Apple Technical Introduction to the Macintosh Family

 Home > Browse Our Collection > Books > Apple Books > Apple Technical Intro ... the Macintosh Family
 

Apple Technical Introduction to the Macintosh Family for the Apple Macintosh

With the introduction of the second generation of Apple® Macintosh® computers, the Macintosh SE and the Macintosh II, Apple has broadened the definition of the Macintosh system with two open machines. These machines add significant new capabilities to the Macintosh family, at the same time fitting well within the flexible Macintosh software architecture. This book describes that software architecture, as well as the hardware architectures of the various Macintosh machines.
About this book
Technical Introduction to the Macintosh Family introduces the hardware and software design of the Macintosh family of computers and serves as a starting point to the Macintosh technical documentation. The discussion is primarily oriented toward the Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE, and Macintosh II computers, but it also touches on earlier versions of the Macintosh where these differ from the Macintosh Plus. The information in this book can provide a starting point for programmers, particularly those who are new to the Macintosh. This book can also serve as a stand-alone handbook for technically minded users and system administrators.
Note that this book will not tell you how to write a Macintosh application. That task is undertaken by a second short volume, Programmer's Introduction to the Macintosh Family. 

In describing the architecture of the Macintosh system, this book follows an "outside-in" plan, beginning with the parts of the system seen by the user and proceeding to the lower-level details of the Operating System and the hardware:
o Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the basic pieces of the system hardware and software.
o Chapter 3 describes the graphical, window-based interface that the Macintosh presents to the user, beginning with a discussion of how mouse and keyboard actions are interpreted.

o Chapter 4 expands upon the discussion of this interface by describing resources, specially formatted chunks of data that are used to store user interface elements such as menus, windows, and icons.
o Chapters 5 through 8 describe other elements of the Macintosh software-graphics, the Macintosh Finder and system software, the Macintosh's use of memory, and files.

o Chapter 9 finishes the discussion of the Macintosh software by describing the low-level stuff of the Macintosh Operating System: the managers and device drivers that talk directly to the computer's hardware.
o Chapter 10 describes the hardware itself, contrasting the Macintosh Plus, the Macintosh SE, and the Macintosh IL
o Chapter 11 concludes the book by outlining the A!UX® operating system, Apple's implementation of the AT&T UNIX® Operating System for the Macintosh IL
This book surveys only the surface of the Macintosh hardware and software. If this book were presented interactively, as a piece of Macintosh software, it would represent no more than the Macintosh desktop, where each item could be doubleclicked to reveal many deeper levels of information. You can find these deeper levels of information in the other volumes of the Inside Macintosh Library. 

 

ISBN : 0-201-17765-X

Publisher : Addison-Wesley

Author : Apple

Format : Paperback, 303 pages

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH55047. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.
 
Apple Technical Introduction to the Macintosh Family Click on the Images For Detail

Help support the museum by buying from the museum shop

View all items

Founding Sponsors
redgate Google ARM Real VNC Microsoft Research
Heritage Lottery Funded
Heritage Lottery Fund
Accredited Museum