Book Description
Written by a key member of the original Ada design team 'Programming in Ada 95' and its predecessor, 'Programming in Ada' have long been established as the definitive texts on Ada. Now John Barnes has revised and updated this classic book to enhance its value to both Ada newcomers and veteran Ada programmers alike.
Ada 95 is the first fully object oriented language to become an ISO standard, its power and flexibility make it suited to a wide range of complex applications, from process control and industrial design to telecommunications and diagnostic analysis.This book provides complete tutorial coverage of all the core features of the language, illustrated throughout with extensive examples.
Key Features

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Six new examples of complete programs included as distinct chapters, with commentary

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CD featuring special edition of ObjectAda compiler, including online Ada Reference Manual

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More on overall program structure, child units and object oriented programming

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Further detail on the predefined library

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New edition also features a broader overview in the introductory chapters and further discussions of advanced topics such as storage pools and an extended index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

Good book for C++'er learning Ada
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

OK, but not for beginners
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.

This is NOT visual Basic
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.

very bad
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. ( )

The "Bible" for serious Ada users
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 thelanguage in a easy to read format.While more complete examples would havehelped, this is still the book you want to have on your desk when creatingan Ada program. It should not, however, be the only book.Ada is a complexand beautiful language - it helps to see it from more than one view.Manyreviewers of this book who gave it a poor score appear to be students orpeople who don't like the language in any case.If you don't see the valueof learning Ada, no book will help that much.Some reviewers could noteven 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 usedas some other languages but is still a very popular language in certainsegments and can provide a rewarding career for the serious student.Ihave been steadily employed for over 10 years using only Ada and have notrouble makinga six figure income.I certainly don't see Ada as a 'deadlanguage'! ... Read more

Book Description
Ada is the only ISO-standard, object-oriented, concurrent, real-time programming language. It is intended for use in large, long-lived applications where reliability and efficiency are essential, particularly real-time and embedded systems. In this book, Alan Burns and Andy Wellings give a thorough, self-contained account of how the Ada tasking model can be used to construct a wide range of concurrent and real-time systems. This is the only book that focuses on an in-depth discussion of the Ada tasking model. Following on from the authors' earlier title Concurrency in Ada, this book brings the discussion up to date to include the new Ada 2005 language and the recent advances in real-time programming techniques. It will be of value to software professionals and advanced students of programming alike: indeed every Ada programmer will find it essential reading and a primary reference work that will sit alongside the language reference manual. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The "gold standard" for Ada 2005 in concurrent and real-time apps
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.

Good for any programmer
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.

very informative contents about ada task acts
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.

The definitive work on concurrency in Ada
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 thistopic.

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

Assumes you know some Ada, but includes an introductionto 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.

ESSENTIAL & EXCELLENT for every PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMMER
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. ... Read more

Book Description
Ada 95 is the first new version of Ada since 1983 when it was designated the official programming language of the Department of Defense. This book was specifically designed for those who need to quickly acquire an in-depth working knowledge of Ada 95. It provides readers with easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidance on all aspects of this powerful language. And, while all the other Ada guides devote, at best, a special chapter to this new version, Rendezvous With Ada 95 offers fully integrated coverage of all the language's new features and characteristics. Written by an author who helped develop the new Ada language standard, it gives you:

• Expert guidance on powerful new Ada 95 constructs that support object-oriented programming,programming-in-the-large, and real-time programming
• Integrated coverage of all new features and improvements, including hierarchical libraries, type extension, classwide programming, general access types, and protected objects
• Detailed coverage of all Ada basics, from data types and control structures to subprograms and packages
• Presentation of advanced features, such as generics, tasking, hardware, interfacing, and exception handling
• Icons in margin to highlight Ada 95 features
• Numerous code examples and exercises to test reader understanding of key concepts

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent Introductory Ada book for Beginner's!
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.

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

So far, "Rendezvouswith Ada 95" is extremely informative, very well written, easy tounderstand and follow and contains sufficient exercises anyone couldunderstand.Overall, this book is an EXCELLENT beginner's book!

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

Excellent introduction to Ada
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 Adaconcepts. One suggestion for a future edition would be inclusion of achapter on Ada's current use in real-world projects, as well as a statusreport on Ada bindings to various industry-standard APIs.

An exceptionally well-written and complete book.
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 thefirst book I loan to friends who want to learn about Ada programming and itis the first book I refer to when I want to explore another capability ofthis wonderful programming language.

Clear, Complete, And Surprisingly Fun To Read
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A definitive work
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 ! ... Read more

Book Description
In this third edition, educators Michael Feldman and Elliot Koffman continue to refine and enhance their balanced presentation of modern programming concepts and Ada 95 language capabilities. Students with no prior programming experience will begin to program with this interesting and powerful, yet flexible language that is used in the Boeing 777 and Airbus 340, the International Space Station, the European high-speed rail system, and many other major projects around the world.

This text includes a CD-ROM containing versions of the GNU Ada 95 compiler (GNAT), other program development tools, and high-resolution graphics support for the Windows, DOS, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. GNAT supports the full Ada 95 language as standardized by the ISO and the ANSI. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

If your looking for a refrence book this is NOT it!
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 coverto cover.I do not!Further, the book never goes into much depth aboutthe copiler and most of the data on the disk was unaccessable.Myconclusion is that if this is your first time with Ada and you have time tospare this book is for you.Every one else should look else where.

An excellent introduction to Ada95.
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 aCD which has GNAT Ada95 compiler (for PC/MAC/UNIX) as well as keydocumentations like ARM, AARM, and Rationale in text, html and postscriptformat. I highly recommend this book to any one interested in learning Ada95 from beginning. Great book!!!

