Ada 2022 Programming in 14 Days

Fourteen days of drills on the language that refuses to guess.

This is a book of problems, not a reference. Ada checks what other languages assume, and
every rule here is stated in as few words as it can be, shown working in a complete program
with its real captured output, drawn as a figure, and then handed straight back as drills.
Every one of the 364 listings was compiled and run, and every printed output block
is what that run returned.

The book prints what the compiler said, including the refusals.
63 listings fail on purpose, because in this language the refusal is
the lesson. It shows a fixed point type declared with delta 0.1 storing sixteenths, so 21.3 is held as 21.25 while 'Image rounds it back and hides the loss (Example 2.9). It shows a precondition that checks nothing at all, because GNAT ignores every contract unless the assertion policy is turned on
(Example 12.22).

What is in it

• Day 1 — Ada and Its Toolchain. the toolchain, the main subprogram, compile-bind-link, and strong typing in a page.


• Day 2 — Scalar Types and Subtypes. objects, whole and real numbers, your own types, subtypes, attributes, enumerations.


• Day 3 — Operators and Expressions. arithmetic, comparison, membership, short-circuit forms, expressions that choose.


• Day 4 — Control Flow. if, case, the four loops, exit, the loop parameter, blocks, goto and its limits.


• Day 5 — Subprograms. procedures and functions, parameter modes, defaults, overloading, recursion, nesting.


• Day 6 — Arrays and Strings. constrained and unconstrained arrays, aggregates, slices, strings, two dimensions.


• Day 7 — Records and Variants. record types, defaults, discriminants, variant parts, and checks on components.


• Day 8 — Packages and Abstraction. specification and body, use clauses, private and limited private types, child units.


• Day 9 — Tagged Types and Dispatching. derived types, tags, class-wide types, dispatching, abstract types, interfaces.


• Day 10 — Access Types and Storage. access types, allocation, null and null exclusion, aliased objects, a linked list.


• Day 11 — Generics. generic units, formal types, formal subprograms, formal objects, generic packages.


• Day 12 — Exceptions and Contracts. handlers, the predefined exceptions, occurrences, preconditions, type invariants.


• Day 13 — Tasking. tasks, task types, entries, the rendezvous, selective accept, delay, termination.


• Day 14 — Protected Objects, Input and Output, and Shipping. protected types, entry barriers, text and file input and output, a project file.

309 worked examples. 309 figures. 788 problems in five
sets a chapter. The programming problems build one command-line program across the two
weeks: station, from three printed readings on Day 1 to a sampling task feeding a
protected log on Day 14.

Each chapter closes with the same ladder: review questions, worked problems with their
solutions printed underneath, worked programming problems with complete programs, and then
practice problems with no answers anywhere. That is deliberate, and the preface says so.

Built with GNAT 16.1.0 and the ISO/IEC 8652:2023 edition of the language. For programmers who already
know another language and want Ada exactly.