From: AndrewJ Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: Newbie GFX Message-ID: References: <01c004b9$f4bc0ec0$ac7297d4 AT grebo> <01c007bd$ab87f000$ac7997d4 AT grebo> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.7/32.534 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 58 Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 00:28:17 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.42.120.18 X-Complaints-To: abuse AT home DOT net X-Trace: news2.rdc1.on.home.com 966472097 24.42.120.18 (Wed, 16 Aug 2000 17:28:17 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 17:28:17 PDT Organization: Excite AT Home - The Leader in Broadband To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com (Apologies in advance for the off-topic nature of this reply). >i need it :) That's what we're here for. >no, youre right. >after seeing all that 'strange' code i should try something else. >Is there a recommendation for a book? >I learn faster from text. Hmmm... the basics (these are system specific books that will explain "How Things Work"). PC Intern (up to the 6th Edition when last I checked), Michael Tischer. Describes all sorts of internal PC stuff, such as BIOS, DOS, Interrupts, Memory and more. Programmers Guide to the EGA, VGA and SuperVGA, Richard Ferraro. Old, but interesting. Most of the information is outdated by todays video hardware standards, and the code is useless to DJGPP. But it will give you an idea of how VGA hardware works. Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Blackbook, Michael Abrash. Considered a guru, this book is a great read. Mastering Turbo Assembler, Tom Swan Ignore the Turbo Assembler bit. This book is good at teaching you the insides of the x86, its registers and instructions and all that wonderful stuff. Also, if you don't have a good C programming book, I recommend K&R's "The ANSI C Programming Language", and Peter van der Linden's "Expert C Programming". The second, IMHO, is a volume that every C programmer should have read. Bear in mind, however, that programming books are /not/ cheap. Finally, start small. Begin with the basics ("Hello, World") and move up from there. Pick a simple problem, such as the ever so common banking type problem given to every student [1], where you must calculate the interest for a given balance, and allow deposits and withdrawals. Then move on to storing that information on disk, and then adding a nice interface. It's a great way to learn. There are lots of tutorials on the web, too. Focus on the ones that discuss the language itself, rather than hardware/system specific features, until later. > Real mode and protected mode, ok. >Wonder how that translates into swedish? :) Hmmm... to bad my Swedish friend isn't online right now, or I'd ask him. :( [1] To paraphrase - "all generalizations are false, including this one" ------- AndrewJ "This is a wonderful answer. It's off-topic, it's incorrect, and it doesn't answer the question." - Richard Heathfield.