Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An introduction to BASIC for the absolute beginner..., 17 Jun 2003
This book really does give you all of the fundamental essentials of the BASIC programming language in a very easy to read, clear, concise, humourous and methodical style. Please be aware that, published in 1977, this book was written to show you how to write programs in the then available versions of BASIC, e.g.(DOS) QBASIC, and versions of BASIC found on early computers such as the Commodore PET, ZX Spectrum, Ohio Superboard, Nascom, Apple II and other (somewhat ancient) computers, *BUT*, even though this is the case, this book is STILL as superb an introduction to the language itself as you will find anywhere. Once you have read and understood this book, getting to grips with later variants will be considerably easier. This really is an excellent place to start for those completely new to programming who wish to start by learning BASIC, perhaps as a prelude to Visual Basic, or even other programming languages (the principles and disciplines are the same!). This has my recommendation on grounds of its; accuracy, usefulness as a learning tool/early reference, methodical teaching style, and ease of readability. Simply excellent.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A book of its time, 19 May 2008
In its time this was a wonderful way to learn BASIC for kids and adults. It's cartoon graphics and friendly style were a world away from the dry and academic alternatives. This was the book that sat on the library shelf and said "hey, you, look at this: you can learn to program, it's really easy!". Along with the low-cost simple home micros of the day it turned out a whole generation of hobbyist programmers. Now I wouldn't really recommend anyone use this book nowadays, but we do need something like this book for today's young people, most of whom are familiar with PC's but so few can actually program anything. Any volunteers to author "Illustrating Visual Basic"?
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4.0 out of 5 stars
This book is a creature of it's time., 11 Mar 2004
For those of us whose first exposure to computers came in the late '70s, and early '80s in the UK, as users or maybe even owners of early microcomputers, this book will bring back memories. The unique thing about it is Alcock's easy-going style combined with a relaxed layout which presented the tome, not as a text book, but as your friend. Well, if you were a bit sad, that is.It introduces the BASIC language to those who had not used a computer at all before. It misses out on many topics as it was written to be generic, rather than related to one paricular micro or another. If anything, it slightly pre-dates the micros that made BASIC famous and so if you already had a Beeb or a Speccie, it maybe wasn't the best buy. But as a taster, it was superb.
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