IF YOU ever wanted to know about the nature of the Basic GOSUB command you might like to buy GOSUBS - 100 Program-Building Subroutines in Timex/Sinclair Basic. The title may be a mouthful but you are unlikely to find much of interest in the book, which seems to be just another excuse to compile a collection of listings.
The book might be of use to anyone who wants to build subroutines for calculating the area of a circle or find the mean, median and mode of a set of statistics, but those who are seeking something more light-hearted or which has more to do with computers will be disappointed.
Most of the subroutines could be written by beginners if they had the relevant rule books on geometry and calculus, as there is no fancy programming technique involved. They are uninteresting and, at times, trite. They are similar to examples given on O level exam papers.
The style revives memories of those dusty algebra books which still exist in some schools: "All football fields are 100 yards long. If the yards are converted to feet, the field can be said to be 300 feet long. The value of the length of the field has not changed but the form of the measurement has been converted from yards to feet... If, as some famous coach has said, "football is a game of inches, then it is a game of 3600 inches."
In fact, all football fields are not 100 yards long, though they are in the States. That underlines the point that GOSUBS is an American book. Readers in the U.K. might be bewildered by programs headed 'Liquid English: Liter.'
As a collection of building block programs the book is moderately successful. It would have been more attractive to the novice if the monotonous text had been punctuated with comments from the authors.
If you like a staple diet of unpalatable listings and stodgy explanations you will enjoy GOSUBS. If not, you ought to steer clear of it.
3rd July 1984
