Robert C. Arp, Jr.
                                        278-1 San Tomas Aquino Rd.
                                        Campbell, Ca 95008

                                        March 15, 1989


To all concerned:

     I have been writing a book called "Atari ST Machine Specific 
Programming In Assembly".  Until now, I have assumed that 
interested parties would already have some knowledge about 
assembly language programming and that the interest would be in a 
book that covered the more advanced topics associated with 
programming the ST machine specifically.  However, after trying 
to gather interest during the GEnie conference on March 14, 1989, 
I have begun to reconsider both the topic level and the initial 
size of the book.

     It may be that a beginner's text is still desired by ST 
users.  Furthermore, it seems that the cost of such a text is 
more of a consideration than I had assumed.  I get the impression 
that users would support shorter, less expensive texts.  For 
example, I now think that users would rather choose from three 
short text that were priced at about $15 each rather than be 
stuck with a single large text priced at about $35.

     I know that the Atari ST community is small enough so that 
it has virtually been forgotten by major publishers, but if I can 
see definite signs of interest, I will adjust and continue my 
work; therefore, in order to obtain some sort of survey results, 
I am uploading Chapter 1 of the book, a few sample programs and 
this letter.

     I would upload more chapters at this time, but since the 
text is combined with a lot of graphics, a reader would need 1ST 
Word Plus to be able to print out the other chapters.  I will 
work around this limitation and send up a few more chapters, if 
somebody tells me that the interest is there.

     The questions I want answered are these:

     1.  Are ST users interest in such a text?
     2.  What level is needed: beginner, intermediate, advanced?
     3.  Three inexpensive books or one rather costly book?
     4.  I have been preparing the text to be AssemPro assembler 
         and TEMPUS editor specific.  Are there objections to 
         this?
     5.  I insist that the text be 100% Atari ST specific.  Does 
         that requirement kill the idea?
     6.  Since the Atari ST community is so small, I might not be 
         able to find a major publisher to handle it.  Would 
         normal page size, unbounded copies of the text be 
         satisfactory?

     I will be waiting to hear from you via U.S. or GEnie mail.  
Please ask as many questions as you can, and please give me as 
much input about your specific needs as you desire.  I will 
consider no input to be trivial.  I have been programming for 
many years, but I am still in touch with the needs of beginners 
because I have been a beginner at one thing or another during my 
entire life.

                               Sincerely,
                               Bob