[comp.sys.atari.st] Development Docs?

grunau@husc2.UUCP (grunau) (11/26/86)

One last, related question for this evening:  is anybody willing to give
advice on choosing between the currently available developer's documentation?
I am not attempting to resuscitate the endless squabbling on what compiler
to buy, but more importantly on whether it is advisable to go with Atari's
own documentation (which I presume can only be purchased with Alcyon C,
which I have not heard good things about), or whether independent vendors'
documentation is just as complete, which I doubt.
And, if the independents' stuff is ok, then which does one choose from?
Abacus has a whole complement of things, but Compute! has a number of things
out, as well, and it is not at all clear how much they overlap.  Also I hear
about things like "The Hitchikers Guide to BIOS";  is this part of the Atari
kit?
Lastly, the Atari kit includes in addition to the compiler/linker/assembler/
editor business, a number of utilities (resource editor, etc.) -- are equiva-
lents to these available for people who go the non-Atari way?  Basically, I
want to know if it is a good risk to avoid the Atari development kit, for so
long at least as their compiler continues to get bad reviews.

(on another note, is there anybody from Atari who might have a guess as to
whether the developers kit may change in constitution in future:  i.e. whether
it will be possible to buy a portion of it (docs only, or docs + utils), or
some such more flexible arrangement?)

		thanks,

									JJMG
							Harvard Grad. School