Ada Lecture Notes

1. Brief introduction to Ada
2. Basic data types
3. Selection statements
4. Loops
5. Procedures and functions
6. Separate compilation
7. Packages
8. Scalar data types
9. Structured data types (records and arrays)
10. Searching and sorting
11. Text files
12. Structured files
13. Recursion
14. Exceptions
15. Dynamic data structures

1. Brief introduction to Ada

• First programs
• Producing a program: Unix commands (Sun ada, gnat ada)
• Basic program structure (Structure, layout)
  • Comments
• Types of statements
  • Input/Output
  • Assignment
  • Control statements (If, While)
• Modules
  • Procedures
  • Packages

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2. Basic data types

• Storing data values
  • Variables
  • Constants
  • Strong data typing
• Predefined data types:
  • INTEGER
  • FLOAT
  • CHARACTER
  • STRING
  • BOOLEAN

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3. Selection statements

• Selection statements
• If statements:
  • If-then
  • If-then-else
  • If-then-elsif
• Truth tables
• Conditions (not, and, or, xor)
• Case statements
  • Case vs. If

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4. Loops

• Loop statements:
  • FOR statement
    • Counting down
  • WHILE statement
  • General LOOP statement
  • Loop statements compared
• Common problems involving loops
  • Accumulating a sum
  • Finding largest or smallest item
  • Printing a table
• Loop control
  • Sentinel
  • Flag-controlled loop
• Nested loops

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5. Procedures and functions

• Motivation
• Designing a program and its subprograms
• Procedures (declaring them, calling them)
• Functions
• Parameters
  • Formal and actual parameters
  • Parameter modes
  • Parameter association
• Run time structures
• Scope of declarations

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6. Separate compilation

• Ada library
• Subunits
• Library units

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7. Packages

• What is a package?
• Package organisation: (specification, body)
• Using packages (WITH, USE statements)
• Some useful packages (CALENDAR)

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8. Scalar data types

• What is a scalar type?
• User-defined types
  • Derived types
  • Subtypes
  • Enumeration types
• I/O libraries for data types

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9. Structured data types

• Introduction
• Records
  • Designing, declaring, using records
  • Hierarchical records
• Arrays
  • Declaring, using arrays
  • Attributes of arrays
  • Unconstrained arrays
  • Multi-dimensional arrays, two dimensional arrays
• Arrays of arrays
• Arrays of records

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10. Searching and sorting

• Overview
• Searching algorithms (linear search, binary search)
• Sorting algorithms (selection sort, bubblesort)
• Analysing algorithms (searching, sorting)

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11. Text files

• Why use files?
• Text file structure
• TEXT_IO package
• Mechanics of using text files
• File position functions (END_OF_FILE, END_OF_LINE, END_OF_PAGE)
• Reading from text files

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12. Structured files

• Structured binary files
• Sequential files
  • Using sequential files
• Direct access files
  • Using direct access files

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13. Recursion

• Fundamentals of recursion
• Examples:
  • think of a number from 1 to N
  • print a number
  • evaluate a move in a game
  • multiply numbers from 1 to N
  • dual procedure recursion
  • print permutations of a string
  • binary search
  • merge sort
  • "Towers of Hanoi"
  • solve a maze

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14. Exceptions

• Exceptions
• Exception handling mechanism
• Strategies for handling exceptions
• Language-defined exceptions
  • Handling exceptions in I/O
• User-defined exceptions

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15. Dynamic data structures

• Dynamic vs. static data structures
• Mechanisms for dynamic structures:
  • new allocator
  • access types and access variables
  • using access variables
• Run time storage management
  • storage allocation and deallocation
• Linking records
• Linked lists