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OS21BOOK.RVW
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1994-02-03
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OS/2 2.1 COMPLETE
Book Review
By Joshua Chessman
My quest for the best OS/2 book began over a year ago, when I
bought my first copy of OS/2 2.0. Since then, I have looked at
dozens of books, heard of many others, and not found one that
was truly acceptable. All of the books had some sort of
problem. They were either above or below my ability level,
poorly written, confusing, or just didn't cover enough useful
material. So when the opportunity to review "OS/2 2.1 Complete"
came around, I was excited. Possibly, I thought, I would
finally find an OS/2 book that would serve my purposes.
Things looked good at the outset. On the back cover, the
book described itself as "A practical user's guide to the OS/2
operating system." Based on this description and some of the
contents listed, I was feeling hopeful. Unfortunately my hope
was short lived.
Incomplete Index Indications?
At the time I received the book I had been having some
problems with the Font Palette in OS/2. My fonts kept
disappearing and causing the system to hang. This, I thought,
was a perfect time to try out the book and see if it could offer
some insight into the font palette, and why it would cause my
system to crash.
Before I continue, let me mention that I consider the Index
to be one of the most important parts of a book. Having a good
Table of Contents is great, but I find it much more useful to
have an in-depth and complete Index. So, in quest of the font
palette, I flipped to the back of the book, past the usual pages
of adds, to the Index, and turned to the f's. I looked for
"font." I discovered nothing.
However, I did not give in so quickly. I thought for a
second and remembered that the Font Palette was in the System
Setup, so I decided to try there. Bingo. Font Palette was
listed. I would have preferred it to be listed under its own
name, instead of me having to remember what folder it was in,
but I can deal with it.
Unfortunately, when I found the appropriate page, it was not
what I needed. The section gave instructions on how to *add*
fonts; my problems revolved around fonts that were already
installed, that I couldn't get rid of.
I flipped back to the Index and looked through the all the
entries, but nothing.
Installation Complications
Next, I decided to take a look at the section of the book on
installation. While I had no interest in overwriting my
currently installed OS/2 partition, I thought I would to do a
mock install and follow along the instructions, in a non
destructive manner. So I flipped to the beginning of the book,
found the installation chapter, and started to read along.
Before the end of the first page, I found a potential
problem. A note at the bottom of the first section instructed
beginners, people who did not really understand computers, that
they could most likely skip the section on Data Saving, as they
probably did not have any. Let me say that I have dealt with
several people who have had computers and used them for years,
and they would not know if they had data to save or not. This
note could be potentially disasterous to the amateur.
I skipped to the next section, one about the hard drive and
the Boot Manager. Here I found another problem for an amateur
user. If I really knew little about computers, and I had just
skipped a section on backing up, I think my knowledge of
computer terms and lingo would be a little thin. Therefore, I
found the usage of phrases like "32-bit pointers", "maximum
partition size", and "gigabytes" rather strange. A true amateur
would have no idea what was being discussed, or what to do with
the information. This is a problem which, I found, continues
throughout the book. Though the author claimed to be writing to
the amateur, he seems to forget that often, using complicated
terms and ideas which he does not explain.
Bottom Line
From my reading of this book, and my attempts to use it for
some basic things, I have found it to be not my great OS/2 book.
It is too complicated in some areas, and too vague in others.
The lack of a comprehensive Index and Table Of Contents makes it
difficult to use. Since terms used in portions of the text are
difficult for someone who has been using the operating system
for some time to grasp, I wonder how the amateur will do.
Overall, I feel the book is not terrible, but nowhere near as
good as claimed on the back, or as what I had hoped for.
-----------------
OS/2 2.1 COMPLETE
by Peter Franken
Abacus: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993.
A Data Becker Book. $27.50.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Josh Chessman, son of BCS ZITEL treasurer Dan Chessman, studies
at Northeastern U. and works as caretaker at Allandale Farm in
Newton, within all-too-easy reach of his father's computer.)