Donald Alcock.
Illustrating BBC Basic.
CUP. 1986
(read but not reviewed)
This book may be used as a self-contained manual for BBC-BASIC,
the main language of the BBC Microcomputer and Master Series Microcomputers.
Information is presented in a form handy for reference.
Page 163, for example, tabulates all characters in the ASCII range;
pages 124–5 summarize all information needed when composing screens of MODE 7 graphics.
A quick reference to all functions and operators is given on page 179;
the syntax of every statement and command of BBC-BASIC is summarized on pages 180–1.
But there is more to this book. How do you make a computer sort names into alphabetical order? Not as obvious as it might seem. Three different sorting techniques are explained by example in this book: bubble sort, monkey puzzle (more formally the “binary tree”) and Quicksort. Quicksort relies on “recursion” – an important programming concept which is explained and demonstrated. Making coloured objects rebound around the walls of a squash court is another technique demonstrated; so is making voices sing in harmony; so is computerizing a humble address book.
Concepts are introduced by example, using few words and many diagrams.