Introduction to Ada: a project-based exploration with rosettas

Summary

ContextThis practical walkthrough, designed as a short tutorial, was created upon joining AdaCore as a Field Engineer. In this new role, I’ll be working directly with customers to help them succeed with Ada. Although I was first introduced to the language nearly two decades ago, this new position inspired me to revisit its fundamentals, and I used the excellent https://learn.adacore.com portal as a quick refresher.While that platform takes a concept-based approach, I chose to complement it with a project-based method by developing a small, end-to-end Ada program that generates animated rosettas in the form of SVG files. These are technically hypotrochoid curves, producing patterns that many will recognize from the classic Spirograph™ toy.In this walkthrough, we’ll show that Ada can be fun and easy to learn. Although the language is famous for safety-critical systems, we will use it as a modern, general-purpose programming language and try out some new features from Ada 2022 along the way.Let's dive in!A brief note on AdaThis section leans a bit more into background context, with a slightly encyclopedic flavor that's especially useful for readers new to Ada. If you're already familiar with Ada’s history and principles, feel free to joyfully skip ahead to the next section!Ada was created in the late 1970s after a call from the U.S. Department of Defense to unify its fragmented software landscape. The winning proposal became Ada, a language that's been literally battle-tested (!) and built on a deeply thought-out design that continues to evolve today.While Ada is absolutely a general-purpose programming language, it has carved out a strong niche in fields where software correctness and reliability are mission-critical:Embedded and real-time systemsAerospace and defenseRail, automotive, and aviationAny system where failure is not just a bug, but a riskIts strict compile-time checks, safety features, and clear structure make it particularly appealing when you need your s...