Comput. Lang. Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 67-68, 1987 Pergamon Journals Ltd. Printed in Great Britain

B O O K R E V I E W S

(Abstracted from the Prefaces of the books)

Computer Programming Made Simple. J. MAYNARD (Heinemann, London)

The major barrier between computer people and the layman is one of initiation. The rows of flashing lights, the reams of numbers and the jargon are all part of a continuing but unnecessary mystique, and a small amount of carefully planned and well presented instruction can open up new horizons for anyone interested enough to pay attention. Computer Programming Made Simple requires no previous knowledge of mathematics or electronics and was planned to be of value and interest to a very wide circle of readers: to the man in the street who wishes to satisfy his curiosity about computers withoht becoming enmeshed in technical detail; to the aspiring programmer who wants a grounding in the subject before seeking a job; to the line manager who has an involvement with computers and wishes to know something of the problems encountered in preparing work for them; to the engineer who would like to use a computer as a problem-solving tool; and, finally, to school-leavers and undergraduates who wish to expand their background knowledge before entering the world of commerce or industry.

Introduction to COBOL: A Primer and Programming Guide. OVERBEEK and SINGLETARY (Addison-Wesley, Reading Mass.)

This text is designed to introduce students to the COBOL language. Our experience of teaching introductory COBOL courses for many years led us to realize that students have difficulty in learning from a text organized along the pattern of reference works, where topics are covered exhaustively in a single section. We also discovered that the most effective way to guide students' coding style was by using complete, properly structured example programs and asking students to write programs similar to these examples.

FORTH: A Text and Reference. KELLY and SPIES (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.)

Because both 1979 and 1983 FORTH standards are widely accepted and used, this book aims to teach about both. But most versions of FORTH go far beyond what is specified by the standards, and we must look at the improvements. We cannot possibly cover all the enhancements provided by every FORTH dialect, so we look at depth at an enhanced FORTH. We intend this book not only to teach you about the languages but to serve as a reference handbook as well. It is a reference for both programming techniques and tools and for FORTH words and terminology. There is a complete glossary of FORTH-79 and FORTH-83 words as well.

Advanced Programmiog: Design and Structure Using Pascal. LAWRENCE H. MILLER (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.)

This book has been used as the text for the advanced programming/problem-solving course at UCLA and has evolved from this experience. The book's emphasis is on data abstraction, selection and analysis of algorithms, and efficient program construction. We include two substantial case studies and several smaller ones.

Beginning COBOL: An Interactive and Structured Approach. SA,'V~"~L PERRY (The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Co., Inc., Reading, Mass.)

Students using this text wilt barn not only how to prepare batch programs but also how to design

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