It seems a truism that computer books which claim to 'explore' or 'reveal' something, seldom seem to take the reader beyond the garden next door.

That said, there are merits even in guidebooks to nearby locales, which is perhaps the most accurate description of Exploring Applesoft. It doesn't exactly explore Applesoft, since none of its quirks are examined, nor any of the techniques for simulating absent features.

What this book does, and does well, is to place the various keywords into context, demonstrating typical uses both in real programs and as small exercises or hints in an alphabetical listing of each keyword. Its strongest feature, however, is the idea of collecting these little bits together and keeping them in text-files.

Selecting from a list (another module) and EXECing these lines into the machine (yet another) provides a neat and very effective library function which could cut programming time considerably, if the reader is attentive and follows the leads that have been given early in the text.

It's a pity more isn't made of this point, even so, because a lazy or inattentive reader doesn't get constant reminders at later stages in the text.

Even so, a readable and well-preseneted manual, which brings the rarified theorising of the Applesoft manual into some kind of focus.

Richard King