Product Description
Focus On SDL is your key to writing programs faster andwith greater ease. Execute the same applications as with DirectX, butwith more versatility. SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) allows you topack up your code and go! If you have a basic knowledge of C++, you’reready to roll. Dive into advanced topics such as alpha blending andoverlays, or intensify your game audio with the SDL_mixer add-onlibrary. This book teaches you how to write the code and thendistribute it to various platforms. From setting up your system toincorporating networking and user interface components, Focus On SDLgives you the tools you need in one comprehensive guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Great...but nothing you can't easily find online!
In conversation and on GDNet I have been condescending of this book and for that I must apologize - It is a great book for learning the Simple Direct-Media Library.

I would definitely recommend this book if it makes you feel better to own a hard copy guide to SDL. However, I learned more through trial-and-error using only the online documentation.

Good intro. to SDL if you already have C++ knowledge and a copy of VC++
It's a pretty good introduction to SDL I think. A bit misleading though being part of the 'Game Development Series' but it doesn't teach how to make a game at all. By the end of the book you'll be able to put a bmp on the screen and play a sound file.

Also, the back cover says "This book teaches you how to write code and then distribute it to various platforms." Which is kind of a lie!

It never explained how to distribute or even set up Mac OS X or Linux or anything besides setting it up in VC++. I mainly got this book because I want to create a game for Linux and Mac OS X and MS Windows. I had to search online and do a lot of trial and error to eventually get all the samples to compile on Linux and OS X. It never even mentions how to set up SDL on anything other than VC++.

I think this might've been frustrating if you didn't know how to use VC++ and C++ pretty well and wanted to do truly cross-platform SDL code.
After this book I read a couple online tutorials on SDL and am also now reading Programming Linux Games (which has to do with SDL too) and the official SDL documentation and after all that I think I'll have a decent grasp on SDL.

For somebody with pretty good C++ knowledge and at least some VC++ IDE knowledge though it isn't a bad intro to SDL especially for its size. It's a very small book I read it in two days and then spent a day making sense of it all in Linux and Mac OS X besides just VC++ but I don't regret reading it.

Great but a little short
I agree with most of the other reviews about this book.It does a good job of covering the basics of SDL, without tons of fluff.While I wish it had been a little bit longer, it included exactly what it said:an overview of SDL.The first two sections of the book, covering the core SDL library and some of the extra related libraries, were just the right amount of detail and explanation for someone who likes to peruse the material in book form. The author does a good job of talking to people who know how to write software, but who haven't had much experience with SDL.

The last third of the book was also basically filler, with a brief and relatively useless explanation of the author's preferred infrastructure for writing SDL games and apps.

Overall, I highly recommend this book, particularly if you can purchase it at it's relatively low cost used price.The quality was much higher than many of the other Premier Press/Prima Tech books.

An overview of SDL...
I am a sophmore in college studying computer engineering, and I bought this book in the hopes that it would help me with a programming project for school. The main thing that this book has going for it is the fact that it is actually writing about SDL... not many other books go into this subject and it is refreshing to see a book that doesn't limit itself to the Windows/DirectX world.

The book is written in easy to understand language and is very helpful in showing what SDL is capable of. It proceeds to show readers how to set up most of SDL's different subsystems.

The main problem with this book is that it does not go into detail about any of the topics it covers. If you're curious about how to use SDL's video/graphics capablity, for instance, you will learn how to initialize the system and draw some circles on the screen. The book has smaller pages than most, and the 54 pages long chapter on the video subsystem doesn't take long to get through. It leaves you wanting to know more.

In short, this book will skim over different topics in SDL and teach you enough to get started. You will need to look elsewhere for details. I recommend purchasing this book to get you on the right track, but just know that you will need to search the internet for tutorials and example applications before you can seriously write games. This book is only a beginning.

Since you are looking at a book on SDL, I assume you are trying either to learn how to program games/graphical applications for Linux, or are trying to make it so that the code you write can have multi-platform support. If this is the case, I would recommend looking at "Linux Game Programming" by Mark Collins (in the same series as this book) and "Programming Linux Games" by Loki Software/John Hall as well. Of these three books, I like "Programming Linux Games" best since it goes into greater detail and walks you through the creation of a basic, but complete game for Linux. Even though it has Linux in the title, most of the APIs it touches on (SDL, OpenGL, OpenAL, etc.) are cross-platform, so what you learn is not limited to Linux alone. For the project I was working on, I found myself jumping amoung the aforementioned books and online tutorials such as those at NeHe.

Very good for entry level game developers.
Most books on game development today simply rehash material that is already available in countless other books.The Focus On series is a refreshing change.Though considerably thinner than the fullsize counterparts, the Focus On books dive right into the material you want to learn.This was certainly true in the case of Focus On SDL.

The book gets you going immediately, setting up your compiler and getting a window on the screen.From there, you build on what has already been covered to show off various features of SDL.

