Author's Preface
To The Revised Edition
In the past two years, many people have written to me about Map-
ping--mostly complimentary. I was gratified that no serious errors
were uncovered, only a few typos and minor corrections--a tribute
to COMPUTE!'s editing skills. There are too many people to mention
everyone, but I appreciate the efforts of you, the readers; please
continue to write to me, even if I can't answer every letter.
	Special thanks to Joe Miller of Koala Technologies (previously
with Atari, author of the Translator disk, and frequent CompuServe
user), Matt Ratcliff (remote sysop on the Gateway BBS), Randy Tjin of
Atari Canada, Neil Harris and Richard Frick of Atari USA for tech-
nical support, Bill Wilkinson for the frequent mentions in COMPUTE!
magazine, Gary Yost of Antic, and my friend Yoram Rostas for his in-
cessant prodding and poking into the machine. Also to Atari for its
"open system" policy which helped make this book possible.
	The Atari SIG on CompuServe has been a great help and sup-
port; it may be the best source of information and public domain
software for the Atari presently available. If you haven't used
CompuServe, I highly recommend that you do so; the sysop, Ron
Luks, and his group run a super online operation. Ron helped me
gather some of this information by putting up a special message ask-
ing for suggestions and answers to questions I had.
	Most of all, I owe an immeasurable amount of love, gratitude,
and affection to the ever-patient Susan McCallan, my constant
companion these past two-plus. How she stands me, I've never quite
figured out, but I hope she continues to do so for a long time. This
book is for her.

Publications and Products
Since the first edition, OSS has released an excellent new language,
Action!, as well as a considerably superior BASIC--BASIC XL. Action!
is probably the best language yet for the Atari; it's a bit like C and
Pascal, with a dash of Forth. I recommend it. (Russ Wetmore wrote
Atari HomePak in Action!. Even the Commodore 64 version was writ-
ten in Action! on the Atari.) Many Action! utilities and programs are
available on CompuServe's Atari SIG as well.
	Too many magazine articles have been published since the orig-
inal edition to cross-reference all of them, but Bill Wilkinson's "Insight:
Atari" in COMPUTE! magazine, Paul Swanson's "From Here to Atari"
in Micro, plus articles in Analog, Antic, Creative Computing, and
ROM have all provided their share of information. Atari's own maga-
zine, Atari Explorer, also has many useful articles, especially for
novice programmers
	As for books. The Programmer's Reference Guide for the Atari
400/800 computers by David Heiserman (Howard Sams, 1984) is a
good "single volume" reference, Mark Chasin's Assembly Language
Programming for the Atari Computers (McGraw-Hill, 1984) is highly
recommended; it provides many excellent examples strictly for Atari
users, explaining such difficult concepts as I/O, handlers, and VBIs.
Carl Evans's Atari BASIC Faster and Better (IJG, 1983) is an excellent
technique book for BASIC programmers who want to improve their
style and learn some machine language.
	Jerry White, well-known Atari software author, coauthored a
good compendium with Gary Phillips called The Atari User's
Encyclopedia (The Book Company, 1984), Linda Schreiber's Ad-
vanced Programming Techniques for Your Atari (Tab, 1983) has sev-
eral good routines for graphics and strings in BASIC.
	COMPUTE! Books has published several good books, including
COMPUTE!'s Third Book of Atari, COMPUTE!'s First and Second Book
of Atari Graphics, and COMPUTE!'s First Book of Atari Games. A real
hacker's delight is The Atari BASIC Sourcebook, by Bill Wilkinson,
Kathleen O'Brien, and Paul Laughton, which includes the entire
source code for Atari BASIC--a must for serious BASIC users (along
with Wilkinson's Inside Atari DOS). One of COMPUTE!'s best books
recently is Richard Mansfield's Machine Language for Beginners,
a painless way to introduce yourself to machine language
programming.
	Finally, for the real hardware buff, Atari once published their
400-800 Home Computer Field Service Manual (part # FD 100001); it
has a wealth of data, schematics, parts lists, diagnostic tests, and
assembly information, It's hard to get, but worth it. An 800XL Field
Service Manual is also available. Sams has released an excellent
hardware technical service manual for the 800 and 800XL, it's expen-
sive. but contains material any hardware hacker needs to know.
	It looks like the Atari will have a long life; it's already into its
third generation (all compatible). I'm glad to see that the recent
change in ownership did not spell the end of my favorite home com-
puter, but rather Jack Tramiel is continuing to support and develop it
as well as maintain compatibility between models. I'm looking for-
ward to seeing his new 68000-based ST machines.

March 1985
Ian Chadwick
55 Kent Rd
Toronto, Ont.
M4L 2X5
Canada
CompuServe 70375,1010

September 2000: the above contact information is obsolete. Ian
can be contacted via e-mail at ichadwick@georgian.net or at:
115 First St., Suite 502
Collingwood, Ont.
Canada L9Y 4W3