Another micro for the computing novice has emerged from Commodore. Barry Miles welcomes it with open arms.

The Commodore 16 is a replacement for the ageing but immensely successful Vic 20. It has the same price tag, but more features to offer the microcomputing novice. The buyer's £139.95 gets the machine, four pieces of software, a cassette unit and Introduction To Basic Part 1.

The Commodore 16 has 16K of RAM and 32K of ROM which covers the Operating System and Basic interpreter. Graphics are well catered for. There are high resolution graphics, multi-colour graphics, a split screen offering text and high-resolution or multi-colour graphics. As on the C64, the display is 40-column and the graphics resolution is 320x200.

The two sound generators included on the machine are for musical tones and for white noise.

Curiously, while the Basic is superior to the C64's, Commodore has ignored sprites. It was sprites that offered the beginner programmer the opportunity to design and implement some form of game, for all that the sprites worked slowly in Basic.

Commodore delights in creating new market slots at different levels for its various products, and ignores compatibility between various models. This approach has been maintained on the C16. But, in a sense, since this is intended for beginners there is no need to maintain compatibility of keyboard design or interfacing sockets.

The machine's dark brown case resembles a C64 or a Vic 20 until you notice the cursor keys have doubled in number to four cursor keys and an Escape key. A Help key has replaced one of the function keys. The rear of the machine holds the memory expansion port - it looks similar to the Commodore 64's, but C64 cartridges and add-ons will probably not work.

The TV and monitor connections are the same as on earlier machines, as is the serial output port for connection to Commodore's own serial products. However, the cassette connection is different so using the supplied cassette recorder is obligatory.

The joystick connection has also been changed - only Commodore's own new "improved advanced joysticks" will fit the bill.

The list of peripherals which work with the C16 is quite long. In addition to the 1541 disk drive, the 1526 dot matrix printer and the 1520 plotter, are such attractive newcomers as:

• SFS481 fast disk drive. (An interesting model, which unfortunately doesn't run with the Commodore 64, but does make the 16 and Plus/4 altogether more attractive)
• MCS601 colour dot matrix printer
• MPS802 dot matrix printer
• DPS1101 daisywheel printer
• C1703 colour monitor

These are designed to match the new computers, both electronically and in appearance.

The Reset button is a new departure. The way it is implemented is highly attractive as will become clear later.

Only preliminary documentation was available for the review. This was adequate - perhaps Commodore, learning from past experience, is going to produce some improved documentation.

Although the manual was preproduction, it was well written, with an overall view of the machine and a detailed section which lists all the keywords with full explanations. Memory maps are provided and full details of how the machine code monitor works - yes, there is a monitor in this machine which will please would-be machine code programmers.

The C16 seems reasonably well built. The keyboard is pleasant to use and raked at an angle which most typists will like to use.

It is quite apparent that Commodore has paid great attention to past criticisms levelled at them. Every effort seems to have been made to make the machine easy to program. First, the Help key locates the error which caused your Basic program to stop. Second, the Function keys are no longer blank on power-up, requiring you to find out how to program them - details which were hidden away in the reference manual for the C64. The machine comes with sensible defaults pre-programmed on to the keys, and the Basic has command which enables you to reprogram them easily. See Table 1 for function key defaults.

The keys can be redefined from within a program as well as in Direct Mode. This is convenient because you can have a set of key definitions in files on disk and run a program to redefine keys as you go about various tasks.

The Control key also has a number of functions to perform. Control plus a colour key selects colours indicated on the upper set of markings on the colour (numeric) keys.

Listing or printing to the screen can be paused by pressing Control plus 'S'. Any other key restarts printing. Control is also used to put reverse field and flashing into and out of operation. The Flashing command causes subsequent letters to flash on and off until you type Control and Flash/Off, Return or Escape.

The Commodore Logo key picks the graphics mode you want. It also selects from the additional range of colours available according to the lower set of markings on the colour keys.

