UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) (04/23/88)
I know I've seen this discussion a million times, but I've always been too busy to pay attention. Next month, tho... I just got Lattice C 4.1. Read the manual last night and was suitably impressed ;-) I was very surprised by how *little* info there was about the Amiga (oh yeah, the computer and operating system isn't Un*x.). I will probably NOT buy the $100 A-W manual set, because I cannot justify that expense right now. I have Mortimer Vol. 1, The AmigaDos manual, ed.1, read this stuff here, have an odd assortment of Fish Disks and other pieces of Misc. source code examples. So, what is the minimal starter set for Un*x C programmers moving on to the Amiga?? While we are at it, what books would be good for novice programmers who perhaps are fuzzy on concepts like 'message passing', 'pointers', 'windowing systems', and so on? Thanks in advance. PS While I can see Lattice saying "An Amiga developer will have all those other manuals, autodocs, and so on, so why should we duplicate it?" I think they have gone a little too far. I mean, the manual doesn't even have a man page for any of the AmigaDos system calls like Open(), Close(), and so on. (Or are those in exec?) The manual describes malloc(), which is well described in at least 10 other places on my bookshelf, but not AllocMem(), which is not well described any place else on my bookshelf. Lattice--You ought to include another volume, I think.
farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) (04/25/88)
In article <40117UH2@PSUVM> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes: >I will probably NOT buy the $100 A-W manual set, because I cannot justify >that expense right now. Buy the manuals. At least, buy the Rom Kernel Reference Manual: Libraries and Devices, the Intuition Reference Manual, and the AmigaDos manual from Bantam. Unless, of course, you don't plan on using any of the Amiga's features, but are willing to write plain-vanilla, text-only code. And if you want to have a GOOD understanding of how the Amiga OS works, better get the Rom Kernel Reference Manual: Exec, too, and maybe Rob Pike's book. >PS While I can see Lattice saying "An Amiga developer will have all those >other manuals, autodocs, and so on, so why should we duplicate it?" >I think they have gone a little too far. I mean, the manual doesn't even >have a man page for any of the AmigaDos system calls like Open(), >Close(), and so on. (Or are those in exec?) It isn't their place to provide all of that - those are highly system dependent, and rely on an overall understanding of the Amiga OS. They provide complete descriptions of every routine in the Lattice C library. For descriptions of system-level routines, go to the Amiga manuals. >The manual describes malloc(), which is well described in at least >10 other places on my bookshelf, but not AllocMem(), which is not >well described any place else on my bookshelf. Because AllocMem is an Exec function, not a C library function. >Lattice--You ought to include another volume, I think. Nope, but YOU definitely should. Don't try to take short-cuts, you'll just end up pissing off everyone who uses your programs because you missed something essential, like effective use of multi-tasking or expansion memory. -- Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just {ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday." gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame
acphssrw@csuna.UUCP (Stephen R. Walton) (04/27/88)
In message <40117UH2@PSUVM>, Lee asks about books for the Amiga, and
in message <895@gethen.UUCP> Mike recommends buying the Addison-Wesley
books, at least "L&D" (the fat one). I would only point out that
CBM under Carolyn Scheppner's able direction is doing a major revision
of the A-W books, and that planning for said revision is well under
way. And I've not seen L&D in the stores for a while; has the press
run sold out?
I think new Amiga programmers can get by with Vol. I of
Mortimore's book plus Rob Peck's Programmer's Guide to the Amiga,
supplemented with the 1.2 Native Developers' Kit from CBM (include
files, libs, and autodocs), at least until the new manuals are out.
Total cost of these is only somewhat below the A-W books ($70 or so),
but are much more useful to the new programmer.
Stephen Walton, representing myself swalton@solar.stanford.edu
Cal State, Northridge rckg01m@calstate.BITNET