DAVID: I think you raise some valid points about Ada and its support.
I think one of the things (not the only thing) we in the Ada community
do not so well is "promote" Ada and the many wonderful things
surrounding & supporting Ada to the software development community as
a whole.

On behalf of ACM SIGAda, I am mailing you a copy of the latest Walnut
Creek Ada CD-ROM which we normally sell for the promotional price of
$10 from the SIGAda booth we take to various non-Ada-community
exhibitions as part of SIGAda's "Ada Awareness Initiative" (AAI).
Prepared by Rick Conn at Monmouth University and also maintained as
the Public Ada Library (PAL) on the web, this CD is filled with many
varied resources for Ada users (incl. GNAT, several Ada83 compilers &
other tools, a hyperlinked version of the Ada95 RM & the Rationale,
the SPC's Ada Quality/Style guide, hundreds of reusable Ada
components, etc.).  It's a 2-disc CD, over 1.3G compressed from the
PAL expanding to over 10G, and opens in any web browser.  (Yes, it's
all on the web, but the CDs may be more convenient than large
downloads and for browsing.)

One large category of assets on the CD is courseware, with 80 courses
including basic Ada intro's, many advanced topics, and some that are
primarily on related topics like OO, software engineerings, reuse,
various software process topics, etc.  In the courseware category are
multiple "tutorials" on Ada.  One to check out is the interactive Ada
tutorial called "Lovelace" by David Wheeler.  Just follow the
instructions on the back of the CD package to open "index.htm" inside
your broswer, select "Contents of this Ada CDROM," select COURSEWARE,"
and see all the entries under "Ada95" including "LOVELACE TUTORIAL."

This CD is by no means the answer to all problems, but I think it's a
great resource for those investigating Ada, those learning Ada, and
even power Ada users.  Rick has made it super organized and user
friendly, and it runs on virtually any platform.  I hope that it will
show you that there are choices for learning Ada for several different
personal styles, and that some of the Ada "environment" resources
mentioned in this thread (e.g., GRASP & AdaGIDE, both on the CD) are
quite effective.

This offer is also open to anyone else reading this message, up to the
first 12 or so that reply.  We have about 12 of the Nov'97 WC Ada CDs
(done for Tri-Ada'97 last November) left that I am willing to give
away.  A new Ada edition comes out about 3 times yearly, and a new one
will is in production now and will be given away to all attendees at
the Software Technology Conference in SLC in 2 weeks.

        -- Hal Hart (SIGAda Past Chair & honcho for SIGAda's AAI)