Designed for a one-semester programming course in which the students receive their first exposure to programming and computers, this text uses ANSI BASIC with structured extensions; this dialect is actually Microsoft’s  QuickBASIC,  and the book is designed to be used with Microsoft’s QuickBASIC compiler. Superficially, little distinguishes this book from many introductory texts on BASIC. Topics follow one another in predictable fashion, starting with basic control and decision structures (FOR…NEXT loops and IF…THEN clauses) and continuing with conditional looping and algorithm design. Later chapters cover subroutines and function calls, arrays, reading and writing files, output design, and graphics.

One should consider this book as an introductory text for reasons aside from content. First, two “workshop” chapters that precede the first chapter on the language introduce the student to DOS PC hardware, the DOS operating system, and the QuickBASIC programming environment. The authors have paid close attention to small details that can make a difference for both the instructor and the student. As an example, the DOS tutorial material includes step-by-step sequences for both floppy-only systems and systems that have a hard disk. A DOS command quick reference appears on the inside front cover where it is most accessible to new and possibly confused students.

The design of the material is careful in several ways. Full working program examples appear frequently, with the expected results printed immediately after the code. Lots of programming hints and rules of thumb are interspersed with the text. At the end of each chapter, review questions cover the topics that have been presented; the authors also provide eight to ten programming problems per chapter. The exercises seem both thoughtful and not terribly difficult. Many programming problems one finds in texts like this do not reinforce the material presented and are too difficult for many students. In introductory classes, students need to feel that they can master the material.

Finally, the visual design of the book is excellent. It is in 81/2” × 11” format with ample white space on every page for notes. Font types and styles are used to delineate material well, and a small amount of color is used judiciously to highlight important ideas. If you are teaching an introductory class using both BASIC and DOS computers, I recommend this book highly. Whether BASIC is an appropriate way to introduce computing to new users is, of course, an important religious issue, but I will scrupulously avoid interjecting my highly biased opinions into this review.