Jim Fitzsimmons wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 JF>  Can you recommend any beginner level OS/2 programming
 JF> reference books?

For FReq (1:323/107) or download (+1 401 944 8498):

PFAQ34.ZIP    207K  6-11-95  OS/2 Programmers FAQ version 3.4
OS2BOOKS.TXT   14K  5-01-96  A list of programming-related OS/2 books
OS2BOOKS.TXT   48K  4-29-96  OS/2 Programming Booklist from Fidonet OS2PROG
                             echo, maintained by Jonathan de Boyne Pollard,
                             2:440/4

The second file was collected by me from JdeBP's posts in this echo.  The
file name collision arose because the first file is on the new June 1996
Hobbes CD.

 JF>  I have one Book for OS/2 that is called Real World
 JF> Programming for OS/2. Seems to be more an intermediate level
 JF> book but I did manage to create a PM Window with there
 JF> source code from chapter 1 through 3 after that the examples
 JF> are rather complicated for me at this time. DLL's and stuff.

Actually, "Real World Programming" is a fairly good book.  It is
well divided into logical topics and the authors are pretty knownledgeable
about the subject.  JdeBP's calls the book "most people's favourite
recommendation for programming OS/2."

 JF>  I want to be able to output a variable that is defined in a
 JF> structure to the screen, or to start even a variable output
 JF> to the screen. Is this too lengthy a thing to show me here? 

I think it might be a good for you to step back from OS/2 as a separate
issue. ANSI C is pretty much ANSI C under any operating system.  There are
certain vagaries in extreme cases, but a valid ANSI C program under OS/2
will look and behave the same as it would under DOS or Unix.  You might
also consider looking at C++ instead of C, since it has better facilities
to do typesafe I/O, for example.  Whether to learn C++ without learning C
first is something of a controversy, although I tend to think that it is a
good idea if done correctly.  I usually recommend Steve Oualline's books,
"Practical C Programming" and "Practical C++
Programming," published by O'Reilly; the C++ book makes no assumptions
that you know anything about C.

Once you have the standard language down, you can start learning the
specific operating system API.  Programmers usually think of OS/2 as having
two distinct API sets, one for the base operating system and one for
Presentation Manager.  It is reasonable to take them on separately, since
the PM API is not much use without the base OS/2 API.

In answer to your specific question, text-mode OS/2 C programs can use
printf() to output data and text-mode OS/2 C++ programs can use iostreams. 
PM programs need a little more work, and there are good examples in
"Real World Programming."
 
-- Mike


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