Reader's Guide to Microcomputer Books
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The Reader's Guide To Microcomputer Books By MICHAEL NICITA and RONALD PETRUSHA Golden-Lee Book 1000 Dean Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11238 Trademarks and Permissions Apple Computer, Inc. - Apple®II, Apple DOS~ Apple II Plus~ Applesoft~ Apple Pascal~ Apple Logo~ AppleWriter® Artsci, Inc. - Magic Window Ashton-Tate - dBASE II Atari, Inc. - Atari® 400/800 Bell Laboratories - UNIX Commodore Business Machines, Inc. - PET~ Vic 20 CBM~ PET BASIC~ CBM BASIC® Compiler Systems, Inc. - CBASIC Condor Computer - Condor Series 20 Cromemco, Inc. - CROMIX Data General Corporation - ECLIPSE® Digital Equipment Corporation - DEC~ PDP-11 ® Digital Research, Inc. - CP/M~ MP/M~ ED~ PIP® CP/M-83, MP/M-86, PL/I-86, Pascal/MT+ DJR Associates, Inc. - FMS-80 FORTH, Inc. - FORTH® Hewlett Packard Co. - Pascal 1000~ HP1000® Hunter & Ready, Inc. - VRTX Information Unlimited Corp. - Easywriter Information Unlimited Software, Inc. - Easywriter Prof. Intel Corporation - PL/M-80 International Business Machines Corporation - IBM® Kmega Microsoftware - VTS-80 Lazer Micro Systems - LISA Assembler Lexisoft, Inc. - Spellbinder_ Micro Data Base Systems - MDBS III MicroPro International Corp. - WordStar~ Mail Merge~ SpellStar® Microsoft Corp. - Microsoft® MUSE Software - Super Text II Ohio Scientific, Inc. - C4P DF Osborne Computer Corporation - Osborne 1 Phase One Systems, Inc. - OASIS Preachtree, Inc. - Magic Wand® Programma International, Inc. - PIE/FORMAT Que Corporation - Que Regents of the University of California - used under a license from SofTech Mircosystems, Inc. - UCSD Pascal, UCSD p-System SELECT Information Systems - SELECT Software Arts, Inc. - DIF, Keystroke Memory ii 'I ',,i4 Sorcim Corporation - SuperCalc, Pascal/M, Pascal/M-86 Tandy Corporation - TRS-80®Model I, TRS-80®Model II, TRS-80®Model IIl,TRS-80®Model 16, SCRIPSIT, TRSDOS® Timex Corporation - Timex® Trustees of Dartmouth College - BASIC® U.S. Dept. of Defence (ADA Joint Program Office) -ADA Visicorp, Inc. - VisiCalc® Zilog, Inc. - ZB~ ZBO~ ZBOOO® Any software product, component, or computer name omitted is assumed to be the trademark of the manufacturer. "DID YOU EVER HAVE TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND?" (John Sebastian)© 1965, 1966 The Hudson Bay Music Company. Used by permission. All rights reserved. iii Cover Art and Illustrations: Steve Salerno Cover Design: Don Morris Copy Editor: Laura Ross Technical Editor: Dave Burstein Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Nicita, Michael, 1953- The Reader's Guide To Microcomputer Books Includes Indexes. 1. Microcomputers-Book reviews. I. Petrusha, Ronald 1951-. II.Title. QA76.5.N49 1983 016.00164 83-5510 ISBN 0-912331-00-3 Copyright 1983 by Michael Nicita and Ronald Petrusha. World Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, or reproduced in any way, including, but not limited to,electronic, mechanical,or photographic means, without the prior agreement and written permission of the authors. Published by Golden-Lee Book iv Preface Welcome to the first critical guide to microcomputer "bookware." This book evaluates a representative cross-section of the microcomputer titles which currently compete for your time and money. The individual reviews treat each book's content and quality of presentation, and in most cases conclude with our opinion as to its relative merits. We make no apologies for the sometimes acerbic opinions expressed in this first edition (we'll save the apologies for the second edition). The need for such a guide is obvious. The publishing domain has certainly not been exempt from the flood of misleading, inferior products which have characterized other segments of the microcomputer market. Indeed, the scale weighing quality treatments against books of absolutely no redeeming value is just beginning to approach some measure of equilibrium. We hope our ratings allow you, whatever your specific microcomputer interests, to tip this balance in your favor. We believe that this book is important for reasons which are even weightier than the appeal to a reader's pocketbook. Although computer technology has only developed within the last four decades, and micro computers have appeared within the last ten years, their impact has been enormous. Their full potential as yet remains untapped; computer tech nology is capable of transforming the face of modern society in a way which will make the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nine teenth centuries pale by comparison. The exact form of these changes, however, will be determined by the extent to which ordinary people are capable of understanding and shaping these developments. Viewed in this context, a bad book becomes more than simply a wasteful experi ence. The