Download Searchable PDFFast, elegant, and powerful, the Be operating system, like Linux, delivers workstation power on inexpensive desktop hardware. The BeOS Bible is the definitive guide to this new OS and the first book on Be written with non-programmers in mind. Whether you're new to the BeOS or have been using this exciting operating system since the beginning, you'll want this comprehensive reference at your side. Written especially for power users and creative professionals working with hi-res video, graphics, and audio files, The BeOS Bible covers it all, from starting up to running servers. The expert authors, all intimately involved with Be, guide you through the details with instructive explanations and graphics. In its pages, you'll find: In-depth, detailed coverage of every feature of the BeOS--from secrets of the terminal to application shortcuts to advanced graphics, sound, and database applicationsInterviews with Be engineers and founders, including Jean-Louis Gassée, president and CEO of Be, Inc., that provide fascinating insight into this innovative OSHundreds of tips and techniques for getting the most out of the BeOS and its applications The BeOS Bible covers through release 4 (R4) on both the Intel and PowerPC platforms, and includes free online updates on the companion Web site: http://birdhouse.org/beos/bible/welcome.htmlISBN: 0201353776 (ISBN13: 9780201353778)Table of ContentsChapter 1: The MediaOS - 1The Fed-Up, the Disenfranchised, and the Futurists - 3The Fed-Up - 3The Disenfranchised - 4The Futurists - 5Unchain My Hardware - 5BeOS as a General-Purpose System - 6The Buzzword-Enabled Operating System - 8The Rise of the Multi-Boot Environment - 8Preemptive Multitasking - 9Pervasive Multithreading - 1064-Bit, Multithreaded, Fully Journaled Filesystem - 11How Big Was That File Again? - 13Client/Server Architecture - 15Data Interchange and Scripting - 17Database-Like Filesystem - 19Direct Graphics Access - 19Dynamically Loadable Device Drivers - 20Object Orientation - 21POSIX Compliance - 22How OOP Works - 22BeOS Ain't Unix - 23Processor Agnosticism and Portability - 24PowerPC versus Intel - 25Protected Memory - 26Symmetric Multiprocessing - 27Sense, Sensibility, and Multiple Processors - 27Why the Upper Limit? - 28The History of Be, Inc. - 29The Last Supper: Gassée Exits Apple - 29The Early Days: Be Builds a Team - 30The Birth of BeOS - 31Offsite on the Cheap: The Hike to the Sea - 32Five Chips Are Better than One: The First BeBox - 33The Demise of the Hobbit: Be's Shift to PowerPC - 33Starting Over - 34Public Exposure: Agenda 95 - 35Crossing the Frontier: Be Ports Its OS to the Mac - 36Dancing with the Devil: Negotiations with Apple - 38Flying Solo: Be Returns to Plan A - 39Interview: Jean-Louis Gassée - 40Chapter 2: Meet the System - 53User Interface Conventions - 54Notes on Keyboard and Mouse Usage - 55A Tour of BeOS - 60Desktop - 60The Easter Eggs - 72User Interface Basics - 78Workspaces - 85The Bundled Apps - 89BeIDE - 90BeMail - 90CD Player - 90Clock - 93DiskProbe - 94Expander - 98Build Your Own Icon Library - 103Installer - 104Magnify - 104MIDI - 106MIDI Crash Course - 107MiniPlayer - 108NetPositive - 108People - 109PlaySound - 111PoorMan - 111Pulse - 112Blinky Lights in Memoriam - 113ROMUpdater-BeBox Owners Only - 114SCSIProbe - 114SerialConnect - 115ShowImage - 116SimpleMIDI - 118SoftwareValet - 118StyledEdit - 119A Crash Course in Attributes - 122The Terminal - 123The Demo Apps - 1243dmov - 124BeBounce - 126BeLogo - 127Calah - 127Container - 128Dominos - 129Flight - 129Font Demo - 130GL Teapot - 132Kaleidoscope - 133Life - 134Mandelbrot - 135What Is Life? - 135Minesweeper - 136Optional Media - 137Experimental - 138GNU - 138Define "Supported" - 138goodies - 139images - 139MIDI - 140movies - 140sample code - 140sound - 141xmaps - 141Interview: Peter Potrebic - 142Chapter 3: Installation?147Pre-Installation Considerations - 148Where to Get BeOS - 148Compatibility - 149Hardware Requirements - 151International Versions - 153Basic Installation - 154Basic Installation - 154Installing BeOS Upgrades - 161Other Configurations - 162Working with Partitions - 164Partition History - 164Discovering Your Partition Types - 165Other Multi-Boot Options - 166OS-Provided