Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!decvax!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpclla!hcm
From: hcm@hpclla.HP.COM (Harry Muttart)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Literacy
Message-ID: <5370014@hpclla.HP.COM>
Date: 18 Feb 88 02:05:16 GMT
References: <624@csm9a.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Computer Language Lab
Lines: 42

How to get started fastest?  Hmmm....

If you do not know 'C', most of the stuff below is painful to learn from...

I suppose that the ROM Kernal manuals are definitely on the "MUST" list.  They
tend to overwhelm you with info that you're not sure how to use (I have an
original set.  I hear that the Addison Wesley set is better.)  There is mucho
info here, but you can buy in little chunks.

If you are looking for more info (most are?) then try

  Robert Peck's   AMIGA Programmer's Guide   for a good overview of interfacing
  with Intuition, EXEC, DOS, and some of the graphics library.

  The Amiga Kickstart Guide   or something such is really a nice bit of work
  updated for release 1.2 (last generally avaiable) and covers fundamentals that
  many people find especially useful (basis for EXEC, LIBRARIES, Device I/O).
  Seems to contain more WHY stuff than other references.

  For graphics,   Compute's Guide to AMIGA Graphics   (very how-to) is hard
  to beat.  It does include a lot of material on accessing AMIGA graphics (and
  graphics structures!) thru BASIC!  Which is probably marginally interesting
  at best if you be a REAL HACKER.  Look it over...see what ya think.  

As always, Hackers learn by reading the code of others.  Look for some neat
public domain hacks.  Then look for the corresponding source.  With the stuff
from above (even just the RKM (ROM Kernal Manual)) you should be able to see
how the magic was done.  

The Fred Fish collection of public domain disks contain a lot of examples of 
neat hacks and source.  A good BBS will have quite a few, also.  The Amazing
Computing magazine distributes "Fish" and other PD collections and is a good
source of Amiga info too.

As always, these are mainly MY OPINIONs...  Feel free to ignore or pursue...

Harry Muttart

(* I ain't a real hacker (note the M2 comment) but I still have opinions *)
(* The stuff indented above has been very helpful for me.  Fills in the  *)
(* background that I need to hang the RKM info from.  You have to look   *)
(* at code, though...                                                    *)