What chance is there for a new desktop operating system to succeed in these days of Microsoft dominance? How about when that operating system is positioned as an alternative to the Macintosh, itself an endangered platform?

Actually, the chances are pretty good! Just as Linux quickly established itself as the OS of choice for the independent UNIX developer community, the BeOS, available for both PowerPCs and Intel systems, provides exciting new features for independent multimedia developers. Anyone who has seen the BeOS in action experiences immediate techno-lust. Here is an operating system that speaks multimedia, threading, and multiprocessing as one who was raised speaking them from birth rather than as languages painfully acquired through second-rate schooling. This is the ideal platform for high-end graphics and multimedia, featuring Silicon Graphics performance and more on commodity desktop hardware.

Be Advanced Topics picks up where the Be Developer's Guide leaves off. It's the official programmer's reference manual to advanced topics for this revolutionary new operating system. Much as Inside Macintosh galvanized the Mac developer community nearly 15 years ago with its under-the-hood access to the new art of GUI programming,Be Advanced Topics provides developers with access to the internals of the first really new operating system in many years. Describing the less commonly used kits in the operating system -- the kits that don't pertain to every application -- Be Advanced Topics shows you when and how to use them. Anyone who wants to design specialized applications for the BeOS will find this book invaluable.

Topics covered include:

• The Media Kit: Real-time processing of audio and video data
• The Midi Kit: MIDI data generation and processing, including Headspace® General MIDI synthesizer
• The Game Kit: Lets your game take over the machine
• The OpenGL Kit: An implementation of the OpenGL® 3D graphics interface
• The Network Kit: An interface to the network and mail

Also included in Be Advanced Topics is a third-party CD-ROM containing tools, applications, and other freeware designed specifically for the BeOS.