Non-Starter On The Electron

There is no doubt that the easiest way to learn about a new subject is to have a definite objective. Therefore a book that sets out to teach the reader how to program the Electron by developing a useful program has the right ingredients for an excellent tutorial.

Advancing With The Electron is just such a publication. It attempts to lead the reader through the various stages of program development, from putting the original requirement down on paper, through program design and coding, and on to testing and debugging, taking the development of a database program as an example.

The concept is superb, but unfortunately the execution is a disaster. The database program used appears to be a conversion job from another machine which has an unsophisticated implementation of Basic. The code has little structure, is full of GOTOs and GOSUBs with just the occasional procedure (even though the text exhorts the use of PROCs!). There are, however, no functions, yet many of the GOSUBs used are for small routines which take input from the user and then return the answer in a global variable - surely one of the better uses of a function?

The text itself is liberally splattered with typographical errors of the worst kind. I say worst because they are not the type of error which a proof reader would find. They are just the wrong words and in some cases it took me many re-reads before I was able to convince myself that they were wrong. Somebody who is actually trying to learn from the book would not realise the errors are there.

These are then compounded by factual errors about the way that Basic works on the Electron and secondly by what appears to be the absence of any editorial control leading to some very strange sections, all of which would confuse any would-be student.

I did not actually get around to typing in the database program itself, and so cannot comment on its usefulness. It is possible that Advancing With The Electron may be a worthwhile investment just to get the listing, but as a means of advancing knowledge of programming in general and the Electron in particular, it is a non-starter.

John F. Alan