If you've been baffled by words such as buffer, memory map or bus driver, this concise computer dictionary should help.

Mr. Poole unravels the meanings of the computer words you're mostly likely to come across when you first dive into the micro arena.

Stretching from A for absolute address to Z for zero suppression, brief explanations of many useful terms are given. For instance 'Debug - to remove the errors or bugs from a program'. In addition, there's a reference guide to the more common Basic commands for most micros.

The author has tried to cram in as many useful words as possible. But there's a lot of wasted space which could have been put to better use.

I suppose at £1.95 this isn't such a bad book. But, unlike a dictionary, I don't think you'll pick this book up too often once you become familiar with micros.

Sandra Grandison