First things first. Please note that the lack of a "C Chest" column this month doesn't mean we don't love C anymore. It's just that Allen Holub got involved with a few too many projects and had to take a vacation to decompress. Allen will be back next month, fully recovered. In the interim, this issue has plenty of C code to keep you busy.
Next topic: programming books. The floodgates have just started to crank open, and we're about to be inundated with books on programming for OS/2. Many of those books will be nothing more than boring regurgitations of the existing Microsoft documentation. Happily, I have seen some outstanding books lately, books written by programmers who really know what's going on inside OS/2, and I'd like to share the good news.
First up is Ed Iacobucci's OS/2 Programmer's Guide (Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1988). Iacobucci was the leader of the IBM OS/2 design team and clearly knows his stuff. This book is one of those (like Peter Norton's excellent Programmers Guide to the IBM PC) that attempts to give you both the massive amounts of information that you really need and yet still be readable. At 1,100 pages, the book certainly is complete in coverage, and Iacobucci covers the material with a simple, clear style. This book is obviously the work of someone who's spent a lot of time helping other programmers get their programs running under OS/2, and wants to share his experience. Unlike most paperback computer books these days, this one's a steal at $25.
Mere recommendations aren't red good enough for Inside OS/2 by Gordon Letwin (Microsoft Press, 1988). Let me put it more directly: if you're at all serious about OS/2, you must buy this book. Letwin was the chief architect for Microsoft's OS/2 team, and with this book he's managed to pull off the nearly impossible trick of explaining the inner workings of OS/2 along with the reasoning behind the architecture, while actually making the book fun to read. If you're new to OS/2, reading this book will take weeks off your learning curve. It isn't often that we're treated to a book this good.
Finally, if you're still writing code for MS-DOS instead gearing up for OS/2, I'm sorry to report that you're probably going to spend a great deal of money soon. The MS-DOS Encyclopedia is finally out, and it's generally a splendid (and massive) volume. Aside from the title, this book has nothing in common with the encyclopedia offered by Microsoft a few years back. This is a good reference, designed for programmers. There's coverage of the details of the file system, as well as articles on writing TSRs, device drivers and exception handlers, etc. There's a section on compatibility between DOS versions and OS/2, as well as developing for Windows.
My only problem with the book, besides it's hefty price tag of $135, is the dust jacket. The book was orchestrated and edited by friend and ex-DW columnist Ray Duncan, but somehow they forgot to put his name on the cover of the copy I received. The item they did remember is a nice bold credit for the foreword by Bill Gates. Funny how these things work out.