ZX Computings - OpenLibra

Peek, Poke, Byte
and RAM!
The cover of this wellpresented
book gives a clue as
to the audience it is aiming at.
Drawn by John Harris, who
drew the ZX81 manualcover.it
shows the same spaceship, but
this time in flight. The book
clearly intends to give further
assistance to the new owner in
getting his or her machine 'in
flight' — or at least up and running.
The book assumes no
previous knowledge of computing,
and starts right from the
beginning with setting up the
ZX81 and adjusting your TV.
This is all done in a light-hearted
("On no account use Channel!
No. 5, it stinks!") but thorough
Phil Garratt looks at this
flashy book, with cover
art by the man who
produced the cover of
Clive's manual.
manner and avoids merely
repeating the manual. The book
goes on to cover arithmetic
assignments, variables, loops,
loading and saving (with
photographs to show you what
your telly should look like),
graphics, plotting and debugging.
With the exception of
debugging, which is explained
in some detail, all these areas
are covered with just sufficient
information to ease the beginner
into writing his or her first
programs. To help maintain interest
and give blistered fingers
a rest, the book includes lovely
little "De Bugs" strip cartoons
and a ZX crossword.
There are over 20 complete
programs contained in the
book, plus a number of useful
routines. These programs, and
the suggestions for programming
exercises tend towards l
mathematical bias; factorials,
areas, solving equations and
the like. There are a few garnet
as well, such as Molehunt and
Hangman, though nothing ver>
substantial or new. The programs
all fit into 1K, and all tha;
I tried were bug-free and wet
documented.
This is a well-written and at
tractively laid out book, whidi
has deliberately (and success
fully) avoided becoming y?
another rehash of the manual
think it would be of grea
assistance to the new Z>
owner, even though the boot
would be outgrown in a coupk
of months. To experienced Z)
users I would suggest that ner