HOWESDW@wsuvm1.BITNET (12/06/86)
Received: by WSUVM1 (Mailer X1.23) id 6070; Fri, 05 Dec 86 13:09:16 PLT Date: Fri, 05 Dec 86 13:08:55 PLT From: Don Howes <HOWESDW@WSUVM1> Subject: Developers Docs. To: INFO-ATARI16@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU In relation to books other than the development kit documentation, there was a recent posting to the net (in V86 #27) which listed some (I don't have any of them, so I can't comment). I do have several of the Abacus books and find that they are generally ok, but you have to be careful since they do have some pretty significant errors (one good example is that the Programmers Reference states that the line-F interrupt is available for use. This is very wrong, since that interrupt is used internally by GEM, using it would blow your system out of the water). Finding these errors is easier for me, since I do have a copy of the developers kit (and yes, the Hitchikers Guide is part of that package). There is at least one other resource editor and an icon editor commercially available (I never did receive the icon editor which was supposed to come with the developers kit). I can't remember off hand who markets them, but the resource editor is distributed with the TDI Modula-2 Developers Version (which is also a pretty good buy). Personally, I think that the Atari developers kit is a pretty good buy, even if it's only for the documentation. While the software may not be the best in the world, it does get the job done and the cost is reasonable for what you get. By the way, I read sometime in the last few days that Atari is planning to release a new version of the documentation (this should be classified as rumour). Maybe there will be some changes in their policy when that happens. Don Howes