Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: hr@brewhr.swb.de (Heiko Rath) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: The Amiga Guru Book Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Date: 3 Dec 1993 00:05:22 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 285 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <2dlvs2$e7n@menudo.uh.edu> Reply-To: hr@brewhr.swb.de (Heiko Rath) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: book, manual, AmigaDOS, programming, reference, commercial PRODUCT NAME The Amiga Guru Book - a reference manual [MODERATOR'S NOTE: This is a serious review, but beware of subtle jokes...! - Dan :-)] [MODERATOR'S NOTE: This review was updated on Feb 21, 1994. Search for the text "[UPDATE:" to find updated information. -Dan] BRIEF DESCRIPTION The Amiga Guru Book is a book about the Amiga and its operating system. It offers fundamental knowledge of the Amiga system and covers such areas as: guidelines for proper multitasking programming, ANSI C, Aztec C and SAS/C, debugging techniques, AmigaDOS, the file systems, the format of load and object modules, process creation, CLI and user shells, handlers and packets (more than complete list of packets), and many other areas. There are many useful bits and pieces about the OS that you'd have a hard time finding anywhere else. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Author: Ralph Babel ISBN: no ISBN number Guru-No.: 8703 8001 C7E4 D9E4 Available at: Buchhaus Gonski Buchhandlung Bouvier Neumarkt 18a Am Hof 32 D-50667 Koeln D-53113 Bonn Germany Germany Vox: +49 (221) 20909-72/76 Vox: +49 (228) 72901-69 Fax: +49 (221) 20909-59 Fax: +49 (228) 72901-78 Hirsch & Wolf OHG Mainhattan-Data Mittelstrasse 33 Schoenbornring 14 D-56564 Neuwied D-63263 Neu-Isenburg Germany Germany Vox: +49 (2631) 8399-0 Vox: +49 (6102) 588-1 Fax: +49 (2631) 8399-31 Fax: +49 (6102) 51525 (Mastercard/Eurocard/VISA) (Mastercard/Eurocard/VISA/AE) DTM-Computersysteme Unlimited GmbH Dreiherrenstein 6a Kehrstrasse 23 65207 Wiesbaden 65207 Wiesbaden Germany Germany Vox: +49 (6127) 4064 Vox: +49 (6127) 66555 Fax: +49 (6127) 66276 Fax: +49 (6127) 66636 (Mastercard/Eurocard) [UPDATE: The Amiga Guru Book is now available from these other distributors. - Dan] Periscope Attn: Cody Lee Discs, Tapes, Books 1717 W Kirby Ave Champaign, IL 61821 USA Voice: (217) 398-4237 Fax: (217) 398-4238 Someware 27 rue Gabriel Peri 59186 Anor France Voice: +33 27596000 Fax: +33 27595206 E-Mail: didierj@swad.adsp.sub.org LIST PRICE The recommended price ("Unverbindliche Preisempfehlung") is DM 79,- in Germany, which would convert to about $47 (US). SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE No special hardware required. Compatible with all Amigas. SOFTWARE Knowledge of English. COPY PROTECTION Excessive manual-word-lookup copy protection. Every time you use the book, you CONSTANTLY have to look up words and whole sentences in the manual. The word lookup scheme is ingenious: while using the product, you don't normally notice that you're looking up the phrases! ;-) MACHINES USED FOR TESTING Amiga 1000 Amiga 3000/25 COMPONENTS SUPPLIED IN PACKAGE - The Amiga Guru Book (W6.7" x H9" x D1.5") (W17cm x H23cm x D3.7cm) (about 1.2 kg) - 736 pages - coated cover - comes with its own documentation :-) REVIEW After having bought "Das Amiga-Guru-Buch" several years ago by the same author, I immediately went out and obtained the "Amiga Guru Book" when I heard that Ralph Babel had finished it. The Amiga Guru Book is the successor to "Das Amiga-Guru-Buch" and contains pretty much all of the original information (updated) and quite a bit of new stuff. Every chapter starts with a few quotes related to the topic at hand. For example, here is one of the quotes for the chapter "Legal Alien: AmigaDOS, the Englishman in the System": "BRAIN-DAMAGED. adjective. Obviously wrong; extremely poorly designed; {cretinous}; {demented}. There is an implication that the person responsible must have suffered brain damage, because he should have known better. Calling something brain-damaged is really extreme. The word implies that the thing is completely unusable, and that its failure to work is due to poor design, not accident." -- Guy L. Steele Jr. et al., The Hacker's Dictionary and another one for the chapter "Hooking in at Boot Time": "ColdCapture and CoolCapture vector operation will change because ExecBase can be in fast memory (the result of this is to raise the temperature of ColdCapture about 60 degrees)." -- Bryce Nesbitt, Compatibility Risks for 1.4 and Beyond The book can be used as a tutorial on programming the Amiga, but it is also very useful as a reference manual. The