Cursor-movement is controlled by four keys. Old timers, used to the C64 or Vic 20 could be caught out by the cursor keys' move to the top row. Commodore never fails to rearrange a number of keys on a new machine - a well-established tradition. A Automatic Insert Mode B Set bottom right corner of window C Cancel Insert Mode D Delete current line I Insert a line J Move to start of current line K Move to end of current line L Turn on scrolling M Turn off scrolling N Return to normal screen display size O Cancel Insert, Quote, Reverse and Flash Modes P Erase up to beginning of current line Q Erase up to end of current line R Reduce screen display T Set top left corner of screen display V Scroll screen up W Scroll screen down X Cancel Escape function Table 2. Additional functions implemented by Escape followed by alphabetic key listed The machine's full typewriter-style keyboard is attractive. For those who use disk drives with this machine, the well-known Basic 4 disk commands, missed on the C64, have been incorporated here in the Basic 3.5. Wear and tear on the hardware caused by switching the machine on and off has been eliminated. The Reset button, well-recessed to avoid accidental pressing, not only resets the machine completely but, if pressed while holding down the Run/Stop key, enables you to jump to the machine code monitor. This acts like a Butterfield switch, as it is known in the Commodore fraternity.

Commodore 64 users have been frustrated by the machine's liability to crash, leaving them powerless to escape and investigate it. The machine becomes confused, leaves the normal mode of operation, and any amount of key pressing is to no avail. All you can do is to reset the machine and start from your last saved version of the program. This is particularly a problem where machine code programs are concerned. Any mistake made in a Basic program is normally trapped by Basic, but machine code errors normally leave you with a condition which you cannot remedy.

However, on the C16, you can operate easily and confidently. If your program crashes you reset the machine, jump out of the monitor by hitting X, and find to your pleasure that the Basic progam is usually still there. Additional information is given in the user manual on how to un-new a program when you have accidentally eliminated it.

At the time of writing, software for this machine is conspiculously absent. However, the C16 is produced by one of the top selling micro companies both in the UK and in the world. The amount of software for a machine depends on the software producers' view of its program which is in memory is particularly important, especially to new users.

The so-called Toolkit commands are at last well-represented in the Basic within a Commodore machine. Automatic line numbering, deletions of sections of programs, turning Trace on and off, renumbering Basic lines; all are now available in a standard machine. Getting into the machine code monitor is now accomplished elegantly by typing the word MONITOR, rather than having to use a SYS command. PRINT USING is now available and it is an advanced form, enabling you to do most of the formatting definitions you want quite easily.

Error trapping is available with a special TRAP command enabling you to trap what the error is and give a suitable error message to the user.

The GETKEY command enables the machine to take a series of single characters from the keyboard without having to write line numbers which use GOTO and jump directly there.

Until now Commdore machines have been justifiably criticised for the difficulty in achieving structured programming. However, in this implementation IF...THEN...ELSE, DO...WHILE and DO...UNTIL are present. Structued programming enthusiasts should note Comal on the Commodore 64 is due to become available soon, and it seems extremely likely that will be made available for the C16 too. If Comal is put into cartridge for this machine, sprites may even be created for it. After all, the Comal team created sprites on the Pet, using their own high-resolution graphics board.

Colour commands and high resolution graphic commands have been taken out of the realm of frantic poking and put into the Basic where they belong. They include painting, drawing circles, drawing rectangles, drawing lines and so on. You even have a SCALE statement. Graphs where all the tedious tasks of scaling the information is taken on by the C16 are possible.

Sound is also well represented though there is one less voice than on the C64.

There is evidence that the speed of the C16's Basic doesn't match the C64's, but this should prove acceptable in view of the increase in capability.

Even the machine code monitor (absent from the C64) is better than the monitor associated with previous Commodore machines. The memory-dump includes an ASCII dump and the disassembler, and the memory dump produces screenfuls of information, one at a time. Although it's a pity bi-directional scrolling isn't available, both in Basic and in the monitor, the monitor still represents a major step forward.

The new machine provides an excellent introduction to computing with a good Basic, user-friendly editing, high resolution graphics and sound. There is the full expectation of massive support by independent software producers.

Packaged as it will be, the C16 represents a good deal. The intrinsic value of a 16K RAM computer is not an issue. The Vic 20 has remained popular despite the success of the C64. The reason is skillful bundling of software and cassette with the machine, together with the vast array of increasingly available software. Where cartridge software is involved, the limitation of memory is partly overcome anyway.

It could even be Commodore's way into Britain's classrooms.

The Commodore 16 is definitely the machine to watch out for in the run up to Christmas; it may beat the pants off the other sub-£200 machines.