Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga.tech:4090 comp.sys.amiga:30431
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!ubvax!ardent!rap
From: rap@ardent.UUCP (Rob Peck)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: New Amiga Rom Kernel Manual now available in bookstores....
Summary: well kept secret...
Message-ID: <4494@ardent.UUCP>
Date: 9 Mar 89 20:18:20 GMT
References: <13067@gryphon.COM>
Organization: Dana Computer, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 46

In article <13067@gryphon.COM>, ddave@pnet02.cts.com (David Donley) writes:
> How come nobody will write a dos.library manual?  I have gobs of manuals, and
> the only one I have that says anything about dos is "Inside the Amiga with C".
> (It only has about 10 pages)

The Programmers Guide To The Amiga, SYBEX, 1987 (which I wrote) contains an
entire chapter on the DOS functions that are simply listed in the AmigaDOS
manual, with LOTS of tested, functioning examples.  I don't document sending
DOS packets, though.  The reason for C-A not documenting "every" DOS call
I believe was to prevent programmers from relying on the positioning and
structure of the dos.library... it is, after all, written in BCPL and is
structured entirely differently than the standard Amiga libs.  If AmigaDOS
is eventually rewritten, C-A will likely make public the functions that
they'll support and thats what you really want... something that'll stay
the same from release to release.  I do document the supported functions
though.

Re the Programmers Guide... it seems to be a well kept secret, though
16,000 folks have already found and purchased it.  AND it is now available
in Italian, Danish and German.  Somehow, when SYBEX put together the most
recent SYBEX REPORT, they listed the Mortimore books, with their cover
shots, but deleted the cover shot of the Programmers Guide To The Amiga,
and listed it on the following page, under miscellaneous hardware books.
As a result, anyone using the SYBEX REPORT to search for books about
the Amiga might easily miss it in the listing.  In fact, both Amiga World
and Amazing Computing, while putting together their definitive list of
"all books in print about the Amiga", did NOT list the Programmers Guide...
one of them just relied on the SYBEX REPORT while searching for available
Amiga books.  The other called SYBEX directly and it seems that the new
sales rep did not notice the listing of my book (SIGH!).

Considering the nice compliments that I've received about the book,
and the user support (three folks have taken it upon themselves to
provide Manx C, TDI Modula and Benchmark Modula translations of the book...
the text is primarily Lattice C), it feels real strange to have difficulty
in getting the publisher himself to recognize the problem in the catalog.
Well, a new catalog is due soon, and I'll keep pluggin' for more space.
Aaaaarrrrggghhh.   Well, at least Walden Books has begun to carry it again.
And I still ship disks to folks who find the coupon in the back. So it goes.


Rob Peck


P.S. All examples in "Inside The Amiga with C" use busy-waits.  Don't do
that... it destroys multi-tasking.