Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!bath63!pes
From: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Books to learn by?
Message-ID: <2324@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>
Date: 16 Mar 88 10:25:21 GMT
References: <40.007051@adam.DG.COM> <149@bdt.UUCP> <328@nunki.usc.edu>
Reply-To: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Organization: AUCC c/o University of Bath
Lines: 23
Keywords: books


The Abacus book on disk drives is OK, at least the bits about flopsies,
ramdisks, and the flopsy controller.  Don't have a hard disk, so can't
comment on that.  The introductions to GEM and to the VDI, and Tricks
and Tips, were all riddled with errors (in the first printings, which
I wasted money on in my innocence and desperation to get some documentation)
and I've heard no claims that they've improved with later printings so
I would avoid them.

The Sybex book is good, and takes care to point out which bits are specific
to ST or PC GEM (for the most part they're the same, bar the missing bit
on the ST known as GDOS).

I also recommend (as I did a week or so ago) a new-ish book (Sept 87) -
'Atari ST Application Programming', by Pollack and Weber (Datatech
Publications), published in the US and Canada by Bantam Computer Books
as part of their 'Programming Performance Library'.  ISBN 0-553-34397-1,
should be about $25 US, $30 Canadian.  (Was about 23 pounds sterling in
the UK.)  I still haven't finished working my way through it, but so far
it is OK.  That info should be enough to let you get a book shop to order
it if you can't find it lying about.

Cheers, Paul