BASIC Keywords

Personal Computer News

Piers Letcher

'Basic Keywords - A User's Reference' by Eddie Adamis, published by Wiley Press at £12.25 (paperback, 292 pages). Although this book is described as Basic terminology at your fingertips, it is unlikely to be a great deal of use to anybody. Each Basic keyword is given a page of its own, along with a note of the machines with which that word can be used. Next the type, format and action of the word are briefly described, and a short example is given, along with the results of these. The net result is that although the book seems to be a Jack of all trades. It is master of none. Also, because each machine's implementation of Basic has its idiosyncrasies, it is necessary to comment on these, and to explain how the keyword works, not just in general (as here) but specifically too. Although the book covers several machines, notable omissions are the Spectrum and BBC - even though many keywords will be the same, there is little point in having a guide which is not comprehensive. Perhaps the only real use for this book is that it can be used to help you translate programs from one machine to another. Since Apples, IBMs, Commodores, Ataris and Texas machines are covered, some help can be gained from this book during program conversions. But even here the book is only going to provide limited help. Program conversions often rely on the way that the memory of a particular machine is used, and on the way that graphics and sound commands can be translated. This book details only the words themselves and says little about the way in which they are used.