The heart sinks when another 'introduction' book arrives in the office. Most of them are cashing in on the home computer market, and are dull and poorly written.

This one, however, is very different. It is a professional piece of work, with a clear understanding of the important topics - control structures, data structures, program design, documentation and so on. It doesn't even use Basic.

The book is intended as a primer for people taking up computer studies. As usual, the text assumes no previous knowledge of computers, which means that the early sections spend a lot of time going through basics of the "this is a disc and this is what it does" variety. This information is important for the book's particular market, but fairly tedious for anyone who is already messing about with computers.

The intended market is obvious from an emphasis on data processing and the choice of languages for the demonstration programs - Cobol and Pascal.

If you are totally new to programming, this book is probably the wrong choice - at least for BBC Micro ownerrs. It is, however, an excellent introduction for computing students, and will also prove useful if you want to make the move into serious programming in Cobol or Pascal.

It could also change the way you look at programming. If you've had no training in writing programs, and have just picked up knowledge from books aimed at the home market, you may find this book useful.