© 1994 Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 16, no. 9, September 1994, pp. 14-16.
Let’s face it: the Internet is a fad. So much a fad that some have taken to calling it “the Net,” probably entirely unaware that this slang term comes from science fiction, rather than the Internet itself. It probably doesn’t make any difference in the long run for, unlike most fads, the Internet isn’t going to go away. Eventually, like television, it will be credited with virtually everything, and also blamed for virtually everything. A cynic’s view of”virtual reality,” you might say.
Ironically, this electronic fad has spawned a bumper crop of paper books. Four will be considered here, one a two-year old book already termed a “classic,” one an excellent book with an indefensibly offensive title, one that badly needs an editor, and the least popular one (based on sales) may well turn out the best for your needs.
The two year old classic is Ed Krol’s excellent The Whole Internet, a refreshingly readable book by the first publisher to have its own Internet file server (ftp.ora.com). Krol has by far the best explanation of how the Internet works, and does an admirable job of making even the most arcane concepts understandable.
Virtually nothing in the book is Mac-specific; for the most part, Krol assumes you are navigating the Internet the “old fashioned way,” typing commands at a command-line prompt. This isn’t much of a limitation, however; very little of the Internet has been paved with menu driven access lanes. Generally speaking, most of the paths are dirt-lined tracks hidden in the foliage, and for these paths, Krol’s book is superb.
A large portion of the book is devoted to “The Whole Internet Catalog,” an annotated listing of resources and services available on the Internet. There are also appendices on Internet service providers, an invaluable listing of country codes (nice if you can’t figure out whether “mirage.nit.fl” is in Fiji or Finland), and a decent glossary.
Another good book, with a horrible title, is The Internet for Dummies. IDG Books should be roundly condemned for this entire series; does the world really need dummies on the Internet, or running MS-DOS computers, or involved in any of the topics covered by the Dummies series? Is it really necessary to perpetuate the myth that most people are too stupid to use computers? Should you spend a dime on such a condescending publisher, one that brags on the cover about “over 5,008,474 dummies books in print?”
If you can overcome these objections, the book is quite good. As narrative, it is no match for Krol, but few computer books are. It also lacks Krol’s overview of how the Internet works. But in terms of the nitty-gritty of how to do useful things, it has a nice cook-book approach.
There are chapters on “Starting Off, If You’re A DOS User” and another for UNIX users, but Macs are lumped in with “everyone else.” Yet most of the information is easily transportable, and there is a short section on Mac software for use on the Internet. Like Krol, there is a list of lnternet service providers and country codes.
The best feature, however, may well be the cartoons by Rich Tennant. His ”The 5th Wave” one-panel cartoons (regularly seen in Federal Computer Week) are brilliant; no other word will do.
Internet Starter Kit, by Adam C. Engst, is probably the best-known Macintosh-specific book on the Internet. Engst, co-author of the “TidBITS” electronic weekly newsletter, has great “namer ecognition” in the on-line community, and his self-promotion in his newsletter hasn’t hurt sales, either. For those who buy books by the pound, it is easily twice the heft of any other two books covered.
Which is one indication of why it is the weakest book of the lot. Engst needs an editor. People buy computer books to get authoritative information. Engst, however, repeatedly subjects them to passages like this:
As far as I can determine from testing and from what I’ve been told by more knowledgeable folks … Although I can’t prove this assumption, I believe … I hope the same proves true for you as well…
Not exactly inspiring confidence.
Engst can get away with guessing and passing on rumor and innuendo in a weekly newsletter such as TidBITS, but readers tend to expect something more substantive from a book. This difficult process is known as “research,” and precious little of that appears in Internet Starter Kit.
Trivia, however, runneth over. Not quite half the book is devoted to lists of “Internet resources,” ranging from dial-up access providers (Engst had no experience with a direct connection to the Internet when he wrote the book), glossaries and such to a list of archives and other network resources arranged according to subject. These subject matter entries are actually quite good, suffering only from the fact that the listing was outdated the minute it appeared in print.
One selling point for Internet Starter Kit, and the next book under review, The Mac Internet Tour Guide, is a disk packed with essential Internet tools, or at least as many tools as you can cram on a disk. The crown jewel is Apple Computer’s MacTCP 2.0, the TCP/ IP driver that forms the foundation of virtually all Macintosh Internet-capable tools. Also included is a SLIP driver (for dial-up connection to the Internet), E-mail and Usenet news tools, utilities for transferring files-a great collection. All the tools (except for MacTCP, either freeware or shareware) have at least brief descriptions in the book, and, to use the salesman’s favorite phrase, “are worth the price of the book alone.” Capping it all is a two week trial subscription to a dial-up Internet service.
Michael Fraase includes a virtually identical collection of tools on disk, including MacTCP 2.0, in his The Mac Internet Tour Guide. The big difference, however, is editing and research. Fraase (and Ventana) obviously spent time crafting the book; everything from the prose to the layout shows much greater attention to detail. Fraase also doesn’t engage in speculation; if he didn’t know, he obviously found out before committing himself to paper.
Fraase includes the usual list of places to go spelunking on the Internet, plus glossaries and such. But most of the volume is divided topically into clearly defined subjects: background information on the Internet and how to get connected, and specific things to do such as electronic mail, newsgroups, file transfers, Gopher and Telnet.
If there is a weakness, it is the index (which is brief), and the publisher’s irritating practice of putting promotional material at the back of the book (which makes getting to the index more difficult). The latter practice, however, is not limited to Ventana; Hayden clutters the back of Engst books with similar junk, IDG litters the back of the Dummies book with similar stupidities, and even the otherwise excellent Krol volume is marred with misplaced advertising at the end.
Readers of the world, unite! Demand that publishers move their advertising elsewhere (preferably out of the book entirely), and return indices to their rightful place at the back, where they can be found easily! And while they’re at it, elevate the index to a place of honor, and devote some time to it, rather than treat it as an afterthought.
Recommendations? The Krol book is a masterpiece [and a new edition looks even better], and is highly recommended for someone who needs to use the Internet professionally. Both the Engst and Fraase books include a comprehensive collection of essential software to get you started on the Internet; my preference is for Fraase’s work, but both publishers are feverishly working on new editions, so maybe Engst will find an editor.
The Dummy book? In all honesty, it is well done. In all honesty, there are undoubtedly millions of dummies already on the Internet. But l’d rather they weren’t, and I’d rather not spend money on a book that might encourage them.
Adam C. Engst, Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh. Hayden, 1993. xxiii, 641 pp. $29.95. ISBN 1- 56830-064-6.
Michael Fraase, The Mac Internet Tour Guide: Cruising the Internet the Easy Way. Ventana Press, 1993. xxii, 288 p. $27 .95. ISBN 1-56604-062-0.
Ed Krol, The Whole Internet: User’s Guide and Catalog. O’Reilly & Associates, 1992. xxiv, 376 pp. $24.95. ISBN 1-56592-025-2. Internet address: ftp.ora.com (for a current catalog) or (for orders) order@ora.com
Note: since beginning the review, a second edition of Krol’s book has been released. While I haven’t purchased a copy, a quick skim shows some significant changes, ranging from better coverage of the World Wide Web and particularly Mosaic, to more coverage of the Macintosh, to more esoteric topics. The particulars:
Ed Krol, The Whole Internet User’s Guide and Catalog, 2nd Ed. O’Reilly & Associates, 1994. 57 4 pp. $24.95. ISBN: 1-56592-063- 5.
John R. Levine & Carol Baroudi, The Internet For Dummies. IDG Books, 1993. xxiv, 355 pp. $19.95. ISBN 1-56884-024-1.