The Amiga System, An Introduction by Bill Donald
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                      A book review by Eric Holroyd
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From Precision Software, known to many Commodore users as the producers of
Superbase, Superscript, Easy Script, Super DiskDoc etc, this book was itself
computer-produced. The credits say that it was "mastered" using Superscript
and printed with a Canon LBP-8 A2 Laser Printer. It looks and reads OK too.

Bill Donald is a well-respected British author who is a regular contributor
to UK computer magazines and has written extensively on the various
Precision programs. In his preface to this book he explains that he set out
to write a "guide to the Amiga" which would be useful to both existing
owners and those thinking of buying an Amiga. He describes the machine as
"one of the most exciting and innovative personal computers to emerge..."
and tries to give us a feel for what the Amiga can and can't do. He says
that "any warts are not hidden" in his treatise.

He tells about the capabilities of Amiga, via both software and hardware,
splitting the book into four sections. The first deals with Amiga's
hardware, also covering sound/graphics & input/output facilities. Part two
discusses AmigaDOS and includes many excellent and easy-to-use examples.
In part three we get onto the Intuition user-interface together with it's
system of mouse-driven multi-windows and menus. Also in this chapter is a
section concerned with routines for programming Intuition which is most
helpful. The final chapters contain a detailed overview of the Amiga
Operating System plus a quite fascinating account of the machine's
exceptional audio facilities.

ED and EDIT (the 2 CLI text editors) are well covered and explained via
good working examples whilst in other chapters there are full explanations
of Error Messages, User Commands & Windows and Screens. In other words:
it's all in here folks! Audio, Sprites, Blitter, Graphics Support, Sytems
Control and much more.

Bill Donald's writing style is nice & easy, and although reasonably
technical in many aspects he makes understanding the Amiga much easier.
His examples of the hierarchy of a disk's directories using trees with
roots and branches certainly got the idea over quickly to me.

I believe this book to be an invaluable addition to any Amiga user's
library as it's full of useful practical tips and inside technical info on
controlling such things as the parallel and serial I/O interfaces, light
pens, mice, disk drives etc. I'm certainly learning a lot from it!

THE AMIGA SYSTEM, AN INTRODUCTION. BY BILL DONALD.
Distributed in Australia by COMPUTERMATE PRODUCTS (02)457-8118. RRP $40.00

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