My biggest complaint about this book, much like one of the other reviewers, was that the book did not give much information about setting SDL up with OpenGL.The information available on the internet is very good and will allow you to fill in any missing pieces of the book, but if you're like me and would like a physical book to thumb through rather than a web reference, this book is perfect. ... Read more

Product Description
The 1990's promise to be an exciting new era during which the technologies of telecommunications and computing systems become integrated, offering customers services combining the features of both. The specification and description language of CCITT, (SDL), can be expected to fulfil an important role in this era of converging technologies; from the possibility of conceptual modelling to the detailed design of parts of systems. SDL enables symbolic verification, executable code generation and test suite generation. Developments in SDL have been to include "objects" in the language and formalisation of message sequence charts. Ongoing work on producing excutable code from SDL, executing SDL directly and the related areas of simulation, verification and testing are covered along with the application of SDL to real systems. ... Read more

Product Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International SDL Forum, SDL 2005, held in Grimstad, Norway.

The 16 revised full and 8 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on language issues, engineering issues, message sequence charts, applications and tools, model driven architecture, test and validation, and code generation. Thus all aspects of system design using system design languages are addressed.

Product Description
This volume, the proceedings of the Fourth SDL Forum, contains nearly 40 contributions illustrating the latest experiences in applying SDL, the Specification and Description Language recommended by CCITT. SDL is a formal language based on communicating extended state machines and algebraically defined data. The contributions cover training, applications, methodology, language evolution and support tools, including tools for document handling, simulation, test and verification. The book contains descriptions of about 20 SDL tools demonstrated at the Forum, which form an up-to-date survey of those commercially available as well as the more research oriented tools. ... Read more

Product Description
As Cavalli and Sarma astutely remarked in the introduction to this volume, it is quite remarkable that SDL '97 may have the first participant younger than SDL itself. SDL '97 provides the opportunity to reflect the course SDL has taken and why it has been successful over two decades where other languages addressing the same market have failed.

SDL now also has a permanent companion in MSC (Message Sequence Charts). MSC today is a language in its own right and has its areas of application both in conjunction with SDL and independently or in combination with other techniques. MSC has strong structuring concepts to specify message sequences for large systems and can be used to develop scenarios, which is extremely useful for test and design environments. The SDL Forum today really is the SDL and MSC Forum. ... Read more

Product Description
SDL is the Specification and Description Language recommended by CCITT (Comite Consultatif International Telegraphique) for the unambiguous specification and description of the behaviour of telecommunication systems. Besides serving as a textbook on SDL, this volume is an introduction to the area of protocol specification. By explaining SDL in a specific area of application, it is hoped that the reader will understand the practical value of the language. SDL is described at three levels: a general overview; a more detailed description of the basic functions; and an investigation of the advanced functions. ... Read more

Product Description
This book represents the proceedings of the 9th SDL Forum which was held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, during the week of June 21-25, 1999. The 9th SDL Forum presents papers on the past and future development of the MSC and SDL languages.The volume presents information on experience with the use of these languages in industrial development projects, on tools and techniques for using these languages in the software and hardware development process, and other aspects of these languages.
... Read more

Product Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International SDL Forum, SDL 2007, held in Paris, France.

The 17 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on Model Driven Engineering, Testing, Language Extensions, Implementation and Modeling Experience and Extensions.

Thus all aspects of systems design and system design languages are addressed.

Product Description
"This uniquely practical guide to developing performance applicaitons doesn't just tell you how to analyse and predict performance, it demonstrates how to actually achieve performance in a product. It combines a development process view with a low level discussion on implementation details in a comprehensive and well-structured reference which every SDL developer should have on their shelf." Anders Ek, Chief Methodologist, Telelogic AB
Perfomrance problems make projects fail. Unfortunately, they are often detected late in the development cycle adding considerable cost to the project and increasing time-to-market. Systems Engineering with SDL is a practical guide to designing and implementing communication systems and distributed applications, which tackles performance issues at their origin. After introducing the reader to performance engineering concepts, the book focuses on SDL and MSC. SDL is the most widely used formal description technique in the communications arena and is increasingly used in conjunction with UML to support formal design and implementation. The book goes on to demonstrate how to deal with specific issues such as inappropriate performance requirements, unsuitable system architecture and insufficiently detailed design or implementation decisions.
Aimed at experienced communication system designers and architects, this book goes beyond the basics to provide a detailed understanding of how to create high-performance real-time applications.

– Illustrates how to bring perfomrance and efficiency issues right to the forefront of the design process and ensure they are carried through to implementation.
– Guides you through the development process with reference to both waterfall and non-waterfall models.
– Provides coding guidelines to ensure implementation is smooth and trouble-free.
– Shows how SDL can be used alongside complementary languages and notations.
– Addresses project management issues in the development process.
– Provides an update on SDL-2000 and the new features that will affect your design.

