Fresh air from Reston

If you’ve ever had to struggle through page after page of a boring book, you’ll really appreciate this breath of fresh air: in fact, customs officials should have bestowed it a personality award. It’s fun. The writing is very readable and will please both adult and child.

The book (Making the Most of Your Timex Sinclair) oozes personality. Part of that allure lies in its immigrant status: it was originally printed in England and brought to the United States by Reston. The American version is an intact duplicate of its British counterpart — Britishisms and all.

About 30 programs are stuffed into its pages. Each chapter includes a preamble, discussing particulars of each program, an explanation of how each’s logic works, and a program listing. Programs include home applications for record keeping, a decision maker, an ESP test, a math quiz, Lost In Space, UFO, and a sprink¬ ling of light-hearted games.

Besides the programs which make up the main body of the book, there are a few other important features. The beginning of the book details the working nature of the graphics commands and random number strategies. These, by the way, are the two all-important keys to making a game interesting. Understanding them lends pro¬ gram design a clearer track.

The back of the book offers some useful subroutines — a compendium of short programs designed to make program writing less frustrating. Of these, the most valuable is the line renumbering utility. This program alone justifies my purchase of the book,

Hartnell’s book was one of the first Timex/Sinclair books published in this country, and one of the top sellers. No wonder!