Good text for an Intro to Ada95 class.
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."

Excellent course book for the Ada programming language!!!
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 ... Read more

Book Description
B> This book provides an in-depth analysis of the requirements for designing and implementing real-time embedded systems, and discusses how these requirements are met by current languages and operating systems.The comparative advantages of Ada 95, Real-Time Java, and Real-Time C/POSIX are discussed in full.The emergence of Java as a real-time language through the Real-Time Java extensions has resulted in the treatment of Java as one of the core languages covered in the book.The additional real-time facilities in POSIX are also explored, as well as the proposed extensions to CORBA to address real-time issues.More material on schedulability analysis is also included. No other book on real-time programming languages (or concurrent programming languages) covers this range of topics.This book is designed for programmers and engineers looking for an introduction and/or reference that discusses current real-time programming languages and how they are suited to designing and implementing real-time embedded systems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great book!
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.

NOT FOR STUDENTS
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.
(...) ... Read more

Book Description
Known as the authorityon Ada 83, this text reflects the latest version of the language, Ada 95.Designed for a junior/senior programming course, this text serves as both a tutorial introduction and a complete reference to the Ada language.It offers specific, practical advice on how and why to use each language feature, stressing good programming style supported by hundreds of complete examples. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great book for learning ADA, but long....
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.

Not a book for those new to Ada
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.

The ultimate Ada95 book, if you are experienced programmer.
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 everyway. The book contains very clear explanations about all the new conceptsin Ada and it also covers the real-time issues, OOP, low-level multilingualprogramming, distributed programming etc.

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

The ultimate Ada95 book, if you are experienced programmer.
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 everyway. The book contains very clear explanations about all the new conceptsin Ada and it also covers the real-time issues, OOP, low-level multilingualprogramming, distributed programming etc.

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

The best book on Ada 95.
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 tremendousclarity. What is unbelievable is the ability of the author to teach yousome 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 seriousAda developer this is a MUST BOOK. I use this book to teach adavnced Ada 95classes. ... Read more

Book Description
Programming and Problem Solving with Ada 95 provides a solid introduction to programming while introducing the capabilities of Ada 95 and its syntax without overwhelming the student. The book focuses on the development of good programming habits. This text offers superior pedagogy that has long defined computer science education, including problem solving case studies, testing and debugging sections, quick checks, exam preparation, programming warm-up exercises, and programming problems.The extensive coverage of material in such a student-friendly resource, means that more rigor, more theory, greater use of abstraction and modeling, and the earlier application of software engineering principles can be employed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

RecentStudent
Well, recently completed my computer science course in Data Structures, this was one of the 2 books we used. John McCormick happens to be the teacher, and one of the Co-Authors of both books we used. I found the book to be pretty good in giving you some understanding of the language, and towards the end of class, me and some fellow classmates agreed with John on the fact that Ada wouldprobably be a better first language for Colleges to use, since it really helps with building good habits simply with how the language is desinged.

Good for beginners
We had to buy this book as part of our university degree to help us learn the Ada Language. While it seems a little daunting at first it does a really good job at what it is for and that is to teach people how to program in Ada. :) The appendix at the back is extremely useful as is the index giving a clear and quick way to locate important information. Sometimes the book doesn't go into enough detail that you will find useful but overall it does a pretty good job. ... Read more

Book Description
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Ada-Europe 2001, held in Leuven, Belgium, in May 2001.
The 27 revised full papers presented together with five invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from a large number of submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on program analysis, distributed systems, real-time systems, language and patterns, dependable systems, APIs and components, real-time kernels, standard formats: UML and XML, and system evolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An extremely readable introduction to Ada 95
This book is by far the most readable introduction to Ada 95 that I have encountered.I used it as a textbook for my junior-level Ada class at Rowan University in the Fall 1998 semester and was very pleased with it asa text.

The author's explanations are thorough without beingoverly wordy, and the writing style is informal and friendly without beingsloppy or imprecise.Programming exercises at the end of each chapterreinforce the chapters' content.These exercises make good homeworkassignments (from an instructor's point of view) and are good practiceproblems (from a reader's point of view).

The book assumes littleprior knowledge of programming, and as such it is appropriate for aComputer Science I course.This means that some of the explanations willbe simpler than an experienced programmer requires, and such a reader maywish to skim some of the material in early chapters.

The authordoes not attempt to cover all details of Ada 95, which is a very largelanguage, and a programmer who needs to learn Ada 95 in detail will want toadd one or more additional Ada references to his or her library.However,as an introduction to Ada 95, this is the clearest, most readable book Ihave encountered, and I highly recommend it both to experienced programmerswho are new to Ada and to novices who are new to programming. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

RECOMMENDED
A concise and upto the point,without unnecessary jargons and strongly useful for a beginner. ... Read more

Download Description
As distributed applications become more sophisticated, their implementation becomes more and more difficult. It is therefore important to study how to facilitate the implementation of efficient distributed applications. This thesis reviews the different classes of distributed languages and presents a new approach to develop efficient distributed programs using the Ada language. This approach is compared in detail with existing distributed programming languages, existing approaches to distributed Ada programs, and the Distributed Annex of the new revision of Ada language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent book for Computer Science students
This was the first textbook I used as a computer science student in college. It explains concepts in a clear, concise way without losing any of the important details. Although Ada is not the language of choice for manycolleges, it is an excellent language to use as a first step into ComputerScience, and this book is the perfect guide for it. ... Read more