This book is a real job - user-friendly in fact. Like so many from America, it makes life easy from the moment you open the cover, with its spiral binding banishing that irritating problem of how to keep pages flat while reading and typing from them at the same time.

Even better, the quality of production and typography is reflected throughout by a very high standard of programming instruction suitable for all Ataris.

Each chapter takes the form of an informal tutorial with the meat of the subject sandwiched between a brief introduction and a summary to put it all in perspective.

The clarity of the book makes some of the more daunting aspects of home computing seem almost like child's play, with short, illustrative programs falling into place just when you want to see the way in which a particular function works.

But the real value of the book is in its remarkable scope. In addition to the most thorough explanation of Basic that I have seen for the machine, it delves into the world of peripherals, with particularly good chapters on use of cassette, disk and printer. There is also a useful round-up of some of the best specialised programs available, though many of these will take a bit of hunting out in England.

As if this was not enough, the book is peppered with hints and short-cuts which alone make it worth the price.

Stuart Cooke