Applied Technology and Microbee adverts. - The MESSUI Place

The Microbee computer
An introduction
to micmbee
personal computers
and pmgramnung.
You, Irv,
AN INTRODUCTION TO MICROBEE PER-
SONAL COMPUTERS AND PRO-
GRAMMING: Published by Honeysoft
Publishing Company, Waitara, NSW
1983. Soft covers, 210 x 298mm, 50
pages. $14.95.
This thin book, subtitled "Your first 100
programs" is an introduction to the
Microbee computer written by two
Australian school teachers and intended
"for people who have never had their
hands on a computer before". In 50
rather tight-packed pages it covers the
Microbee from setting up to advanced
graphics procedures, aided by sample
programs and extensive diagrams.
Topics covered in the book include the
use of the PRINT statement and punctuation,
the edit mode, programming style
and presentation, program structure,
constants, variables and arrays, and
mathematical operations.
Both high resolution and low resolution
graphics are discussed in detail,
again with extensive examples and programs
illustrating the use of the programmable
character generator.
Music is also well covered, and a brief
explanation of all Basic statements and
commands is included. Worksheets for
defining programmable characters and
formatting screen displays are included
towards the end of the book, with a
glossary.
While we didn't count them, there appear
to be at least 100 program listings in
the book, most of them short examples
on one or another feature of the
Microbee computer. Larger programs
are provided to cover financial planning,
Books &
Literature
beginner's guide
appointments scheduling and filing,
among other topics.
This book will be of interest to all users
of the Microbee computer. Our review
copy from the publishers. The amount of
information provided on the Microbee
and Microworid Basic makes it worthwhile
reading. (P.V.)
Microbee manual
updated version
USER'S MANUAL: MICROWORLD 16K
BASIC: Published by Honeysoft
Publishing Company, Waitara, NSW
1983. Soft covers, 152 x 210mm, 157
pages. $14.95.
This is not the usual type of publication
reviewed in these pages but rather a
revised and re-written version of the
User's Manual for the Applied
Technology Microbee computer,
published by Honeysoft, the publishing
subsidiary of Applied Technology Pty
Ltd. We do not normally review user's
manuals, but Applied Technology
sought our comments following criticism
of the original manual in our review of
the Microbee computer.
The new manual is well presented and
laid out and incorporates all the suggestions,
comments and corrections that
have been received from users over the
past six months. With that sort of feedback
it should now be thoroughly
debugged. The manual is divided into
eight sections.
Section one is an introduction to the
Microbee, with sub-sections covering
setting up the system and an explanation
of terms used in the manual. Section two
is a broad overview of Microworld Basic,
explaining in simple language the uses of
variables, constants and expressions, the
process of entering a program and use of
the Microbee in the immediate mode.
A tutorial introduction to Microworid
Basic: is found in Section three, covering
line numbering, saving and loading programs.,
program editing, music, graphics,
string functions and error trapping. Section
four begins programming, with a
complete discussion of the many Basic
statements, mathematical and string
operations, loops and subroutines and
graphics and input/output operations.
The most extensive part of the manual
is Section five which contains descriptions
and examples of all statements and
commands used by Microworid Basic.
Section six rounds out the manual with a
selection of applications programs and
instructions for converting programs in
other versions of Basic to the
Microworid format.
A glossary and appendices covering
ASCII and hexadecimal codes, ROM
memory locations, I/O ports and the
Microbee Basic token codes completes
the manual.
All in all this new user's manual is certain
to meet the criticisms levelled
against the original publication. It has
been re-written with the beginner in
mind with extensive examples and a step
by step guide to getting the Microbee up
and running. It is the ideal complement
to the versatile and friendly Microbee
computer. (P.V.)
118 ELECTRONICS Australia. July. 1983