08, 17 December 2005 (UTC)