🚀 go-pugleaf

Jason Hardt (toma@expert.cc.purdue.edu) wrote:
: jguthrie@brokersys.com writes:


> >However, it's kind of light in the documentation and tools area so the toolkit
> >is definitely recommended if you can afford it.  On the other hand, I 
> >was in a
> >bookstore here in Houston before Christmas and saw a book on YACL.  I 
> >don't have the cash to get it, though.

> Just how much and what kind of documentation does the toolkit come with? I'm
> thinking about getting it, but it's not a small ammount of money.  Does it
> just help a little or is it REALLY worth it?

I have never bought a copy of the toolkit alone, I always got it as part of a
package and the documentation that comes with this is all on-line.  I believe
that printed copies of all this documentation is available at extra cost, but
it is (in my current opinion) better to get some third-party book and use the
on-line info for reference than to buy copies of the toolkit documentation.

V3.0 of the toolkit contains references and guides for programming Multimedia,
SOM, the Workplace Shell, the Presentation Manager, the GPI subsystem, and the
OS/2 control program.  It also has a REXX Reference, a reference for the tools
provided with the toolkit, and a guide and reference to the Information
Processing Facility used to generate .INF and .HLP files.  Of these, I personally
found the Control Program information most useful because the Control Program
is what handles system calls.  That info is ESSENTIAL if you're going to do
device programming.

If you really are strapped for cash, and aren't going to build applications that
use help and don't come with on-line documentation and don't use any of the
features of SOM, then don't get the toolkit.