failure to teach results in a failure to learn; and the failure to teach a complex topic precludes later learning. In order to guide the reader through current microcomputer litera ture, we have categorized more than four hundred books within six subject areas. Ratings ranging from ten to one hundred have been high lighted for quick reference. (Gradations can be regarded as follows: 90-100 excellent; 80-90 superior; 70-80 passable; 60-70 barely adequate; 50-60 inferior; 40-50 read at your own risk; 10-40 the best thing about these books may be the reviews.) Separate indices provide title, rating, author and rating within subject listings. The level of our writing is tailored to our perception of each book's respective audience. We don't expect a reader of a purely introductory book to have any familiarity with personal computers; if the introduc tion happens to deal with Z80 assembly language programming, v however, we assume a minimal degree of programming and operational expertise. Knowing which titles are worthy of purchase is not enough; they must be available. But booksellers frequently know as little about the quality of the books they are selling as do prospective readers. It is our hope that besides being a guide for the general public, this text will also serve as a sourcebook for computer outlets and bookstores; for that purpose, we have included an appendix containing three model invento ries for stores of different sizes. We extend our thanks to the talented production team responsible for this book: Leroy Spellman, Lee Heiman, Milt Heiman, Nelida Moya, Terry Toth, Laura Ross, Harriet Pinkston, Antoinette Hayes, Dave Bur stein, Ron River, Gary Riecke, Steve Salerno, Don Morris, Kathleen Edwards, Samuel Conway, Kevin Jones, William Campbell, Brian Do navan, George Leibson, Noel Derecki, Software Emporium and the firm of Ackerman & Sobel. Without detailing their individual contributions, we give them our highest rating. Michael Nicita Ronald Petrusha New York, 1983 vi Table of Contents 1. Microcomputer Introductions .••.............................. 1 2. Microprocessors . • . 63. 3. Operating Systems and Hardware Design ....•..•.....•......• 91 4. Programming General . .114 . Basic .................................................. 122 Fortran. .14 . .7 Pascal ................................................. 1 153 Others ................................................ ,, 167 5. Software and Applications General . .182 . VisiCalc ............................................. i· • • 219 Word Processing ..................................... 1. • 227 6. Specific Microcomputer Systems Apple .................................................. 238 IBM ................................................... 275 TRS-80 ................................................. 286 Atari ................................................... 311 Commodore . 323. Timex/Sinclair. 332. 7. Model Inventory/Appendix • . • . • . • . ... .. • • . • . • • • . .345 • 8. Indices Alphabetic . .349 . Rating ................................................. 361 Author ................................................. 375 Rating within subject. .397 . vii viii To Wallis: long questions deserve long answers ix 1 Microcomputer . Introductions "In possibility, however, everything is possible. Hence in pos sibility one can go astray in possible ways, but essentially two. One form is the wishful, yearning form, the other is the melancholy fantastic-on the one hand hope; on the other, fear or anguished dread." S0renKierkegaard "Did you ever have to finally decide? And say yes to one and let the other one ride? There's so many changes and tears you must hide, Did you ever have to finally decide?" John Sebastian The first choices which confront the prospective reader of microcomputer books are the most bewildering. Introductory titles abound. Recommendations conflict. For many, potential new dimensions of creativity and produc tivity fade with each turn of the page of the wrong first book. For others, such possibilities are completely extinguished by the purchase of the wrong machine. The survey which follows is intended to brighten these initial encounters. Under the general umbrella of "Microcom puter Introductions," we have included books which provide a range of approaches to microcomputer topics: works on COMPUTER LITERACY attempt to increase general famil iarity with computers, especially among non-users; those devoted to MICROCOMPUTER SELECTION, by focusing on computers in the abstract or on specific systems, aim at assist ing the reader in choosing a system based on his or her needs; REFERENCE WORKS add to the user's knowledge and skill at BOOKS 2 THE READER'S GUIDE TO MICROCOMPUTER microcomputer use; finally, COMPUTER-RELATED BOOKS include sociological, journalistic or literary treatments of computers and