ST Reference Books

I am interested in learning to use C with my Atari ST, but have been unable to find any reference books on GEM programming, such as using windows, alert boxes, and menus. Are any reference books available?

George Nehme

Here are some reference books that are available from COMPUTE! Books.

COMPUTE!'s ST Applications Guide (Programming in C), $16.95, by Simon Field, Kathleen Mandis, and Dave Myers, contains practical examples which demonstrate the use of many GEM features, such as dialog boxes, menus, and icons.

Learning C (Programming Graphics on the Amiga and Atari ST), $15.95, by Christopher D. Metcalf and Marc Sugiyama, provides an introduction to the C language, and includes many useful programming examples.

COMPUTE!'s Technical Reference Guide, Atari ST, Volume One: The VDI, $18.95, by Sheldon Leemon, is filled with program examples in C, machine language, and ST BASIC covering the VDI portion of GEM. It discusses everything you need to know to utilize the advanced graphic capabilities of the ST.

COMPUTE!'s Technical Reference Guide, Atari ST, Volume Two: GEM AES, $18.95, by Sheldon Leemon, is an exploration of the AES (Application Environment Services) of GEM and provides programming examples and reference material on the AES portion of GEM.

COMPUTE!'s ST Programmer's Guide, $17.95, by the Editors of COMPUTE!, contains a reference section on useful VDI functions, as well as instruction on using GEM and TOS.

Orders may be placed by calling COMPUTE! Books, 1-800-346-6767 (in NY, 1-212-887-8525) or by writing to:

COMPUTE! Books
Customer Service
G.P.O. Lockbox 5044
New York, N.Y. 10087-5044

Other valuable reference books are available from Abacus Books:

Atari ST Internals contains information on using BIOS, XBIOS, and GEMDOS.

Atari ST GEM Programmer's Reference provides detailed information on GEM, covering both VDI and AES.

For more information on Abacus Books, call 1-616-241-5510.

Of course, the official GEM reference is the Atari ST Developers Kit, available from Atari for $300. In addition to a C compiler, assembler, and a resource construction set, you'll receive a huge stack of photocopied pages, much of which is more suitable to the PC version of GEM than the ST version. If you're willing to separate the wheat from the chaff, you'll find plenty here.