There is a large collection of document resources posted in various places at the Be web site. As always, it’s a good idea to read the available documentation before asking questions in online forums — that’s what the docs are there for.
This page is a fairly complete list of URLs for those documents – as of April 18, 1998. You can download this page and use it as a ‚local‘ html page to jump to each url or use it online as the base for visiting any or all documents.
Tip for viewing these docs without losing this page: If you point to a url, press and hold down the first mouse button, and view the popup menu that lauches, select ‚open in new window‘ to get a second browser window filled with the url contents. When you are done reading or Saving that page, just close this second window and choose another url in this page. Some browsers have a preset limit of 4 windows – you can change this in your browser’s preferences feature (somewhere).
Each url for a page posted at Be (www.be.com) is followed by a brief description of the url’s contents. http://www.be.com/documentation/user_docs/ This is the BeOS user guide – an html equivalent to the user manual that ships with BeOS R3. Contains many important explanations of BeOS features and ways of using those features. If you don’t own BeOS R3 yet, you can get an excellent idea of what it is like just by reading this set of pages. http://www.be.com/documentation/be_book/ The Be Book – programmer’s guide to BeOS. This is the table of contents page with links to all chapters – and to a downloadable copy of the whole book. The Be Book is updated regularly. You need this. A printed version of this book and more advanced books on programming for BeOS are available at Amazon.com and are listed at Be’s web site with many other useful books on related topics. You can purchase via the amazon.com link at Be to receive discounts and support Be’s advertising of these books.
http://www.be.com/developers/dev_library.html master page of the developer documents, bug database, and many useful documents that will benefit end users as much as developers. Try looking over each item linked to and be sure to scroll down the page to find links to Be Book and BASH manual in html format.
http://www.be.com/documentation/shell_tools/ BASH shell docs in html and the ‚ve‘ command line editor manual in html are linked from this page. Archives in Macintosh and UNIX formats for both document sets are at the top of this page. If you have nothing else to do while waiting for Intel applications to arrive, consider learning about BASH, ve, and the world of UNIX command line work. There is a vast array of potential (and new learning experiences) awaiting you. And more than a few ‚gotchas‘.
http://www.be.com/aboutbe/benewsletter/article_index.html
The Be newsletter – far more than just news – AND in a new, improved format that is guaranteed to leave you breathless. All articles from past newsletters are now individually linked and categorized under suitable headings. Down the page are Jean-Louis Gassee’s articles – which are a must read for everyone. Yes, this man is a unique star in the firmament of computing, clear and concise writing, and other things. If you think that I have enormous respect for the CEO of Be, you are correct. Also linked to this page are archives of the newsletter collection – in several formats, one suitable for every platform (zip, Mac, and UNIX) – well, almost everyone.
The newsletter covers news about Be and Be events, sage comments by Jean-Louis, incredibly thorough programming dissertations by the experts at Be, and some delightful asides. It exemplifies a ‚people communicating with people‘ attitude. http://www.be.com/aboutbe/whatsbe.html Okay, this page has lots more than just links to documents, but it has lots of links to all kinds of documents – links that may not be found as easily on other pages. This is a popourri of links that is handy to look through. http://www.be.com/support/qandas/ This is the master table of contents for FAQs about BeOS on PPC and on Intel platforms. Links posted here will take you to information about hardware for each platform that BeOS runs on. Some of it anyway. Well, most of it. The Be web site is getting reorganized and this is THE place to look for many bits of information that are not officially considered documents. This particular page was updated by Be on April 16, 1998 – so it contains many links of value. If you only want to read about Be, Be partners, and similar corporate matters, just scroll down to the bottom of the page. There is even a link to developer discussions.
Now if you are looking for an answer to ‚why my AWE64 sound card doesn’t work‘ – well….. maybe later. Well, folks, that is about it for right now. Chances are excellent that you will find ANYTHING at the Be web site either from the home page or from one of the links listed above. Some of the pages have so many links that it is not worth listing them individually here. Try that last link for links to Intel specific and PPC specific hardware QANDAs – all of them. Some webmaster has been working HARD to accommodate visitors.