Foreword

This document is the Annotated Ada Reference Manual. The International Standard for the programming language Ada is ISO/IEC 8652:2023(E). The International Standard is derived from the Ada Reference Manual, with various non-normative changes. In particular, the International Standard numbers clauses differently, omits the annotations and paragraph numbers, eliminates the Acknowledgements, and modifies various front matter such as the Title page and the Foreword.

Discussion: New ISO requirements necessitated changing the numbers of all of the numbered clauses and subclauses in the International Standard. The Ada Reference Manual retains its traditional numbering of clauses and subclauses as it is common for existing material (both printed and electronic) to refer to subclauses just by number.

The Ada Working Group ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 9 is tasked by ISO with the work item to interpret and maintain the International Standard and to produce Technical Corrigenda, as appropriate. The technical work on the International Standard is performed by the Ada Rapporteur Group (ARG) of WG 9.

AXE Consultants produces the Ada Reference Manual in consultation with the ARG, along with drafts of other documents as needed. ISO/IEC documents often list the individual changes that need to be made to the text of a Standard, rather than simply updating the document. As such, an International Standard is often found in several parts, while the Ada Reference Manual is always a single document.

In June 2016, WG 9 approved a tentative schedule for the preparation of an Amendment or Revision to the International Standard, with a delivery no earlier than 2018. In July 2019, WG 9 approved an additional review and prototyping period for this revision, extending the delivery to no earlier than late 2020. The draft standard was delivered to WG 9 in July 2021, and the Standard was published as ISO/IEC 8652:2023 in May 2023.

Since the completion of Ada 2022, work has continued on Ada, both to correct errors and to add enhancements. A Corrigendum to correct errors and add missing rules was submitted to standardization in June 2025; as of this writing it is unknown whether standardization will succeed. In addition, there has been no determination of when or in what form other changes (including all of the enhancements) will be issued. However, it is valuable to have all of the corrections and other changes available in one place. Thus, we've created this draft update, which for the purposes of this document, we'll call Ada 202y consolidated edition.

This version of the Ada Reference Manual shows the current state of Ada 202y. As Ada 202y is still under development, features are still subject to change 2022 including the changes made by Technical Corrigendum 1..