Boot Managers - 166Third-Party Boot Managers - 168Boot Glitches - 168Install Operating Systems in Optimal Order - 169Installing BeOS on PowerPC Hardware - 170Where to Get BeOS - 170Mac Hardware Requirements - 170Basic Installation on PowerPC Hardware - 172Partitioning Your Mac Drive - 172Easy Installation - 174Booting the BeOS - 176Interview: Bob Herold - 178Chapter 4: Get Online Fast - 185The BeOS Advantage - 186The Three-Minute Web Connection - 188Configuring Internet Services - 190Dial-Up Networking - 190DNS Explained - 192Adding Modems Manually - 194About CHAP and PAP - 198About Framing - 198Network Interface Cards - 199Supported Network Cards - 200Network Setup on a Mac - 201Restart Networking - 201Email - 202Configuring Email Preferences - 202The SMTP Dilemma - 203Bundled Internet Apps - 205NetPositive - 205NetPositive's Secret Past - 206Error Message Haiku - 208Displaying Non-English Web Sites - 211Accessing Super-Secret Settings - 212Working with Bookmarks - 214On Strong Encryption - 214BeMail - 219What about Navigator? - 219BeMail and Filters - 226Using FTP - 228Real Men Use the Terminal - 228Using Telnet - 231Using ping - 233Interpreting Round-Trip Times - 234Stay Awake - 235Chapter 5: Files and the Tracker - 237A Closer Look at the Tracker - 238Working with Files and Folders - 239Context Menus - 249The "Open With" Relationship - 250Desktop and Trash: More than Meets the Eye - 252Add-Ons - 253Attributes - 255What's in a File's Attributes? - 255Attributes and the Tracker - 256Creating Custom Attributes - 257Searching on Custom Attributes - 259Viewing Extra Attributes - 260The Filetyping Problem - 262Guilt by Association - 263The Filetyping Solution: MIME - 265The Format of a MIME Type - 267Meet the Registrar - 268Assigning MIME Types: The Rules of Engagement - 269Changing FileTypes-Think Globally ... - 271The Rules of Inheritance - 271Meet the FileTypes Database - 272Changing the Preferred Application - 273Changing Icons - 273Adding New Filetypes - 275Removing FileTypes - 276Attributes - 277Extensions - 277Invasion of the Meta-MIME - 277Act Locally - 278The FileType Panel for Individual Files - 278FileType Settings for Applications - 279Change Batches of Files - 280Dealing with Archives - 282Decompressing Archives - 282Compression Basics - 283Unzipping from the Terminal - 284Compressing Files with zip - 286Growing a zip Archive - 289tar and gzip - 290Stick with Zip - 291SoftwareValet Package Files - 292Zipping Files on the Mac - 292BFS: The Be Filesystem - 293Journaling - 294Multithreading - 296Attributes - 296Node Monitors - 297Disk Utilities for BeOS - 298Sixty-Four Bit Storage System - 299Speed - 299Working with Other Filesystems - 300Mounting Alien Filesystems - 301Custom Mount Control - 302Unmounting Partitions - 302Natively Supported Filesystems - 303Optional Filesystem Support - 304CD-ROM Formats - 304The Directory Structure - 305User-Level and System-Level Directories - 305What Lives Where on Your Boot Drive - 306Keeping the System Safe and Sane - 306User-Level Directories - 307Hidden Directories - 313Digging into /dev/disk - 316System-Level Directories - 319Add-Ons versus Drivers - 327Interview: Pavel Cisler - 330Chapter 6: The Terminal - 335Critical bash for BeOS - 336The Purpose of This Chapter - 338About Open-Source Tools - 338Using the Terminal Application - 339The Terminal Application Window - 339Basic bash - 341Navigation and File Management - 341Change Your Prompt - 342Quoting and Escaping - 343Standard In, Standard Out - 351Basic Shell Syntax - 355Terminal/Tracker Integration - 355Redirection - 358History Lesson - 360Tab Completion - 360Finding Stuff - 362Tracker Grep - 365Setting Permissions - 366The Rule of Sevens - 368Text Processing - 369Crunching Numbers - 371GeekGadgets - 372Quick Access to Long Commands - 376Using Shell Commands from the GUI - 380Communing with the Shell - 381Who the Hell Is Baron, and Why Does He Own My Files? - 382Tweaking Your Path - 383UserSetupEnvironment versus .profile - 384Assign the Results of a Command to a Variable - 385Miscellany - 386Why Is So Much Memory Being Used? - 389Fun with Alert Boxes - 392Learning More - 393Interview: Cyril Meurillon - 395Chapter 7: Working with Queries - 401Data Mining Your Hard