Compute!'s Atari ST Reference Books
In the late 70s to late 80s, Compute! magazine was a great source of computing information. In my case, it was often the way I learned about computers other than Atari systems. I also really liked their short-lived Atari ST magazine and even have some Compute!’s Gazette issues lying around here.
In addition to their wonderful magazines, Compute! also published books. The Compute! books for the Atari 8-bit series, such as Mapping the Atari and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Books of Atari, are highly regarded.
Compute!’s first Atari ST book was Compute!’s ST Programmer’s Guide. Released in 1986, it was not highly regarded. It only covers BASIC and Logo with a rudimentary overview of GEM and TOS. ST information was scarce at the time, so it was probably better than nothing, but I think most people stuck with the Abacus books that were also available.
However, in 1987 Compute! released their Atari ST Technical Reference Guide series, which consisted of three books covering VDI, AES and TOS. Written by Sheldon Leemon, who was relatively well-known in the Commodore and Atari world at the time, these books were excellent and a tremendous improvement over the Abacus ST reference books.
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