Hi people,

As you may or may not know, there is much talk on Amiga forums at the moment about the cancellation of the Amiga Guru Book publication in English. See here for example:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4362

You can read a review of the Amiga Guru Book here:
http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/gurubook.html
It would be a very valuable resource for the classic Amiga version of MorphOS.

I have created an online petition in the hope that we will get the author to change his mind. Please sign the petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/4m1ga123/petition.html
Thanks.

Let me guess, you missed the original announcement?

Here you go.

Interesting. I remember reading about this in some magazine back in the days but I don't think I was in the target audience.

A question, *how* relevant/useful would it be in a 2008 MorphOS context?

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Thanks for trying to help, but maybe I should be the one to help you. Here is the more recent announcement...

http://babel.de/amiga.html
"Unfortunately, the release of the 800-page extended edition of the Amiga Guru Book (covering OS 3.x and beyond) scheduled for April was preempted by some fool seeding a scan of the older version into one of those pirate-to-pirate networks, eliminating all hopes of me ever being able to recover the cost of a reprint, so the project had to be stopped immediately to avoid further loss of time and money. Thank you, Keith."

Which is why I created the petition. As for how useful it is to MorphOS, well its not really useful for the Efika and Pegasos versions, but as far as I understood a version of MorphOS 2.0 may be released for classic Amigas one day, which is why the Guru Book would be useful to have in the hands of the developers.

@HenryCase

Oh I saw that, but I don't see the point of your poll when those interested in the reprint could already have emailed AndreasM. But hey, I guess another poll wont make much difference either way :)

Btw. maybe you could tell us how much relevance it has to MorphOS development?

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It is as useful to PowerUp Amigas than it is useful to Pegasos or Efika. Hardware differs but OS internals are the same.

If you are developing for MorphOS and wish to understand more about Amiga/MorphOS internals it is good book. You only must understand that some parts of the book are no longer relevant in MorphOS but they might be interesting nevertheless.

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If one would want to do a reprint, maybe this could be taken into account? And aim a bit higher? What I mean is that it would become a *new* book, based on the old (perhaps with the old parts unchanged for nostalgia reasons, or not), but with certain *addendum's* (placed wherever relevant) for "NG" OS's like MorphOS (and AROS and OS4)? Of course this will mean some authoring instead of simply handing in an old file to a print shop, but maybe it would be worthwhile? It would be a new product, and if what you are saying is correct, it could prove valuable for anyone who wants to understand and learn "the good old Amiga" under the hood in general, and how the NG OS's evolved in particular?

Just brainstorming of course, and I know nada about the copyright deals involved, etc, etc...

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I am not a MorphOS developer, so I don't know exactly which areas of the book would be useful to MorphOS developers. However, the Amiga Guru Book is the most respected Amiga programming reference book out there and MorphOS evolved from AmigaOS/Workbench which is why I started a forum thread here about the petition.

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I stand corrected. So, to clarify, would the Amiga Guru Book give a useful insight into developing for MorphOS on all hardware platforms?

@takemehomegrandma
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The original post said that it was revised to 3.x and beyond so it probably says something about OS4 or MorphOS or AROS. I dont know. I suppose it would just list new DOS packets or tell that BCPL code is not supported in NG OS's or something like that.

But there are not so many developers left these days...

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Ralph Babel does not seem to be so keen for PDF version or a (cheap looking?) print shop version. Dunno.

@HenryChase
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It would.

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Awesome!

Now we just need to convince Ralph to release the newly updated version of this great resource. If we get over 169 signatures on the petition (169 was the number of e-mails sent showing interest when the print run was first announced in 2007) then we can show the torrent didn't affect the possibility of a successful print run.

Please sign the petition MorphOSites (what is the collective noun for a group of MorphOS users?!?), as itix said the book will benefit development for all MorphOS versions. Thanks.

[ Edited by HenryCase on 2008/5/18 13:51 ]

*Bump*

We are very close to achieving our target of 170 signatures now, but of course the more signatures on the petition the better. I should inform you that the new version of the Amiga Guru Book is supposed to have detailed information about AmigaOS 3.1, which was the basis for MorphOS IIRC. Good AmigaOS 3.1 information is not easy to find, so getting this book really would be a bonus for MorphOS developers old and new. Thanks.

http://www.petitiononline.com/4m1ga123/petition.html

I'm restarting this campaign. Well I mean I never really stopped, but now I need some help again.

Let's get this out of the way now: I have been in contact with Ralph Babel, but progress has been slow. However, I do not see this as a bad sign.

The reason I am asking for help again is this: I saw two targets for the Amiga Guru Book petition, but I only mentioned one, and to be honest I thought the 170 signature target might have been overly optimistic at first (before the numbers didn't stop going up).

The second signature target I saw was to surpass the number of people who had downloaded the infamous torrent, which is around 302 people now. At the time of writing this, the petition has reached 247 signatures even though I haven't done much to promote it since we reached the 170 target.

So, a couple of things:
1. Please don't download the torrent unless you're confident it'll be the only way to easily obtain the material in the near future (the book still could be published at this point, Ralph has not told me otherwise).
2. If you haven't signed the petition yet and want to see Amiga programmers get access to one of the best (maybe even THE best, according to owners of the book) Amiga programming resources around, sign the petition.

I am duplicating this message on the following Amiga websites (in alphabetical order): amigans.net, amiga.org, amigaworld.net, AROS-Exec.org, AROSWorld.org, eab.abime.net (English Amiga Board), MorphZone.org, UtilityBase.com. I know this topic has been discussed on other Amiga forums, so please pass on this 'drumming up support' message to the places it needs to be heard. Also, does anyone know if there is a central point to discuss this issue with all those involved with UAE ports? The Amiga Guru Book should be handy for the emulation crew as well.

That's all for now. Sign on (you crazy diamonds!). ;)
http://www.petitiononline.com/4m1ga123/petition.html

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But.. but.. there arent 169 developers even left

And as always, most of the people sending/showing support wont act when its time to open wallet.