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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga/MorphOS/AROS Programmers Forum => Topic started by: hishamk on April 29, 2020, 01:17:55 PM

Title: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: hishamk on April 29, 2020, 01:17:55 PM
Thought I'd drop this here since I haven't seen it mentioned yet:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1690195150
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: Pyromania on April 29, 2020, 02:48:57 PM
Thanx, purchased.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: kamelito on April 29, 2020, 05:33:32 PM
Same let’s hope it is about 3.1.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: Minuous on April 30, 2020, 02:50:12 AM
Why? 3.1 has been obsolete for 20 years now. Any modern version of AmigaOS is far more capable.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: walkero on April 30, 2020, 10:18:48 AM
Thank you for posting this. Didn't have a clue about this book. Just ordered.

By checking the table of contents, I am sure it covers 3.1 just fine. Although it refers to the NDK3.9, you can still create apps for the 3.1.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: kamelito on April 30, 2020, 12:21:52 PM
Why? 3.1 has been obsolete for 20 years now. Any modern version of AmigaOS is far more capable.

Because of the title maybe? “
Classic AmigaOS Programming: An introduction”
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: Minuous on April 30, 2020, 01:57:12 PM
I didn't just mean OS4; there are later versions than 3.1 for Classic.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: kolla on April 30, 2020, 03:07:27 PM
Notice how the rainbow checkmark/tick is being used without any (R) or TM attached to it - lovely :)
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: pwyskowski on May 11, 2020, 09:27:50 PM
I ordered the book and it just arrived today.  It is a very short book coming in just under 250 pages (including glossary). 

While it does mention the NDK for 3.9 at the beginning of the book, it does seem to be aimed at 3.1.

Everything in it is very low level.  It starts out describing 68k processor instructions. There's a 12 page chapter on getting started with Assembly (ASM-Pro) and a 2 1/2 page chapter on using C (VBCC). 

The rest of it feels like a severely abridged version of the ROM Kernel manuals (and related books).

This book is definitely aimed at a very niche/advanced type of programmer.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: Minuous on May 13, 2020, 04:31:28 PM
Seems pointless if it only covers ancient stuff like GadTools, etc. May as well just use the RKRMs then.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: NinjaCyborg on May 21, 2020, 08:32:17 PM
I bought it just because I want anyone putting in effort to make new Amiga content be rewarded. It's fine as an overview of programming on the Amiga including the tools one has to use in 2020, if programming on an Amiga itself anyway. But there's nothing in it that isn't in the old OS 2 / 3 documentation so I hope at least he does a volume 2.

Also the print quality was awful with weird chemical blotches on the sandpaper it was printed on.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: kolla on May 21, 2020, 11:18:29 PM
ReAction has become a moving target again, pointless to write a book about that now.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: Minuous on May 22, 2020, 01:24:01 AM
@kolla:

It is in continuing development, along with the rest of the OS. That is not a reason against having tutorials and other such documentation, though.

OS3.2 ReAction has various new classes, features and fixes, but the fundamentals of ReAction will continue to be the same; anything for OS3.9 ReAction should continue to work much the same as before.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: kolla on May 22, 2020, 06:25:56 AM
@Minuous
And what guarantees are there that what you write here is really correct?

There’s really only one way to know for sure, and that is to wait for releases and then one can see. Or you can just write that book yourself already?
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: Minuous on May 22, 2020, 07:05:20 AM
And what guarantees are there that what you write here is really correct?

Why wouldn't it be correct? I'm on the team so am in a position to know. But it is fine if you don't want to believe me, I don't care.

Quote
Or you can just write that book yourself already?

Why ask a question if you are not going to believe the answer? Just to troll, I suppose.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: nyteschayde on May 22, 2020, 08:05:52 AM
Ordered. Thanks.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: kolla on May 23, 2020, 11:17:19 AM
And what guarantees are there that what you write here is really correct?
Why wouldn't it be correct? I'm on the team so am in a position to know.
Because you write "the fundamentals of ReAction will continue to be the same; anything for OS3.9 ReAction should continue to work much the same as before"

You are safeguarding your own statements here (bolded), implying that there are no guarantees, and you have already made it clear in other posts elsewhere that there are components that may or may not be considered part of the "ReAction package" that you do not have access to.

So putting time and resources into writing a new book about these things, while it still is unclear and unknown exactly what will come with OS 3.2 onwards - remains rather pointless at this point.

Quote
Quote
Or you can just write that book yourself already?

Why ask a question if you are not going to believe the answer? Just to troll, I suppose.

