I approached this with a number of handicaps, not least the fact that it's tricky to review a QL book before you've seen a QL (even more difficult to write the book, no doubt).

The first 50-odd pages cover QL SuperBasic and its differences to a common or garden dialect, illustrated by a number guessing game written first in a conspicuously witless (deliberately so, I assume) Basic version, followed by a more elegant version in SuperBasic.

Mr. Allan's treatment of the BEEP command is another example of the book's thinness. "The BEEP command is so complex that only experiment will show its true soundness," he says, pointing out that the first two parameters are the same as on the Spectrum and then hacking off a version of Frere Jacques that would happily run on the Spectrum.

The publisher's blurb on the book jacket, incidentally, claims the book covers "the use of sound" but search for further information on BEEP and you'll search in vain, and considering it's something people will want to know, Mr. Allan's "tone deaf" alibi just won't wash.

The review of the Basic ends with a turtle graphics system then zips on into "The MC6808; a structured chip." There's a little specific information on the 68000 followed by a brief note that its internal architecture is the same as the 68000's. After that, it's pretty much 68000 all the way with the rear being brought up by the 68000 instruction set "reproduced by kind permission of Howard W. Sams & Co", publishers of "The 68000: Principals and Programming."

Put all this together with the disclaimer at the front:

"The author and publishers cannot accept responsibility for any loss or other inconvenience caused by failure of the material printed in this publication to correspond to the operation of the Sinclair QL computer or of its constituent parts."

And you may feel it's worth waiting for a book while you wait for the QL.

John Lettice