8,732
edits
Changes
→Programs for the TI Home Computer
| requirements = most programs require only console and monitor or television. Some utilize Extended BASIC or Terminal Emulator II, modem, disk drive, expansion memory or tape recorder
}}
'''By CHRISTOPHER BOBBITT'''
Just when you were getting used to the sight of bookstore shelves completely devoid of books for the TI99/4A, the publishers pull a dirty trick and start publishing them as if they were Apple books.
Now you have the difficult, but enviable, task of choosing exactly which books are right for you. Most computer books published today fall into one of four categories: those that talk about hardware, those that talk about software, those that tell how to program and those that contain nothing but programs. Since the key to a computer's success is the software available for it, as TI found out too late, then the most important book you may purchase would be one that contains nothing but programs. One of the best of these books is "Programs for the TI Home Computer."
Apparently when Steve Davis wrote this book, he decided to include programs for every level of computer owner. While a majority of the programs are in console BASIC, a good portion are in Extended BASIC, and some require such peripherals as the Speech Synthesizer, disk drive and a memory expansion device. Several of those in BASIC require the Terminal Emulator II cartridge, a speech synthesizer and even a modem. Most of the 47 programs in the book, surprisingly, are utility and educational, but 14 or so are games. The programs range in size from as small as nine lines to as large as 330 lines.
==Quality==
The quality of the programs in this book ranges from very good to poor. Most of the games are good, and tend to be more skill and less action oriented. One of the best programs in the book, called Adventure in Oz, is actually a giant graphic adventure that has three separate data files, and can only be used with a disk drive and the memory expansion. However, the book also contains its share of mediocre gambling and guessing games.
The utility programs also range
from very good to poor. Several of
them. such as the Personal Banking
program and the assembly language
Plot program, are fantastic. However,
others are not very useful, such as the
Video Tape Finder and the Airline
Guide. The three or four educational .
programs in this book are good programs,
but not very innovative in their
approach to teaching concepts.
Finally. the two music programs
included, Sprite Dance and Rainbow,
are exceptional.
The programs, while not free from
errors, are, on the whole, well written.
The programs that are poor in this
book tend to be poor not from bad programming,
but more from the bad
ideas that they are base_d on. One program
which illustrates this well is TenUp.
The program/ itself is logically
arranged and is a good example of
structured programming techniques,
but the actual game itself is not in the
least interesting and can even be described
as boring. Poor programming
more often results from poor ideas:
conversely, an excellent idea for a
program will not make a program
excellent unless the programming
techniques used are excellent. Usually
the programming concepts that are
presented in even the poorest ones are
alone worth the cost of.the book.
Ease of Use: The book is written in a
progra mmer-to-programmer style
and is easy to read. Anyone who can
type in a program with a moderate
amount of success will find that the
book is extremely easy to use.
Documentation; The writer is very
conscious of who the book is written
for. The book gives detailed instructions
on how to type in a program inlhe
introduction, thereby sparing the
more advanced user from having to
read it every time in the program
explanation. The explanation given
prior to each program listing usually
does not describe the listing, but
intead gives the program's function,
possible uses, possible enhancements
and sometimes descriptions of important
programming concepts. All of the
programs may be typed in directly out
of the book, and in all the listings the
levgth of the lines is less than the maximum
allowable length. The book was
well edited and typographical errors
are very rare. The only problem I see
lies in the area of program aesthetics,
the graphics and screen output being
usually rather bland and average.
Value: The book is a great value in
the fact it is actually two products: a
good collection of programs and a
great resource of programming techniques.
Since programs are included
from six different authors, the book
has a myriad of program styles, any of
which is worthy of emulation. However,
the book really is a value in the
fact that there are more programs and
less book. That is to say, a majority of
the space in the book is occupied by
program listings, and very little occupied
by the author's thoughts on world
politics and their relation to programming
in BASIC.