Drive - 402Database 101 - 402The Open-Minded Data Format - 403Attributes and MIME Types - 405Digging for Gold - 405Constructing Queries - 407All Files and Folders versus Individual Filetypes - 409Unlisted Filetypes - 410Use Plain English - 413Using Saved Queries - 414Querying Custom Attributes - 414Do "Real" File Locations Matter Anymore? - 415Case Study: Queries and BeMail - 416Is the Be Filesystem a "True" Database? - 416Quick Glimpses - 417Scripting BeMail Queries - 419Sample Queries - 420Query by Formula - 422Starter Formulas - 423Why the Double Equal Signs? - 424Running Queries from the Terminal - 428Interview: George Hoffman - 430Chapter 8: Networking - 435Networking Concepts-Beyond PPP - 436Networking from 20,000 Feet - 436How TCP/IP Works - 438BeOS's Home-Brewed TCP/IP Stack - 438LANs versus WANs - 441Kernel Space versus User Space - 443Building a Network - 444Making the Connection - 444Test Your Connection - 450Moving Files via FTP - 451GUI versus CLI - 451Setting Up the Server - 452Logging In - 453Command-Line FTP - 454Other File-Sharing and Transfer Methods - 455Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) - 455NFS - 457AppleTalk - 457The Five-Minute Web Server - 458Who Needs a Personal Server? - 458What Do You Mean, "Web Server"? - 459Hosting an Actual Domain - 461Publishing with PoorMan - 462Case-Sensitivity Issues - 463Got Bandwidth? - 470Remote Control - 471Telnet to Your BeOS Machine - 471Telnetting from Other Operating Systems - 472Accessing Other Operating Systems Remotely - 474Advanced Connectivity - 476Multiple Network Configurations - 476Using DHCP - 478Editing Network Preferences Manually - 478Proxies, IP Forwarding, and Masquerades - 479DNS versus the hosts File - 481Serial/Terminal Communications - 486What Is SerialConnect? - 486Customizing Connections with Dial-o-Rama - 487Security - 488Is BeOS Secure? - 488Interview: Russ McMahon - 491Chapter 9: Preferences and Customization - 497Preferences - 498Preferences-or Links to Preferences? - 499Audio - 499Backgrounds - 502ScreenSaver - 504Boot - 506Data Translations - 507Devices - 509Dial-Up Networking - 513DriveSetup - 513MacOS Trying to Mount BeOS Partitions - 516Disk Mount Settings - 517E-mail - 524FileTypes - 525Fonts - 526Fontology - 528Bitstream and Be - 530Japanese - 531Baka Baka Quiz Show - 533Using the Japanese Input Method: A Brief Tutorial - 534About Japanese Writing Systems - 536Joysticks - 536Keyboard - 538Keymap - 538Menu - 543About the Dvorak Keymap - 543Mouse - 545Network - 547Printers - 547Screen - 549Who's That in the Print Setup Dialog? - 549Why Some Settings Are Grayed Out - 553ScrollBar - 554Sounds - 554Time - 555Is BeOS Year 2000-Compliant? - 556Atomic Time - 556Video - 557Virtual Memory - 559Workspaces - 560Customization - 560Scripts - 560The Launch Alternative - 563About the Shutdown Scripts - 565Miscellaneous Settings Files - 568Customizing Icons - 571Why Some FileType Dialogs Have Blank Icon Wells - 572Creating BeOS Icons in Photoshop and Other Imaging Applications - 572Restoring System Filetypes and Icons - 573Interview: Hiroshi Lockheimer - 574Chapter 10: System Tools and Utilities - 577Installers - 578SoftwareValet - 578Fixing Corrupt Package Files - 580OmicronSoft's EasyInstall/EasyDeinstall - 585What about Orphans? - 586Tracker Add-Ons - 587System-Provided Add-Ons - 588Third-Party Add-Ons - 589Backup Tools - 591Bald Mountain's BeB - 591OmicronSoft Restorer - 594Benchmarking - 596OmicronSoft's BeRometer - 596Launchers - 598DeposIt - 598Hit&Run - 600System Monitors - 601SysR - 601freeSpace - 603What's Your Uptime? - 603Interview: Dominic Giampaolo - 605Chapter 11: Network Applications - 613Email Clients - 614Adamation's Adam - 614BeatWare Mail-It - 619Getting Started with Mail-It - 619OmicronSoft Mail Clique - 625Postmaster - 627FTP Clients - 632BeatWare's Get-It - 632NetPenguin - 636Passive Connections - 636Usenet News Clients - 638BeInformed - 638Usenet in a Nutshell - 639Usenet Access from the Terminal - 642IRC Clients - 643IRC 101 - 643Felix - 644Web Servers - 647What about Web Browsers? - 647Apache - 648Troubleshooting Apache - 650diner - 651Zorro - 653FTP Servers - 654campus - 654Miscellaneous Tools and Utilities - 656ANewsWire - 656Email Servers - 656Stamina and