Reviews for A basic approach to structured BASIC

The average rating for A basic approach to structured BASIC based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-06-08 00:00:00 Jennifer Goodwin To repeat a joke that has probably been made since 1964, these are truly basic BASIC programs. They “are written using Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Level 1 BASIC… This version of BASIC was chosen because of its universality, as well as the ease in which this low level BASIC may be modified to run on other BASIC speaking computers.” What this means is that these programs run in 4k of RAM. While this was an amazing amount of memory at a time when its predecessors came with 1k, 4096 bytes was never a lot. There is an entire (if, appropriately, short) chapter on in this book on conserving program size so as not to run out of memory. I never had to work with Level 1 BASIC—I bought my computer used, in 1980, and the previous owner had already upgraded it to Level 2 BASIC and 16k of RAM. I did not realize how good I had it. Level 1 BASIC had only about 26 variables—the letters from A to Z; two string variables (A$ and B$), and only one array: A. I chose to try out the horse race game, because back before I had a computer I had a hand-held game that used LEDs to display a horse race. My brothers had, respectively, a hand-held game that used LEDs to display a football game, and a baseball game. Two of the first BASIC programs I wrote were versions of the horse race and baseball games, and I sold the baseball one to a magazine that promptly folded, but not before paying me. I was thus primed to criticize this version of the horse race for being even more primitive than mine, until I realized that he didn’t use strings to handle the horse names because that would have limited them to two horses. The game also has the flaw of providing odds but not using them. Assuming that whoever types the program in notices this, it gives them an advantage: always bet on the long odds, because every horse has an even chance of winning. The other games are also interesting, and much more focused, due to the limitations of RAM and variable space. The advice is generally useful. And it’s an interesting glimpse into a time when “Computer technology is a young science. There is no such thing as a computer expert, only men with various degrees of understanding. This is true no matter what the experts tell you.” The illustrations are just as earnest as that, done most likely by a member of the family (last name is also Watson) and reminiscent of other guerrilla industries of the time such as Dungeons & Dragons in their earnest amateurishness. The non-game programs are similarly interesting, from a historical standpoint. With only one array, it’s difficult to write a checkbook program. Watson did so by using the cassette tape storage as an array. Checks were written directly to tape when entered, and when read required reading from the tape. Other aspects of the period also entered into some of the “business” programs, such as the “Executive Decision Maker” which was basically just a Magic 8-Ball, and which started with the warning that “J. Williams of 5th Ave., New York City, did not listen to the advice of his executive decision maker before making an important investment… J. Williams is now a retail pencil salesman on a street corner in East St. Louis.” Similar warnings were occasionally received by mail, as chain mail, usually rough pyramid schemes, a practice which continued into FAX and early email days. I used the horse race program on a Colour Maximite, but I would not generally recommend this book for its software unless you actually have a computer even more RAM-limited than that. While some of the old BASIC books have useful software for modern retro computers, the trade-offs involved with both 4k of RAM and Level 1 BASIC make these mostly exercises in wonderment: how did they do that, and why? Hitting, threatening, bouncing, shaking, and cussing out a computer will rarely result in cooperation. But, it feels good.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-02-17 00:00:00 Curtis McClain Walter Iooss, Jr. Photography does NOT get any better.