Andreas Mitschele-Thiel is a Research Engineer at Bell Labs, working in the Global Wireless Systems area. He is also the Associate Rapporteur at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) responsible for performance and time aspects of the SDL standard, so he is well positioned to write this up-to-date and comprehensive reference. ... Read more

Product Description
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International SDL Forum, SDL 2003, held in Stuttgart, Germany in July 2003. The 23 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on performance, evolution, development, modeling, timing, validation, design, and application. Thus all aspects of systems design and system design languages are addressed. ... Read more

Product Description
Message Sequence Charts (MSC) have had an unanticipated success, both with SDL, on its own and in conjunction with other methods and tools. Major tool vendors now offer both SDL and MSC in their tool set. This timely volume reports on the recent developments in this expanding field. Several papers deal with language issues, tools and methods for effective use of MSC. Advances in "SDL technology" are discussed, and several papers deal with the early stages of product development and how SDL may be complemented by other methods, such as OMT, to improve problem understanding and make better SDL designs. New developments in the areas of tools for verification, validation and testing are also included, together with a large number of papers on applications. ... Read more

Product Description

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the Third International Workshop on SDL and MSC, SAM 2002, held in Aberystwyth, UK in June 2002.

The 15 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and revision. A broad variety of current issues on SDL and on MSC and TTCN are addressed, in particular languages for collaborative specification, visual requirements description, constraints in SDL, SDL extensions, protocol design, UMS protocol implementation, use case map scenarios, message sequence charts, MSC connectors, MSC-2000 extensions, and TTCN-3 in relation to UML and MSC.

Product Description

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed postproceedings of the 4th International Workshop on SDL and MSC, SAM 2004, held in Ottawa, Canada in June 2004.

The 19 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and revision from initially 46 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on SDL and eODL, evolution of languages, requirements and MSC, security, SDL and modeling, and experience.

Product Description
Conference proceedings of the 10th Intl SDL Forum, SDL 2001, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, June 2001. Softcover. ... Read more

Product Description
CCITT (now ITU-T) Specification and Description Language (SDL) and systems engineering (formal and informal) in SDL are considered in this publication. The latest version of the language, SDL-92 [ITU Z.100 SDL-92] is introduced.

The book has been written for existing and potential users of SDL - technologists involved in the specification and engineering of systems. It offers easier learning, through examples and application, than the Z.100 Recommendation of March 1993, which gives precise technical definitions and concepts. The book has sufficient coverage of the language so that for normal use it should not be necessary to consult Z.100. For this reason, the grammars, both textual and graphical, are included, and the index makes it possible to find text on most of the language mechanisms.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of specification and design of telecommunication systems. It considers the usage and scope of SDL. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the language, with an introduction of the major language elements. Chapter 3 focuses on the specification of behaviour and the information interchange between processes. Chapter 4 covers the structuring of systems in terms of instances, how these may be defined by types and how types may be organised in type/subtype hierarchies by inheritance. Parameterised types and packages of type definitions are also covered. Chapter 5 presents the part of the language that provides data types, with emphasis placed on how to use predefined data types. Chapter 6 presents the use of SDL for system engineering, with a discussion of general systems engineering principles followed by an introduction to methodologies which use SDL. The use of other languages in combination with SDL, documentation issues, naming and other lexical rules, errors and language support are considered, since they are more relevant to the use of language in engineering than when initially learning the language. ... Read more

Product Description
Validation of Communications Systems with SDL provides a clear practical guide to validating, by simulation, a telecom system modelled in SDL. SDL, the Specification and Description Language standardised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), is used to specify and develop complex systems such as GSM, GPRS, UMTS, IEEE 802.11 or Hiperlan. Since the downturn in the telecom industry, validating a system before its implementation has become mandatory to reduce costs.

This volume guides you step by step through the validation of a simplified protocol layer, from interactive simulation to proof of properties using reachability analysis combined with observers. Every step is explained, using the two main SDL tools commercially available: ObjectGeode™ and Tau SDL™ Suite, both from Telelogic.

Contents:

• Short tutorial on SDL
• Presentation of the protocol layer case study
• Interactive simulation, MSC generation
• Scripting, automatic non-regression
• Auto matic validation against MSC, HMSC, etc.
• Random simulation
• Exhaustive and bit-state simulation
• Errors detected and not detected by simulation
• Other simulator features

This book offers you the opportunity to:

• Learn expert validation techniques and tips
• Master advanced simulation features of Telelogic ObjectGeode™ and Tau SDL Suite™
• Practice 156 hands-on exercises with solutions. The SDL models and scripts used in the exercises can be downloaded from the Web.

Product Description
Specification and Description Language (SDL) is a well-proven and standardised technology, which continues to evolve and be adapted to meet new challenges. The long term success factor for SDL is its popularity. It fulfils.the needs of both the individual end user, who is mainly interested in the available features of SDL and other involved companies, who are also interested in the general market and standards aspects of SDL. Other object-oriented specification tools exist but few span all phases of development from system specification to simulation or code generation as SDL does. Even fewer are maintained as intemational standards. The primary focus of this publication is to consider the obiect-ofi-ented extensions of SDL and how they will allow SDL to continue to compete with the development of other object-oriented techniques. ... Read more

Product Description
Designed to help readers master the complexity of distributed real-time systems, this volume concentrates on the methodology involved--showing the step-by-step development of a common system example--from requirements through functional design and implementation design, to implementation, testing, and reuse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A pain to read
This book is painfully dry ... Read more