Learn ADA with Real Code Examples

Ada supports structured, object-oriented, and concurrent programming paradigms.

It is widely used in aerospace, defense, transportation, and other safety-critical systems.

Its compiler enforces strict type checking, which reduces runtime errors and improves reliability.

Procedures, functions, and packages

Tasking and protected types for concurrency

Generics for reusable code

Exception handling

Strong typing and subtyping

Strong typing and variable declarations

Procedures and functions

Packages and modularity

Tasking and concurrency

Exception handling

source.adb (body)

source.ads (specification)

packages/

tests/

Makefiles or GNAT project files (.gpr)

Write `.adb` and `.ads` files

Compile with `gnatmake` or IDE build tools

Run executable

Debug using GNAT debugger or IDE

Unit test critical routines

Beginner: Hello World, basic arithmetic

Intermediate: modular packages, file IO

Advanced: real-time concurrent tasks

Expert: safety-critical avionics/defense systems

More robust than C/C++ for safety-critical systems

Less flexible for rapid scripting than Python or Ruby

Concurrency model safer than traditional threads

Strong typing prevents many runtime errors

Better for certified systems than general-purpose languages

1979 – Ada design commissioned by DoD

1983 – Ada 83 standard released

1995 – Ada 95 introduced object-oriented features

2005 – Ada 2005 added real-time and concurrency enhancements

2012 – Ada 2012 added contract-based programming

Task: concurrent unit of execution

Package: module for encapsulation

Protected Type: concurrency-safe data type

Exception: runtime error handling mechanism

SPARK: subset of Ada for formal verification