This book is intended for the newcomer to programming in Basic. It provides a comprehensive coverage of Basic on the Electron, and there is some emphasis, particularly in the introduction, on the need to write well structured and readable programs. The book does its job in a sound, if rather unexciting, way. The various chapters cover progressively, the basic features of the language, control statements (GOTO, IF...THEN, REPEAT...UNTIL, FOR...NEXT), procedures and functions, text, integers, arrays, so-called 'low resolution' graphics (using PRINT TAB), sound and high resolution graphics (MOVE, DRAW, PLOT etc).

Each chapter follows the same pattern, a fairly systematic description and definition of each new language feature followed by a few, often mathematical, examples. This makes for very solid reading. I am not too happy about the preponderance of mathematical programs. Character strings and particularly graphics can be used from an early stage to provide much more interesting examples. After all, it is for their excellent graphics capabilities that many home users are attracted to buy their micro in the first place. On a slightly more academic point, it is a pity that the authors have not adopted the standard notation for their definitions of syntax, but have felt obliged to introduce their own.

Although this book certainly does place some emphasis on programming style and structure, it is a pity that this approach is not used from the start. Likewise, with statements such as IF...THEN, less structured version are introduced first with better structured versions and examples following later.

Overall, this book provides a sound description of Basic programming on the Electron. More diagrams and a less formal style would have made the book much more enjoyable reading. After all, programming the Electron for the home user can and should be fun!