index looks like a VERY big hash table. ;-) Throughout the book, you'll find quite a few assembly-language and SAS/C listings to further the enlightment of the reader on a specific topic. The code examples range from short fragments to complete working programs (for example, the complete source code for a user shell). It would have been a nice idea to offer a disk with all the sources to accompany the book; but then again, the listings are meant to clarify certain subjects. Therefore this isn't a big problem. Among the many useful bits and pieces that you'll have a hard time finding anywhere else are Amiga-specific information about the 68040; compiler internals; system start-up procedures and different types of reset-resident programs; CON custom-screen magic; user shells; FFS data structures; and background information about BCPL, Tripos, and the Global Vector. The chapters on dos.library and DOS packets cover these subjects much more in depth than anything else I've seen so far. The Guru Book clarifies several ommisions and errors of the AmigaDOS Manual in regard to dos.library, autodocs, packets and FFS data structures. Included also is information about DOS data structures and the program/process start-up environment. Here are the contents of the book: I Programming 1 Data Types 2 Programming Guidelines 3 Assembly-Language Programming 4 Programming in C 5 SAS/C 6 Reference Charts for SAS/C and Aztec C 7 amiga.lib 8 Terminal Debugging II System Internals 9 Low-Level Hard- and Software Architecture 10 Hooking in at Boot Time 11 Alerts, Gurus, and Traps III AmigaDOS 12 Legal Alien: AmigaDOS, the Englishman in the System 13 The Console Handler 14 The Command Line Interface 15 The AmigaDOS Filesystem 16 BCPL and the Global Vector 17 DOS Functions 18 AmigaDOS Error Codes 19 AmigaDOS Data Structures 20 Forms of Program Execution 21 Packets and Handlers 22 The Format of Load and Object Modules Appendices About Listings Glossary Bibliography Index DOCUMENTATION The Guru Book's documentation is excellent. It comes with a 31-page index, so it's very easy to find a particular subject. Obviously, the TeX typesetting system was used in preparing the book and it really shows. There's just one description of the quality: excellent. LIKES AND DISLIKES There are lots of fun quotes, sideblows (many more than in its predecessor) and interesting footnotes. Ralph Babel reused some of the best quotes from "Das Amiga-Guru-Buch". The book cover is now fully Style-Guide-compliant and displays a normal 2.x window border and guru. The book is neither Zorro I/II or III compatible, and it doesn't fit into the video slot nor the 3.5" and 5.1/4" bays of any Amiga. The book's resolution cannot be duplicated by any normal graphics adapter for the Amiga. At 1270 dpi it has an approximate resolution of 8509 * 11430 pixel. The display is rock steady and non-interlaced. All this is monochrome, though. It is not hard disk-installable. Making a backup copy for safety reasons is a LOT of work. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS It completely replaces the Bantam AmigaDOS manual (though it doesn't include the bugs... therefore if you liked them, you'll have to fall back on Bantam). It is more fun than the Amiga ROM Kernel and Hardware Reference manuals and has a better form factor. BUGS Immediately upon receiving the book I sprayed it with insecticide, so I'm pretty sure that there are no bugs left... at least none alive. VENDOR SUPPORT Ralph Babel can be found on several groups on USEnet, where he's known and feared for his short/precise/crisp answers/flames. WARRANTY There's a pretty impressive disclaimer in the book that disclaims all shapes/colours. I didn't read it completely though, as reading Lawyer Talk always gives me headaches (although you can find a joke in anything, if you look hard enough). CONCLUSIONS The Amiga Guru Book ranges somewhere between a specialized book and light literature. It is excellently researched, pleases the eye, and contains numerous hints, tips, tricks, and knowledge nowhere else to be found. It is a must for every serious (and especially for the not quite so serious) Amiga programmer. Don't walk, RUN out to your nearest book store and buy it. Better buy three copies: one to use as a mousepad, one to keep the door closed, and one to put under your pillow. ;-) COPYRIGHT NOTICE All the typos above are mine, all mine. You can't have them, so nyha, nyha ;-) Copyright 1993 Heiko Rath. All rights reserved. -- //
aka Heiko Rath, Raiffeisenstr.10a, 64331 Weiterstadt, Germany \X/ The Software Brewery |PGP-key on request| HR@brewhr.swb.{de|sub.org} --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews