04 Aug 94, Rob Landley writes to All:

 > What does a dos C/C++ programmer need to get to move to OS/2?  I've been
 > given a list of five or six compilers, and will probably end up using
 > GNU (because it's free) at least until they finally debug Borland C++
 > for OS/2.

What you need to get depends on what you want to accomplish.  If you want
to become fluent in Presentation Manager, you'll need a different set of
knowledge than if you want to write text-mode programs.  I suspect that, as
a dos programmer, you'll be more interested in text-mode, at least for a
while.

 > Anyway, my problem is, I'm aware of a lot of new function calls that
 > start with the word DOS (DosCreateThread, etc...) that have nothing
 > whatsoever to do with dos emulation, and I'm wondering how do you learn
 > them?

Why do you want to know about the API calls?  What int21 calls do you
commonly use under DOS?  Most of the API is virtualized by the C library.

 >   (No, I'm not shelling out $800 bucks to get IBM's red books.

My understanding is that the "Red Books" are not recommended as references.

 > I've heard that some guy named peltzold is supposed to have written a
 > good book.  Is it, and what's it called?

The best introduction (and reference for) to the Presentation Manager that I
have seen in print is PROGRAMMING THE OS/2 PRESENTATION MANAGER by Petzold.
Unfortunately, it is out of print.  He has a new book out, also on
Presentation Manager programming, but I don't know if it's any good.  It's
certainly smaller than the first one.  In any case, if you aren't
interested in GUI type stuff neither of these books will be of interest.

The best general API book I know of is ADVANCED OS/2 PROGRAMMING by Ray
Duncan. Unfortunately, it too is out of print.  (When my copy
disintegrates, I won't be able to replace it.)  It's a bit long in the
tooth (as there were some significant changes between the API for OS/2 V1.0
, which is what this book was written for, and V2.0) but it's an excellent
reference with all the API calls (not just "Dos," but also
"Vio," "Mou," "Kbd," and so forth) with their
parameters and returned types specified.  I've not seen ANYTHING like that
for OS/2 2.0 in a third-party book.  I have copies of the IBM reference
manuals on-line (they came with my CD-ROM copy of C Set++) but even those
lack in some detail.

For what it's worth, I think that you can learn quite a bit about OS/2
programming with a sketchy reference by tracking down references in the
header files.  That makes for lots of trial-and-error.  Mostly error.

- Jon

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