This is such a good idea for a book that it is amazing nobody has done it before. The ROM book covers just about every aspect of sideways ROMs on the Beeb, though it has to be said that there is a fair amount of what could be described as padding in this 280 page tome.

The first half of the book is definitely not padded. It kicks off with a description of what ROMs and EPROMs are and how the Sideways ROM (or RAM) system is implemented. A very detailed chapter on each of service and language ROMs is given, with another on the ROM filing system. Emphasis here is on writing your own ROM and several example routines to handle the protocols are given.

Further chapters give a complete disassembly listing of Beebugsoft's Toolkit command interpreter and Addcomm's BRK error trapping routine. Another takes you through a worked example utility ROM. To round it all off, there are details of the construction (in only moderate depth) of an EPROM (8K only) programmer and the software to run it.

The latter half of the book contains reviews of various ROMs (including Beebugsoft's Toolkit) and ROM boards. Then comes the padding, 70 pages of barcode listings of the programs (have you got a barcode reader?). Despite these gripes, this book is still excellent. It covers everything you always wanted to know about ROMs (but, of course, were afraid to ask).

This is a heavy subject at the best of times but the smatterings of characteristic Smith humour make it both informal and informative. Definitely recommended.