Introductory books on computing normally come in two types. First, there is the book that covers a particular subject in detail - such as microcomputers. Secondly, there is the book that tries to cover the lot - micros, mainframes, data processing and so forth.

Computers And Commonsense is of the second type, and although I found it gives a large amount of information, it falls short in a few places.

Its objective is to give the layman or student a first-level introduction to computing. Three main areas are covered: What is a computer, what can it do, and how does man communicate with it?

At first sight I was surprised at how much the authors managed to cram in, from why the computer was invented, to decision tables. But on reading the book it became plain that the subjects had been covered cursorily, even allowing that it is intended as first-level introduction.

The book is best read sequentially. References are constantly made to other chapters by footnotes, and computer terms explained in one chapter are not explained again.

The history of computing must be a pet subject of the authors as references to what used to be crop up throughout.

Even so I found Computers And Commonsense a good read, and recommend it as an introduction to the subject. The reader should take notice of the bibliography though - you'll need it.