Lovelace Version Information

Version 5.0. There were a lot of changes in this version, so I've changed the major version number. I:

1. Renamed all of the files to end in ".htm" instead of ".html". I did this so that CD-ROMs can easily handle the files (Macintosh users have told me there's no driver to support long names on their platform), and to make it easier on MS-DOS platforms (MS-DOS platforms automatically chop filenames, but it's inconvenient to have different filenames between platforms). If you're running a server that serves the Lovelace files, make sure that your server "mime.types" file recognizes ".htm" as an HTML file. If you've been serving Lovelace files and want to permit use of the old ".html" names, run the "mklinks" program to create a bunch of surrogate old files. Most of today's browsers already know that ".htm" files are HTML files; very old versions Netscape for Unix (0.9 and less) do not unless they're told.
2. Added a whole new lesson, lesson 18, showing a sample Ada 95 program. This sample program is program "Small", a small text adventure program. As well as writing program Small I also developed scripts so the source for Small can be viewed as a hypertext document. I also developed a "home page" (so that there'd be a central point to begin exploring Small) and a sample of Small in action. See the Small Home Page for more information.
3. Improved the discussion on child packages (including some additional graphics) in lesson 15.
4. Modified the text in lesson 7 to show the "canonical format" for a package with an OO type definition inside.
5. Added to lesson 12 a brief discussion of pseudomode "access" (because program Small depends so much on it, it needed to be mentioned earlier, and the lesson on access values seemed like the right place).
6. Made various changes so that the examples preceded the BNF definition (based on feedback from a Lovelace user).
7. Released the additions from version 4.6.
8. Made other miscellaneous additions and improvements.

Version 4.6 (not widely distributed). Added a section on software inspections and common Ada errors in lesson 17. Added an example of creating an interface to a C function (getenv) in lesson 16.

Version 4.5. Fixed the example in lesson 6 involving Null_Key. Mentioned Intermetrics in the section on Ada tutors. Added information on installing a web browser in the section on downloading Lovelace.

Version 4.4. Fixed the link in the Lovelace notes to "Lovelace: An Ada 95 Tutorial" Organized the links in the Lovelace home page so it would be easier to understand.

Version 4.3. Fixed more typos, added a link to link to Learn Ada on the Web (LAW), added some quiz questions to sections that didn't have them, and added comments about Lovelace by previous users. Modified the list of Ada tutorials so it's now a general list of all Ada tutorials, including Lovelace (so people who want a list of Ada tutorials can simply link to that page). The congratulations page on completing Lovelace now includes a link to the URL-minder service so they can automatically receive email when Lovelace is updated. A paper about Lovelace, titled "Lovelace: An Ada 95 Tutorial" is available in postscript format. File "ustrings.adb" had a minor correction in Put_Line to a file (before, the new line was put to current output instead of to the desired file), and it was modified so that it can read lines up to Integer'Last characters long. Added some backgrounds to make it more interesting to look at, but the main tutorial text does not have a background (computer screens are hard enough to read without a background causing problems!).

Version 4.2, released May 1995: Fixed typos, added a "miscellaneous" lesson to discuss safety, efficiency, and briefly hint at related areas. Added a file describing the use of Ada in the U.S. DoD.

Version 4.1, released May 1995: Added a lesson on interfacing to foreign languages.

Version 4.0, released April 1995: Added lessons 9 through 14. Improved presentation speed for some users by making all `.gif' files interlaced and using the HEIGHT= and WIDTH= options of the HTML ``IMG'' command (this doesn't help all users, but they're harmless if they don't).

Version 3.1, released Feb-1995: Fixed minor errors, added error-detection programs to help detect them (including weblint with various options, an HTML spelling checker, and an Ada syntax checking step).

Version 3.0, released Feb-1995: Added this version file. Added a graphic to the home page and button graphics to the tutorial sections; I have not (yet) added graphics to the "miscellaneous" pages. Extended lesson 7 to briefly describe object orientation and encapsulation. Used "weblint" and fixed various problems identified by it. Added some `how to use your compiler' text, which I hope to extend further in the future. Added downloadable "local" versions of Lovelace; this required file renaming to fit within MS-DOS filename limitations. Added <TEXT FILE="filename"> command to mklesson so that it'd be easier to insert code fragments into instructions; this has the side-effect of making it easier to check code using an Ada compiler.

Version 2.0, released 27-Jan-1995: Various bugfixes: fixed the commenting format (some browsers had trouble with the earlier version), as well as a number of smaller errors.

Version 1.0, released 18-Jan-1995: Initial release of Lovelace, with 7 lessons (the 7th had two sections on object-oriented programming).

You can Return to the Lovelace home page.

This page was last modified 18-February-1995.