Charisma - 657BeCQ - 658Chapter 12: Productivity Applications - 659AbiSoft's BePlan - 661Using BePlan - 661Features - 662BeatWare's Be Basics - 663The Two Applications You Need Every Day - 663Getting Started with Writer - 664Getting Started with Sum-It - 665Getting the Most out of Be Basics - 666Gobe Productive - 668Integrated Productivity - 668Working with "Environments" - 668Digging into the Interface - 670Spreadsheets - 674Graphics - 674Image Processing - 676Presentations - 677Maarten Hekkelman's Pe - 678The Programmer's Editor - 678Using Pe - 678Word Processors versus Text Editors - 678Preferences - 682File Options - 686Building Web Sites with Pe - 687About Document Encoding - 687Brian Tietz's Scheduler - 689Creating Events - 689What About Cron? - 691Working Software's Spellswell and QLAB - 692Spellswell - 693QuickLetter Address Book (QLAB) - 694Chapter 13: Graphics Applications - 697Image Manipulation and Paint Programs - 698ArtPaint - 698What about Photoshop? - 699About the Alpha Channel - 701Sum Software's Becasso - 706Orthogonal? - 707Boo - 710BeatWare's e-Picture - 712Other Image Editors - 716About BeatWare's FreeStyle UI - 716Modeling and Raytracing - 717MAXON's CINEMA 4D XL V5.25 - 717Persistence of Vision (POV-Ray) - 720Graphics Utilities - 725Adamation's ImageElements - 725NetPBM - 730roDesign's roColour - 732Thumbnail - 734Interview: Pierre Raynaud-Richard - 737Chapter 14: Media Applications - 743Audio Applications - 744Adamation's AudioElements - 744BamBam - 747FinalScratch - 751MusicWeaver - 751Objekt's ObjektSynth - 755SoundPlay - 757Q - 762Nanodot - 763Rack Om 1.0 - 764The Media Art of Douglas Irving Repetto - 766Coming Soon - 768Video Applications - 769Adamation's personalStudio and studioA - 769Tebo Software's Grabbo - 773Coming Soon - 776Video Capture and Other Goodies - 776Interview: Jon Watte - 778Chapter 15: Other Goodies - 781The Kitchen Sink - 782Analog - 782Behaviour - 786BeStripper and Other Text Converters - 787Other Text-Format Converters - 788Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF Viewer) - 789liblayout and PrefServer - 791Perl - 792Python - 793Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) - 795RC5DES - 796In Search of Heavenly Bodies - 797X-Windows Server - 798Interview: Tim Martin - 800Chapter 16: Troubleshooting and Maintenance - 807General Troubleshooting - 808Narrow It Down - 808Looking for Help - 811Where to Go for Help - 815Boot Problems - 817The Chicken and Egg Video Dilemma - 817Unsupported and Misconfigured Hardware - 818The IRQ Dilemma - 819Unsupported Hardware - 821Inablity to Find the Boot Partition - 822Building a Boot Floppy - 822Trapping Debug Information - 825The Application Debugger - 825Hardware Debug Output - 826Application Problems - 827Walk of the Undead (Applications That Refuse to Die) - 827Recover Application Settings - 829Video Problems - 830Screen Size Problems - 831BeOS Appears in Grayscale - 832Sound Problems - 833No Sound at All - 833No Sound from Specific Applications - 834Sound Is Too Quiet - 834Network Problems - 835Keeping Up with Changing Hardware - 835PPP Problems - 836Network Interface Card Problems - 838Email Problems - 839Web Problems - 840Telnet Problems - 840Disk Problems - 841Backups and BeOS - 841Mouse Problems - 844x86 Mouse Problems - 844Macintosh Mouse Problems - 844Disaster Recovery - 845Bypassing the Bootloader - 846Bypassing the Bootloader and the Hard Disk - 847Emergency-Booting BeOS on the Mac - 848Recovering Your Data - 849Tracker, Deskbar, and Replicant Problems - 852Killing and Restarting the Tracker - 852Deskbar Problems - 853When Replicants Go Bad - 853Error Messages - 855Crashing Messages - 855Non-Crashing Messages - 855Appendices - 861Appendix A: Keyboard Equivalencies and Shortcuts - 862Standard Application Shortcuts - 862Keyboard Shortcuts in the Tracker - 863Navigation - 865Appendix B: Date/Time Formats Recognized by the Query Engine - 867Appendix C: Programming BeOS - 869Compiling Source Code - 869Getting Started with BeOS Programming - 872Developers' Programs - 873Further Reference - 873Appendix D: More Information on BeOS - 874Books - 874Mailing List - 874Usenet - 874Web Sites - 875Primitive Volcanic Gods Choose BeOS over Windows - 876Glossary - 879Index - 889