BKCIGCDR.RVW   950419
 
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to CD-ROM", John Pivovarnick, 1994, 1-56761-460-4,
U$14.95
%A   John Pivovarnick
%C   201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN   46290
%D   1994
%G   1-56761-460-4
%I   Alpha Books
%O   U$14.95 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com
%P   297
%S   Complete Idiot's Guide ...
%T   "The Complete Idiot's Guide to CD-ROM"
 
While reading this book, I finally realized something.
 
Authors of books about CD-ROM are writing from pretty limited experience.
 
Now, this shouldn't have been a revelation.  CD-ROM, and CD-ROM readers, are
pretty new.  Even though I did some multimedia programming a decade ago,
commonly accessible computer-based multimedia is pretty new, too.  So, it isn't
surprising that the research for these books consists of reading some magazine
articles, doing a little comparison shopping, talking to a couple of friends,
and installing one or two drives.  Nobody is going to write "Undocumented CD-
ROMs" yet, because nobody has that kind of experience yet.
 
Why, then, is it important that I realized this fact with this book? 
Pivovarnick, while not exactly "up front" about the limits of hsi experience,
is an honest enough writer that his struggles come through.  You may not get
any more information from this book (though no less) than with others, but at
least opinion and subjective comment is presented as such, and not as fact.
 
This revelation brought others in its train.  All the books on this topic see
CD-ROMs from a single perspective--as toys, not tools.  This is probably the
majority perception, but is not helpful to those of us who see the CD-ROM drive
as a bigger, and needed, "floppy" drive for operating systems and (given
software bloat) applications.  (Current rumour has it that the floppy-based
version of Windows 95 will *not* contain the full suite.  Just too many disks.)
 
This book does have the advantage of covering both Mac and MS-DOS systems.  The
MS-DOS coverage is pretty weak--it only covers SCSI (Small Computer Systems
Interface) adapters, doesn't mention bus geometry, and says nothing about IRQs,
DMAs and the other banes of our existence.
 
Pivovarnick's jokes definitely make the book more entertaining, but in this
case, he may have gone overboard.  The additional, and non-vital, text could be
frustrating for those looking for quick data.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995   BKCIGCDR.RVW   950419

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