16 Dec
2005
16 Dec
'05
10:08 a.m.
On 12/16/2005 at 3:37 PM Hans Franke wrote:
The MS-DOS Enzyclopedia from MS-Press
Good book, but of course only a compilation of the 'official'
material. only about 20% cover the DOS API, the rest is
somewhat like the mother of all DOS manuals. ~1500 pages in
one book. If you need a DOS-manual, try to get this book. It
even got a small entertaining history secttion. Originaly it
was HUGE a hard cover book for a unpayable price (I remember
500+ Mark).
"The Programmer's PC Sourcebook" by Thom Hogan was another big book of
tables and charts, and also covered some of Windows 3.0 structures and
APIs. The date on mine is 1991, published by Microsoft Press and ISBN is
1-55615-321-X. The big gray hardcover DOS book is less complete, more
expensive, has bigger print and looks visually impressive. I don't care
much for the Hans-Peter Messmer "PC Hardware" book; he's too gabby and gets
some things flat wrong.
Another book that still gets used here is the Phoenix "CBIOS for IBM PS/2
Computers and Compatibles" published about 1989 and its companion volumes
for PC XT and AT systems. Not much about DOS, but deals with BIOS in
wonderful detail.
Don't overlook old MSDN CD-ROMs--the earlier ones had lots of good
information about DOS-related items. I imagine that the very early ones
are pretty hard to find, but if you wanted to know how DOUBLESPACE worked,
with all of its API calls, etc., it was the place to find it--at least
until the Stacker lawsuit, when it suddenly vanished.
Cheers,
Chuck