Everything you wanted to know about Macintosh but were afraid to ask. Hugh John reports.

And lo, a star did appear in the West, and the two wise men followed it to the valley called Silicon to the place named Cupertino. And here they found the baby Mac, swaddled in moulded polystyrene. Boxed and with a guarantee.

Verily, it came to pass that Mac was adored, yeah idolised, and many there were who spoke of its wondrous qualities.

Saying, what need we of this Emm es Dos. And prophets arose in the wilderness testifying to the power and the glory of Mac. “The Dead Mac Scrolls”, “Voodoo Mac”, “The Mac is Magic”, but none so great as. . . .

The Macintosh Bible is one of the main planks of Apple Macintosh orthodoxy. First published in 1987, the book has grown to be the definitive reference source for many Apple users including, it seems, the company’s own customer support staff. If you can’t find the relevant information about your computer somewhere in these 1,160 pages, check the front of the machine and make sure it really is badged with the distinctive Apple logo.

Accompanying this weighty tome is an equally impressive software package containing fonts, utilities, clip art, games and working models of many of the programs reviewed in the book.

Furthermore, all purchasers who register with the publisher will receive a free 30-page update in the summer of 1995 which, given the speed of product development in the computer world, is a considerable bonus. Even at Pounds 29.99 this book represents real value for money and is likely to be the only ancillary source book that most Mac users will ever need.

Now in its fifth edition, the book has retained the same structure as previous imprints. It is divided into three sections dealing with hardware, software and peripherals.

Since the last edition of the Macintosh Bible, barely a year ago, Apple has launched the Power Mac range, introduced new system software and made a firm commitment to the Risc chip (reduced instruction set computer), which is going to be at the forefront of future Macintosh technology. Computer departments in schools and colleges will be especially interested in the first two sections of the book, as tough choices are going to have to be made in educational institutions over the next few years whether to upgrade or move to the Power Mac platform and this book is invaluable in setting out the options.

The third section covers printing, telecommunications and networking, including the ubiquitous Internet. The Net, a loose assemblage of international networks that originally connected research labs, colleges and government agencies in the United States, is now reckoned to be used by some 30 million subscribers worldwide. How to get on the Net, what services it offers and what it costs are all explained.

The sheer scale of this book is most impressive but size, however, isn’t everything; just ask Goliath. Arthur Naiman who edited the first four editions of the Mac Bible has now left to be replaced by an editorial octet who have in turn delegated much of the writing to “a small army of Mac experts”. This doesn’t always work. One of the new features of this edition is the editors’ polls where, at the end of some chapters, the gang of eight add their own concise comments and opinions. More often than not, the experts are divided when perhaps the reader would welcome a single cohesive overview.

Despite Apple’s lower prices of late, information technology departments, already under financial strain, are going to find it increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace of today’s technology. Take a bow, Larry Pina. His repair and upgrade manual for the compact range of Macs starts from the assumption that computers don’t have to be thrown out with the rubbish, once their warrantees have expired. This isn’t what the industry wants you to believe; even the Macintosh Bible describes the Classic as only “marginally usable with today’s software”. In fact both the Classic and the SE are perfectly adequate for most text-based programs, and with many college departments now insisting that essays and theses are submitted in print, these machines are often students’ first introduction to Macs.

The author maintains that with a little care and attention, a rudimentary knowledge of electronics, some soldering skills and basic digital dexterity, it is not only possible to keep your “obsolete” machine on the road but to improve it. There are clear and well laid out procedures for memory upgrades, installation of hard drives, screen adjustments and circuit board repairs. This book would be a valuable addition to any computer technician’s library.

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