The Be operating system is a great platform just waiting for applications. Elegant, object-oriented to the core, and primed for great graphical interfaces, Be meets the needs of computer users at the turn of the century -- but they call for equally elegant applications for displaying and manipulating content. This book gives C++ programmers their start to developing those applications. Be will prove to be a pleasure for developers who have struggled with APIs on Microsoft Windows, the Macintosh, or the X Window System. It provides consistent and intuitive methods for creating interfaces and handling messages. But you'll still have a hard time if all you have to learn from is official reference documentation like the Be Developer's Guide (also published by O'Reilly & Associates). This book is a traditional guide to application development that starts with the most basic concepts and leaves you with a firm foundation for further research. The book begins with typical "Hello, world" programs and gradually adds elements of the graphical interface. It carefully describes drawing and message handling. While the focus is on the graphical interface, basic OS features like threads and file handling are also introduced. Be runs on both PowerPC and Intel platforms, offering the same API on both. The programs in this book will therefore compile and run on any platform. Be's own integrated development environment, BeIDE (originally Metrowerks CodeWarrior), is used to develop all examples.

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Programming the Be Operating System Review,  July 18 1999
Submitted by Bruce Wolk   [Respond | View]



I found this book extraordinarily useful. Sydow is a master at breaking down complex concepts into digestible pieces. His step by step examples are easy to follow and he has the uncanny ability to anticipate the reader's question and then provide a clear, helpful answer. The only drawback to the book is that the code for the examples is not provided on a CD. I looked for a reference to a website where the code might be found, but couldn't find one. Aside from this minor drawback, this is a wonderful and extremely useful book.


Programming the Be Operating System Review,  July 18 1999
Submitted by Jason Mauer   [Respond | View]



I have mixed feelings about this book... it's good to see a book like this for the BeOS, but I wish there was a little more care invested in it.

First, the good. The book is very step-by-step and well organized. Lots of code snippets and screenshots to follow along with. The chapters are logical and the book reads well. The book covers BeIDE and sections of the BeOS API that you will be dealing with most in real-world programs. By the time you get through this book, you should be ready to tackle other BeOS kits on your own that aren't covered in the book.

Now for the bad... the book constantly talks about sample source code, which you don't get with the book! There are references to the book's CD-ROM (which there is none), and sample code on the book's Web site (which there isn't any either). This wouldn't be a big deal if the book listed all the changes it made to the example code, but it skips essential parts like the header references. Nothing in this book is going to compile without the proper references to BeOS header files, and you won't find any in this book. It seems to me this book was written with the idea that there would be sample code with it, but then they didn't include it. Well, it makes the book pretty frustrating when you are following along with the code in the book and it won't compile.

With that said, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in BeOS programming; just accept the fact that you can't type in the code from the book and make it work. The sample code included with the BeOS will hopefully fill in some of the cracks for you. If you are a beginner to BeOS programming and want a good book to get you started, this is the way to go.


Programming the Be Operating System Review,  December 06 1997
Submitted by Howard Jones   [Respond | View]



I agree with Jason Mauer below(above?). I spent a fairly frustrating few hours last night with this book. The constant references to the CDROM (certainly in chapter 3/4) looks like bad editing. There was a description of 'logical units' vs pixels that was unbelievably opaque. I was glad that Charles Petzold taught me all this stuff so many years ago on Windows 3.0 (*thats* a good intro to GUI programming). Having said all that, it is (I think) the only tutorial for BeOS available, and it's good to see that gap being filled. It beats learning from the samples and the Be Book, but it definitely isn't up to O'Reilly's normally very high standards.

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