Mastering the ZX Spectrum

Personal Computer News

Sandra Grandison

SUFFERING FROM KEYBOARD FINGER? TAKE A BREAK WITH A BOOK. 'Mastering the ZX Spectrum' by Lawrie Moore, published by Ellis Horwood at £5.95 (paperback, 180 pages) This compact meaty book will satisfy Spectrum users who want to know the ideas behind programming techniques. Lawrie Moore wastes no time getting to simple programming. After introductory chapters about the keyboard, storing information and so on - you get to loops and then on to new aspects of programming in separate chapters. Clear concise examples are given. The author leaves no stone unturned. There are 18 chapters of information which are clear and easy to understand. Smallish programs are used as mini projects linked together as subroutines for a large project which produces the Music Program game comprising 25' subroutines. Each is introduced as a separate programming problem. Having tackled a programming project in Basic the book then looks at other languages. Chapter 18 contains a comparison of Basic and Pascal and the appendices contain extra information, such as how to save and verify programs. All in all, it's a good reference guide.