The remainder of the book covers relatively specific issues. Exceptions and erroneous execution is covered at the end of Chapter 5; and tasking, portability, and reuse is covered in Chapters 6, 7, and 8 respectively. You should be aware of the content of this part of the book. You may be required to follow the guidelines presented in it, but you could defer more detailed study until needed. Meanwhile, it can serve as useful reference material about specific Ada features; for example, the discussion of floating point numbers in the chapter on portability.
This book is not intended as an introductory text on Ada or as a complete manual of the Ada language. It is assumed that you already know the syntax of Ada and have a rudimentary understanding of the semantics. With such a background, you should find the guidelines useful, informative, and often enlightening.
If you are learning Ada you should equip yourself with a comprehensive introduction to the language such as Barnes (1989) or Cohen (1986). The Ada Language Reference Manual (Department of Defense 1983) should be regarded as a crucial companion to this book. The majority of guidelines reference the sections of the Ada Language Reference Manual that define the language features being discussed. Appendix A cross references sections of the Ada Language Reference Manual to the guidelines. [NOTE: Cross references from Appendix A of the original Style Guide appear as sets of live HTML links at the end of applicable subsections in this HTML version of the Style Guide and in the companion HTML version of the '83 Language Reference Manual.]
Throughout the book, references are given to other sources of information about Ada style and other Ada issues. The references are listed at the end of the book, followed by a bibliography which includes them and other relevant sources consulted during the book's preparation.