No - you were the one claiming that this book seems rather pointless since the one thing you care about isn't covered. I suspect that the only person who could write such a book to your satisfaction, is yourself.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: Minuous on May 23, 2020, 02:35:58 PM
No - you were the one claiming that this book seems rather pointless since the one thing you care about isn't covered.

I was speaking more generally about the full set of enhancements in eg. OS3.5 and 3.9.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: TribbleSmasher on June 17, 2020, 08:16:50 PM
My copy was printed in Poland and shows no signs of bad quality, besides being a paperback. The paper is white and it is good to read. The only thing i dislike are some special opcode examples in the assembler section that supposed to be in some sort of colour but instead they appear in lightgrey (on white paper). ::)
Already mentioned is the scope of the book which can never be a RKRM replacement; it is an introduction with a wide variety of topics which will never fully addressed. It is informative, IMHO. You certainly don't really need it, with all the online resources and RKRMs in PDF format, but it is a nice to have as it is a new book.

I bought it just because I want anyone putting in effort to make new Amiga content be rewarded. It's fine as an overview of programming on the Amiga including the tools one has to use in 2020, if programming on an Amiga itself anyway. But there's nothing in it that isn't in the old OS 2 / 3 documentation so I hope at least he does a volume 2.

Also the print quality was awful with weird chemical blotches on the sandpaper it was printed on.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: OldAmigan on June 19, 2020, 11:18:08 PM
@thread

Well I've bought it to show support and maybe learn a little but I don't realistically see me programming very much.
Ya never know though
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: hishamk on October 31, 2021, 10:36:43 AM
The author of the book has released another one, this time focused on bare-metal programming:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bare-Metal-Amiga-Programming-OCS-ECS/dp/B09GJQ3SF6
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: NinjaCyborg on October 31, 2021, 11:23:05 AM
Well I hoped he'd make a volume 2 but not on this topic LOL. I'd buy it, but my copy of the first volume disintegrated, it was extremely poor quality print. I'd happily buy an ebook version though.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: jj on November 01, 2021, 02:42:02 PM
Thanks just ordering them both now,  hope print quality is not as bad as some suggests. 

Guess I can always return them if they are.
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: TribbleSmasher on November 01, 2021, 04:46:18 PM
Good luck. Amazon prints those books on demand close to your location. So you might get better quality by ordering more copies. ;D
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: jj on November 03, 2021, 04:12:21 PM
Both books just turned up and the print quality is fine.

Not highest quality paper ever, but also nothing wrong with it either.

No issues with quality of ink or staining on paper.

Looking forwards to reading them
Title: Re: New book on classic Amiga programming
Post by: AmigaBruno on April 18, 2022, 03:57:56 AM
It sounds great! I bought the ROM Kernal Manuals in 1989-1990, but never really understood them. Any simpler version is welcome. I was very upset to find out that I needed the official Commodore Amiga library .h files to program anything except text only programs. I think these files should obviously have been included on floppy disks inside these books. I didn't see any way of getting them except by buying an expensive Lattice C or Manx/Aztec C compiler, so that was the end of my plans to program in C on the Amiga, because I didn't think I could type all the files in myself from the Includes & Autodocs manual without any errors, although I heard someone actually did that. 

I'm seriously considering buying this book, but I found a hidden gem a few days ago which I'm in the middle of reading. I'm multilingual, but my native language is English. This book is the German language "AMIGA-Programmier-Handbuch: Für Amiga 500, 1000 und 2000". This seems to be all in C. It was written in 1987, so is based around Workbench 1.2, but don't forget that all applications for early versions of Amiga Workbench work on later versions, so long as you follow the official guidelines. This book contains details of...

"Die Screen- und Window-Bibliotheken/The Screen and Window Libraries
Die Zeichen- und Textbefehle/The drawing and text commands
Hardware-Sprites und Animation/Hardware sprites and animation
Aufbau und Abfrage von Menüs/Building and using menus
Gadgets/Gadgets
Mitteilung von System-Meldungen/Notification of System messages
DOS-Funktionen in eigenen Programmen/DOS functions in your own programs
Druckerausgabe/Printer output
Befehle zur Sprachein- und -ausgabe/Speech input and output commands"

There's also a follow up book!

You can find this first book on...

https://www.kultmags.com/books.php?folder=QU1JR0EgUHJvZ3JhbW1pZXItSGFuZGJ1Y2g=

I don't really like the Amigas which natively run Amiga OS4 because they're too expensive and don't look or feel much like the Classic Amigas either.