My first Archimedes came with a ring bound user's manual that was, IIRC, about 1/3 a guide to using the Risc OS GUI, and then 2/3 a programming guide to the version of BBC BASIC that shipped with it.

(I remember reading it end to end as a child laid on my parents' bed because the light was better in there than in my room, shortly followed by developing the programming addiction that has stuck with me the rest of my life ;)

It didn't cover arm2 assembly, but my parents bought me an extremely good book that did - and described the chip architecture itself in detail as well.

I only touched a Commodore at a friend's place to play games on it, but it sounds like they also understood hobbyists :D