In the old days of "big" computers, computer graphics used to be the exclusive province of big corporations such as aircraft and automotive manufacturers.

Then only the most qualified and privileged few actually developed the programs, due in part to the mathematical "magic" required.

This book attempts to explode this unnecessary mystique by applying many of the "big" computer techniques to the humble BBC Micro. Together with the Royal Holloway College's computer science department, authors Angell and Jones have compressed a complete computer science graduate course into this deceptively small and inexpensive paperback.

Not only do the authors exercise the BBC's graphics facilities to the full, but they produce effects which cannot easily be conveyed in words. If you can appreciate the inherent beauty of "matrix transformations in three-dimensional space" and "hidden line and surface algorithms", you already know something of the "magic" techniques this book contins.

In order to allay your fears of the more advanced mathematics involved, the authors recommend that you simply run the appropriate examples before studying the theories. The book contains more than 180 fully explained BBC Basic procedures.

Even though this must be the most sophisticated graphics text currently available for the BBC Micro, the software and techniques contained within are worth every penny.

Igor Thomas