★ LITTÉRATURE ★ ENGLISH ★ THE AMSTRAD PROGRAMMER'S GUIDE ★ |
| The Amstrad Programmer's Guide (Amstrad Computer User) | Littérature English |
Tim Hartnell's latest work, written with Clive Gifford, is equally relevant, according to the cover, for the 464, 664 and 6128 machines. The book is an obvious attempt to provide something for everyone and, depending on your point of view, you may well like the idea. For instance, the authors provide a sweeping introduct ion to "the rudiments of machine code". A commendable idea except the "rudiments" turns out to be less than a page and a half of informat ion about PEEK, POKE, and CALL commands and is of absolutely no use to a beginner, for whom the book will provide the biggest attraction. s The book is a conglomerate of "let s teach Basic" and "101 rip-roaring games for your Amstrad". It wouldn't be half as bad if the authors had concentrated on one idea or the other but instead seem determined to throw in anything that had any relevance to the Amstrad. The first 10 chapters teach Basic programming and are then followed by chapters about the cassette and disc It's here that the authors include a look at CP/M, a fine example of how to fill up space with meaningless material. A diagram of the CP/M store map is included and to the readership of this book would mean as much as Egyptian hieroglyphics. . From this point on the book begins to show its true colours and descends rapidly into as many short programs as the authors could bear to write. The range of graphics, sounds and, of course, games are covered and if you like to just type in programs without knowing what you're doing, then this book is fine. The book claims to teach you how to program like a professional, but it barely teaches and the programs contain too few-detailed explanations to make them useful. . As you can guess I didn't like this book one iota. For beginners and those who seriously want to improve their programming there are far better guides around. ACU #8606
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