There was a time I was naive enough to think people wrote books only because they had something worthwhile to say. Perhaps at a later time in life I will understand why people write books only for other reasons. Until then it baffles why Tim Hartnell has released The Easy Way To Program Your New Computer (Interface Publications), for in it Tim has absolutely nothing to say that he hasn't already said more effectively many times before.

As the title suggests, the book is not intended for any computer in particular; rather, it is a general approach to the Basic language, or part of it for although many of Basic's commands are covered, some are gapingly amiss which makes it rather surprising to find out later that their use is highly recommended. The approach of the text to each command explained can less not be faulted; the method of description and examine is sound and Tim uses the technique well "to make complex subjects easy to understand", come on though, Tim, isn't there a more logical example than 'The US Of A No. 1' to explain a FOR...NEXT loop? Yes, it confused me too.

Instead of being close on two hundred pages of useful advice on understanding programming this book is half of that with a further one hundred pages of interesting but mostly useless info on computers. The lack of an index makes finding the worthy parts even harder. And that is the real pity for with over 30 books already to his credit the author has many useful things to say about computers and programming. I only wish he had waited until he had enough for an entire book.

The Easy Way To Program Your New Computer is written by Tim Hartnell and published by Interface. ISBN 0-907563-60-0.