Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 15:43:49 -0700 (MST) From: Charles Mott <cmott@srv.net> To: Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Book Club Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971122153126.7120A-100000@darkstar.home> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971122172111.14432W-100000@picnic.mat.net>
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On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Chuck Robey wrote: > On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Charles Mott wrote: > > > I was intrigued by a recent Godzilla vs. Megara battle > > (well, actually it was a three-way battle in which Mothra > > also showed up) about boot code strategies. I could barely > > understand what was being said, but Terry Lambert did make > > some interesting book recommendations: (1) The Undocumented > > PC by Frank van Gilluwe, and (2) Protected Mode Software > > Architecture by Tom Shanley. > > > > Well, I went out and bought these books. My opinion is > > that Gilluwe's book is solid but Shanley's is a little low > > denisity (I might return it). Any other recommendations? > > I haven't found one _better_ than the Shanley book, have you? Obviously I'm not an expert or I would not have asked for other recommendations. BTW, I was asking about books covering the grungy, detailed side of OS and boot code programming in general. > On top of that, there's many areas that the van Gilluwe book skips > completely, saying it's covered so well elsewhere, why bother (video > specifically comes to mind, which is really skimped on). > > If you know of any better book than the Shanley book, I'd be really > interested. Until you do find better, you might want to reconsider. The > protected areas just aren't discussed, at least not from a non-Windows > viewpoint. My objections to Shanley are mainly on style. It reads like some lecture viewgraphs transcribed over to a book. If he and the publisher had worked a little, the book could have been half the size with the same content. But then my judgment in style is maybe out of the ordinary -- I think that the 4.3 BSD book by Leffler et al is a much clearer and well written book the 4.4 BSD (which had some of the same authors). Charles Mott
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