micah@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Micah P. Doyle) (07/25/86)
In article <397@atari.UUcp> dyer@atari.UUcp (Landon Dyer) writes: >The quality of information in the Abacus books is suprisingly >poor. They contain an enourmous amount of misinformation and >stuff that's just plain /wrong/. I would stay away from these >books, like the plague. The consensus in Atari's software >engineering department is that they're not worth much. Are there any books available (or soon to be available) that are better? Or is a developers kit the only option? ----- Micah Doyle micah@athena.MIT.EDU mit-eddie!mit-athena!micah
oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicarious Oyster) (07/29/86)
In article <1491@rsch.wisc.edu> dyer@atari.UUcp (Landon Dyer) writes: > >The quality of information in the Abacus books is suprisingly >poor. They contain an enourmous amount of misinformation and >stuff that's just plain /wrong/. I would stay away from these >books, like the plague. The consensus in Atari's software >engineering department is that they're not worth much. > As far as I've seen, there are two (maybe 2.5) sources of documentation for the ST. One is Abacus, the other is the so-called Developer's Kit (the extra .5 is Tim Oren's useful and accurate PRO*GEM tutorial). For some of us, paying $300 for some reportedly ill-organized documentation which is bundled with some stuff we neither want nor would use is *not* a valid option (which of course leaves us with Abacus). If the people at Atari are really concerned about the quality of existing documentation, perhaps they should think about unbundling the Developer's Kit documentation. Considering it costs about $60 for the basic Abacus set (Internals, 68000, and GEM), I'd think some accessible "official" documentation would not only help out those of us who have already purchased STs, but would make the machine(s) more attractive to potential buyers and developers (who would, in turn, produce more software, which would sell more machines, etc). And as for the Abacus books, yes, they are lacking in some respects. The information is sketchy in some important places, and they make the mistake of assuming that we all own the "Developer's Kit". However, they contain a significant amount of basic information (which is, amazingly, not provided with the machine), as well as examples of working, functional code. The latest book, Tricks and Tips, contains C or ASM source code for a ramdisk, a screen dump utility (mono and color), and a print spooler. It also provides BASIC listings which will generate both the executable files and resource files of the aforementioned programs, which allows those who don't have the necessary tools (C compiler and/or assembler and/or resource file generator) a chance to join the fun. With all that and more for a mere $20, does that sound like something to "avoid like the plague"? Anyway, I've heard that DRI is cleaning up the documentation. Are there any current plans to sell that separately? -- - Joel Plutchak uucp: {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster ARPA: uwvax!uwmacc!oyster@rsch.wisc.edu Can you say "opinion"? I *knew* you could!