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- The Turbo Modula-2 User's Guide
- ===============================
- Some Notes and Comments
- Glenn Brooke 12/29/86
-
- Disclaimer 1 : I have no commercial or monetary interests in
- Borland International or Echelon Inc. These are strictly
- personal notes and comments, constituting one individual's
- perspective.
-
- Disclaimer 2 : I have only used Turbo Modula-2 for a short while.
- I will therefore limit my comments to the Guide.
-
- **** General impression : THIS IS AN EXCELLENT MANUAL! ****
-
- PHYSICAL FORM
- =============
- The Guide is a quality paperbound publication, quite sturdy.
- It should hold up well to programmer abuse. This is a big
- manual; there are 544 pages of dense print. I doubt anyone will
- complain about lack of information here! It would be terrific if
- the guide laid flat, since part of it serves as a reference Guide
- for the libraries and will be in regular use beside the keyboard,
- but my magazine holder works just fine. Some weak-eyes folks may
- wish for larger type, too, particularly in dim light. The
- layout itself is readable and well organized. The detailed table
- of contents, list of tables and figures, and index are a delight
- to use.
-
- OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS
- ====================
- There are four areas to the Guide: an introduction, the
- module library, a reference section, and appendices. There are
- twelve chapters covering startup and configuration, Modula-2
- language structure, elements, and basic programming strategy,
- more advanced topics (such as system-specific details,
- extensions, low-level facilities), use of the
- editor/compiler/linker shell and utilities, complete discussion
- of the library modules (14 modules, over 100 procedures), and the
- extensive (280 pages!) look-up reference section of every
- language feature, extension, and procedure in the Turbo Modula-2
- implementation. Six appendices cover the differences between
- Modula-2 and Pascal, detailed installations instructions,
- compiler directives, error messages/definitions/diagnosis (quite
- well done!), BNF syntax diagrams, and special features of the
- SB180-specific compiler.
- This is a lot of information! I'm certain that most of the
- programmer's questions will be answered by a simple check of the
- manual. This Guide beats those packaged with the FTL and
- Logitech implementations hands down, in my opinion.
-
- QUALITY OF WRITING
- ==================
- Ok, so there is a lot of information. Is it organized and
- presented in a clear, readable, usable fashion? That's the true
- test of a manual, isn't it?
- I had absolutely no trouble following the installation
- instructions and compiling the sample programs provided, using
- the information in chapter 1 ("Getting Started"). As a further
- test, however, I let Cathy, my fiance, do the same thing from
- scratch, using only the manual. Cathy is an intelligent but
- computer-naive user. She got it perfectly the first time.
- The Guide has a wonderful tone, talking with the user as an
- intelligent person with real questions. There are many
- suggestions for using the compiler options, for instance, and
- better yet, explanations of why errors may occur and different
- methods to circumvent them. Not hand-holding, insulting
- descriptions, but friendly explanations. I found this quite
- refreshing after reading several insulting (even worse, useless
- or just plain wrong) manuals over the past years.
- Anyone seriously interested in learning about Turbo Modula-2
- will have little trouble with this Guide. You won't have to be
- an expert programmer to dig out the information, you won't have
- to wade through insulting prose, and above all you won't have
- (many) unanswered questions.
-
- USER'S GUIDE AND USING TURBO MODULA-2
- =====================================
- I can honestly tell you that you must have the Guide to make
- full use of the compiler/editor/linker system. You can hardly
- imagine the wealth of information about the libraries (which you
- must know before you can really use them in programs), compiler
- and linking options, and extensions to standard (Wirth-defined)
- Modula-2 that you will never discover without the Guide. I am
- glad for this; it should severely curtail pirating, ensuring that
- Echelon and Borland receive their just rewards.
- I hope that no one examines the compiler without the Guide
- and proceeds to make reviews, because you might as well buy a car
- based upon the brochure's description of the ride. Get the whole
- picture; get the Guide.
- This means, of course, that you will be using the Guide
- quite a bit, at least initially. That's fine. You would do that
- with any new implementation of any language, and for once you
- have a Guide worth taking along on your adventures!
-
- LEARNING MODULA-2 FROM THE GUIDE
- ================================
- The Guide makes a good effort to teach Modula-2 principles
- and practice. If you already know even a little Modula-2, the
- Guide will be sufficient to bring you up to speed. If you are
- familiar with Pascal, the Guide will almost certainly contain
- enough information for you to learn Modula-2 (see the excellent
- comparison of Pascal and Modula-2 in Appendix A). If you are
- comfortable with another structured high level language (like C),
- the Guide will be an excellent start to learning Modula-2,
- although you may want to study other introductions to Modula-2.
- If you are new to programming in structured high level languages,
- I would seriously advise you to read other introductory books on
- Modula-2 in addition to the Guide; the Guide does not contain an
- extensive tutorial that would be helpful to real novices.
-
- SUMMATION
- =========
- The User's Guide is excellent. Turbo Modula-2 (by all
- accounts so far) is excellent. Get it! No point in saying more.
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