Inside Macintosh: Networking /

Preface - About This Book

What to Read

If you are new to AppleTalk, you should begin with the chapter "Introduc-
tion to AppleTalk." This chapter describes some basic networking concepts that pertain to AppleTalk, and it summarizes each of the AppleTalk protocols and features, suggesting possible uses for them.

The chapter also includes a section that provides an overview of the two execution modes that you can use to execute routines that belong to the AppleTalk protocol programming interfaces. Even if you are already familiar with AppleTalk, you should read this section.

Each of the remaining chapters is devoted to a separate AppleTalk protocol or feature. Most of the chapters are self-contained; unless otherwise stated, there are no dependencies on preceding or following chapters. However, in some cases you may find it helpful to familiarize yourself with the information in other chapters that address related protocols. In most cases, your application will use more than one protocol.

The higher-level protocols are described first, followed by the lower-level protocols and the interfaces to the hardware device drivers, and ending with the chapter that describes multinode architecture.