BKMACBIB.RVW  980621

"The Macintosh Bible", Jeremy Judson (ed), 1996, 0-201-88636-7,
U$29.95/C$41.00
%E   Jeremy Judson
%C   2414 6th St., Berkeley, CA   94710
%D   1996
%G   0-201-88636-7
%I   PeachPit
%O   U$29.95/C$41.00 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 markj@aw.com
%P   991 p.
%T   "The Macintosh Bible", 6th Edition

I would have to say that, yes, this is definitely the Macintosh Bible.

As with most works claiming biblical status, this is a fairly
comprehensive overview.  Chapters include the basics of operation, the
system family, system software, hardware, storage and memory, basic
software, printing, fonts, utilities, troubleshooting, the major
applications, graphics, sound and video, communications, the Internet,
networking, sources and resources, and a list of companies and
products.  Within each chapter are icons denoting hot tips, good
features, bad features, bugs, warnings, and items for PowerBooks and
PowerPCs.

This book is also very Mac.  Big on presentation and short on
technical details.  The technical level has improved over time, but it
still is not terribly deep.  A lot of work has gone into this book;
but mostly on the presentation.  Open the book anywhere and you find
clearly defined sections and topics, with readable (and even
enjoyable) text.  It is not just that the tone is light and bantering,
but that care has been taken to explain material in very easily
understandable terms.

If, that is, the material is there.  There is an abundance of
interesting information, but it may be difficult to extract that which
is truly important.  Given the number of contributors, opinions tend
to be reasonably even-handed, but I am not sure that all readers will
agree with the priorities.  Fonts get only half of the one hundred
pages they used to have, but ResEdit still gets only five pages.

The book is Mac-like in another way.  Books on using VMS don't gloat
over OS/400.  Books on UNIX don't point out the shortcomings of Pick. 
Books about MS-DOS don't repeatedly mention the 64K memory limit of
CP/M.  Why do Mac books consistently waste space and time on system
bashing?  The chapter on coexistence deals only with DOS, and the
section on the Internet does not mention potential problems with file
attachments or the variety of data file formats that may be
encountered.

This work can be valuable even before you buy a Mac.  For anyone
considering a purchase, the buying tips are very likely worth more
than the price of the book, itself.  For those who positively want to
work on getting the most out of their Mac, this is a good, overall
introduction.  For the majority, there is certainly enough in here as
to be useful for any Mac user.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994, 1998   BKMACBIB.RVW  980621