Resources

Computer-Assisted Tutorials

There are many ways to learn Ada. Many fine Ada-related books are of course available (see our Online Bookshop). For those seeking to do it with a computer, here are some possibilities:

• Lovelace is a free (no charge) self-directed Ada 95 tutorial available on the World Wide Web (WWW). Lovelace assumes that the user already knows some other algorithmic programming language (such as C, C++, or Pascal). Lovelace is interactive; it contains a number of short sections, and most short sections end with a question (to help ensure that the user has understood the section's material). Lovelace can be used directly from the Ada Home, downloaded, or run from CD-ROM. Lovelace was developed by David A. Wheeler. A book version is also available, in the Ada Home bookshop: Ada 95: The Lovelace Tutorial.

  Note: HotAda and AdaTutr, listed below, are somewhat similar to Lovelace. Both are more complete than Lovelace, but Lovelace is free.

• Learn Ada on the Web (LAW) by Fintan Culwin was developed to freely provide Ada education and training on the World Wide Web. LAW is concerned with initial software development education rather than with helping programmers who already know other computer languages. Also, LAW is concerned as much with providing software engineering tools over the Web as with presenting information regarding Ada.

  The major part of the material is a pre-publication copy of the second edition of 'Ada: A developmental Approach', which has been published by Prentice Hall in 1996. Scheduled: a program construction tool, an object diagram generation tool, a multiple choice quiz tool, and a sub-tutorial on using Unix.

  Fintan Culwin is at South Bank University, London, and may be contacted at fintan@vax.sbu.ac.uk

• C/C++ Programmers Ada Tutorial is a hypertext Ada tutorial for programmers who have a C-style programming language background. It was written by Simon Johnston, and a more extensive version has been published as a book by Addison-Wesley (see our book review).

• HOT_Ada is a collection of tutorials on Ada 95 and object-oriented development, developed by Stage Harbor Software. They are distributed on floppy disks and run on Windows platforms. There are two sets of modules: the "Core Set" of three volumes, and the "IS Set" of two "books" related to Information Systems development. HOT_Ada is designed for individual, self-paced learning.

• AdaTutor is a shareware, self-directed Ada tutorial. This is a version for Ada 95; there is also an older version for Ada 83 (mirror). AdaTutor isn't flashy but the material is pretty good, and it has a number of exercises that give a more complete understanding of Ada than Lovelace does.

• AdaMentor 95 is a Web-based Ada 95 language training center, developed by AdaSoft, Inc.. This comprehensive, introductory course includes extensive learning material, practice exercises, quizzes, and support for collaboration among an instructor and students. The course takes about 40 to 60 hours to complete. It was developed by language experts including John Barnes and Ben Brosgol, based on the 'Programming in Ada 95' textbook by J. Barnes (available in the Ada Home bookshop). Useful reference documents are provided online in hypertext form, including the Ada 95 Language Reference Manual, Rationale, and Annotated Reference Manual. The course fee is US$ 149.

• Other PAL Courseware (mirror) products are available by FTP (in addition to AdaTutr, listed above). The complete PAL products are also available on the Walnut Creek Ada CD-ROM.

• In November 1994, there was a DoD broad area announcement on Ada educational products being developed.

An initial (1995) version of this page was based on information provided by David A. Wheeler (wheeler@ida.org), author of the Lovelace tutorial.

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