| Books |
John Gilbert investigates some of the latest computer and programming publications
IF YOU have recovered from the excitement of a computer for a Christmas present and feel you have exploited it to the full, you may like to solve a crime or two using it.
Input an Investigation, by Lois and Floyd McCoy, provides a series of classic mysteries featuring those American computer whizz-kids, the Bytes Brothers, pictured below.
Those brain boxes work their way through five mysteries and always get the correct solution using their home computer called Nibble.
As with any good detective story all the clues for the solution have been incorporated in the plot. The computer programs used to solve the crimes are also included, along with a full explanation on their structure and creation.
The book is for children but adults will be equally enthralled. It provides excellent entertainment and value for money. The good news is that the authors are writing a series of these entertaining books and the second, Program a Problem, is on the way. Input an Investigation can be obtained from Fontana Armada originals for £1.25.
Continuing with the entertainment theme, Pan Books, in association with Personal Computer News, has produced a book of Micro Puzzles. Most of the questions set in the book can be solved using your computer.
Micro Puzzles is split into three sections, each of which has a different type of conundrum. The first section is made up of three prize problems. They are very, complex and if you can solve all three you can enter a competition to win an ACT Apricot computer.
The next section contains some quickies which could be solved without the aid of a computer. Most of the puzzles require logical thought but some are included for a joke.
The final section is called Micropuzzles and includes some very tough quizzes. You will need your microcomputer for most of them, although the main problem will be trying to find a program to produce the solutions.
Much thought has gone into the production of Micro Puzzles and the result is a challenge to your ability to solve problems in programs. The book costs £2.95.
A mixture of congratulations and criticism goes to Penguin for its publication of The Penguin Computing Book, by Susan Curran and Ray Curnow.
Congratulations are due because the company has managed to publish a book which contains a step-by-step guide to computers and electronics. The criticism is that there is nothing new in the format, although the authors have tried to provide a simple and concise explanation of almost everything relating to digital electronics, analogue electronics and computers.
Reading the book it appears that the authors have tried to cram too much information into a small space. Any difficulty in following arguments will not be because of any complexity in the text but because so much information is covered in a few pages.
The structure of the book suggests that it should be read from cover to cover, like War and Peace, but it serves better as a handbook to be dipped into when necessary. The index is just adequate for such a purpose. The glossary and bibliography are also useful. The book costs £5.95.
On a slightly simpler level, Using Your Home Computer by Garth Davies provides a series of software projects for the owner of any microcomputer. Only brief details of the example projects are given, there are no Basic programs to type-in, and the computer owner is left to do the difficult research.
That may sound like hard work but the author is trying to make the reader think about writing software. Part of the book explains system design and provides examples of computer applications. It shows how to work through a project, from the initial ideas to the rough design and, finally, the coding.
The sample projects include an address book, diary and family tree. All of them involve producing databases with similar structures and the author talks in some detail about the techniques which can be used.
It is a delight to see such a book on the market. It costs £3.50 and can be obtained from Macmillan Press.
One for the beginner is Machine Code for Beginners, from Usbourne Books. The title may deter you and you may think it is just another machine code book but it is the easiest book on the subject on the market. Using it, a child at junior school could learn the basic techniques of both Z-80 and 6502 programming. The way the subject is tackled is nothing short of brilliant. That both major types of microchip are covered is an extra bonus.
The cartoon characters, such as robots and bugs, which are included teach machine code in a subtle manner. It is possible to read the book as a comic strip, taking little account of the main text and still derive a knowledge of assembly and machine language. It is reasonably priced at £1.99.
Still staying with children but moving into secondary education, Shiva has produced Spectrum in Education, by Eric Deeson. The book is part of its friendly micro series and endeavours to show how a computer can be programmed and for what it can be used.
The structure of the book shows that Deeson is a teacher. It has been carefully produced and structured in such a manner that the reader is unlikely to lose his way reading through the sections on general usage to drawing bar charts, discussing computer-aided design and producing high-resolution graphics. It costs £6.50.