These three slim volumes for beginners are colourfully illustrated making them easy to read.

Robots demonstrate the tasks of the computer, some of them biking along eight pathways to eight section garages representing eight bit bytes, while others pin up notices or choose library books, depicting RAM and ROM. Colour is cut off towards the end of each book, and black and white pages bring them to a less visually stimulating close.

Understanding Computer Graphics, by far the easiest to read, begins by describing how a picture is produced on screen and includes a clear explanation of the size of memory needed to produce pictures of differing resolution and colour. The rest of the book is dedicated to practical aspects of computer graphics - simulation, computer aided design, animation and computer art. The book ends with four graphics programs to run, with conversion charts for the BBC, Spectrum, Dragon and Apple.

Inside the Chip starts enticingly with an illustration of a silicon chip beside an open tyube of sweets. But the going gets tougher with explanations of registers, control circuits and logic circuit, among others. There are interesting sections on how chips are made and their origin and design. Practical circuits are included for those who like to dabble.

Machine Code For Beginners is a brave attempt to simplify a difficult subject. Having fought through the explanation you have the opportunity to test your new-found skills by writing a simple program to add two numbers together. If you make this hurdle you are ready for flags, jumps, subroutines and conditional branches. You'll know you've arrived at this testing section of the book - it will be in black and white.

Nickie Robinson