Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!apple!mattd
From: mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: IIgs Books
Keywords: Books, Tech notes
Message-ID: <27851@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 25 Mar 89 18:58:52 GMT
References: <8057@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 49

In article <8057@ihlpf.ATT.COM> bird@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Walters) writes:
>Exploring Apple GS/OS and ProDOS 8  (Gary B. Little)        $21.95
>
>This book is a must for me based on how great his book on ProDOS 8
>was. Unfortunately, it is out of print and cannot be found anywhere. I
>know, I looked and looked. Maybe this is it with GS/OS added for good
>measure.
>
Gary's book is good (Disclaimer: I was his technical editor for it and got
my name included on one of those pages with the Roman Numberals), and I can
easily recommend it.  But if you're going to do something that you intend
to distribute, you owe it to the people who use your programs to get the
official Apple manuals.  Why?  Simply because a third-party book can include
whatever it wants, but the Apple manuals contain what is *supported*, and
what will work in the future.  If there's a change to be made to those,
Apple II DTS issues a Technical Note.

For example, the IIgs Toolbox Reference (Volume 1), under the description of
"DisposeAll", contains a clearly written warning noting that you should NOT
use DisposeAll with an unmodified master userID, since this will dispose of
the handle in which your code is executing.  However, I can point to one IIgs
third-party book on the shelves today that contains sample code (the kind that
you're free to use in your own programs) that does *exactly this bad thing.*
It does a DisposeAll on the program's master userID and then quits.  Although
this won't *always* crash, it will some of the time, and there are commercial
products out there that do this because it was in this book.

I like the third-part books; I have a dozen or so of them myself.  But please
don't use them as references when they are intended to be tutorials.

>[stuff chopped out] (Like the tech notes. They have always been good,
>however, the latest version tops them all! Hats off to the tech
>writers at Apple. A job *really* well done!)
>
If you think the technical writers at Apple write the tech notes, think again.
Unlike the manuals, the names of the DTS folks who created the tech notes
are given at the beginning of each note.

>				Joe Walters att!ihlpf!bird   
>				IHP 1F-240 (312) 416-5356
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Matt Deatherage, Apple Computer, Inc. | "The opinions expressed in this tome
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