Subject: REVIEW: The Amiga Guru Book
From: [email-masked] (Heiko Rath)
Date: 3 Dec 1993 00:05:22 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

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: [email-masked]

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.

-- 
  // <HR> aka Heiko Rath, Raiffeisenstr.10a, 64331 Weiterstadt, Germany
\X/  The Software Brewery |PGP-key on request| [email-masked].{de|sub.org}

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