This first part is designed to give the reader a general appreciation of the overall scope and objectives of Ada 95 and its main technical features. The opening chapter describes the background to the development of the requirements leading to the new standard. The two main chapters give a technical view of the language from two different standpoints: one highlights the main new features such as type extension, the hierarchical library and the protected type and contains many illustrative examples; the other gives a complete overview of the whole language. The reader is recommended to read this first part before attempting to read the Ada 95 Reference Manual.