pattis@cs.washington.edu (Richard Pattis) (03/16/90)
After dozens of Ada as a second language books, there is now a book that introduces Ada as a first language. This book looks as if it is designed to compete in the CS-1 market, with such Pascal texts as Savitch, Koffman, Cooper & Clancy, Dale, etc. This is a tough arena to compete in, because each of these books is well written and quite mature (survival of the fittest or at least the fit, at work). Most are already in 3rd editions. Volper/Katz looks like the first Ada book that can give these some competition based solely on how well it is written, not to mention the use of a "better" language (if not better for CS-1, definitely for CS-2). Before I get too enthusiastic, let me say that I haven't read the book. But I spot checked it on a dozen or so interesting areas (I've taught Ada in a CS-1 class for the last 6 quarters, and Modula-2 for 15 quarters before that) and it holds up excellently. The two common reasons that people don't use Ada in introductory courses (at least the two reasons that have merit) are: no books at the right level; no usable compilers (usable means cheap enough to buy (price) and use (paying for cycles) and good enough diagnostics for beginners). Volper/Katz is an excellent answer to the first complaint. Meridian's $50 PC compiler is a good answer to the second (JPI is planning an Ada environment similar to their excellent Modula-2 environment, and mini/mainframe compilers are continuing to come down in price, and up in speed). All in all, compiler technology is improving, and texts are coming on line (a translation of Koffman's Pascal book is in the offing too). Before today, I couldn't recommend a good path for instructors wanting to use Ada in their CS-1 classes. Today, with Volper/Katz and the $50 Meridian compiler, I can. Rich Pattis
pattis@cs.washington.edu (Richard Pattis) (03/16/90)
Dennis Volper & Martin D. Katz, "Introduction to Programming Using Ada", Prentice Hall, 1990. ISBN 0-13-493529-2. Rich Pattis