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"Based on present trends, what will be our total sales in six months?". If, in your business life, you find yourself asking questions like this, then Saxon Computing have a program to make your crystal ball redundant.

Figaro II has some of the features of both spreadsheet and database information programs.

You can generate columns of data, as in a spreadsheet, but each box can be labelled with a descriptive label. The item can then be easily identified should you re-use the data several months later.

All of the formulae are built into the program (good for those not mathematically-minded). These offer a set of powerful number crunching operations which determine averages, standard deviation, linear regression, timer series, seasonal variation, indices, etc, etc...

The 14-page manual is very helpful in guiding you through the program, and explaining some of these terms.

Results are well-laid out on the screen, and can be copied on the printer. Particularly impressive are the flexible graph and histogram generating routines.

The program is written entirely in Basic. This doesn't cause any speed problems, but it does take up a lot of space. Of 48K of RAM, only 16K is left for user data (about 1000 data items).

For a "serious" micro, Figaro II would be cheap at the price. Even though prices for Spectrum programs tend to be more modest, Figaro II is reasonably priced by present standards.

D.N.