On Basic I found the following to be of use :

Illustrating Basic, Alcock: C.U.P. (Paperback recommended).

Microsoft Basic, Ken Knecht : Dilitium. On general theory, but exceedingly expensive – you have been warned.

Compiler Construction For Digital Computers, D. Gries, J. Wiley. (8.00-10.00 in paperback) probably the bible, but also probably slightly dated–? Not for beginners.

Writing Interactive Interpreters and Compilers, P. Brown: J. Wiley. (8.00). A book which is fun to read, and makes you feel that you could write your own compiler. Emphasis very much on Basic.

Understanding and Writing Compilers, R. Bornat: Macmillan. (6.00) Paperback. Much heavier than Brown, but with more meat and also more oriented to Pascal/​Algol type languages. Not for the beginner.

Structured System Programming, Welsh & McKeag: Prentice Hall. (14.00) Interesting in that it presents a Mini Pascal Compiler written in Pascal, and shows the importance of structure in writing clear programs.

System Programming, Donovan: McGraw Hill. (6.50). A useful book which looks at the theory and implementation of Assemblers, Compilers, Interpreters and Operating Systems. Although using IBM assembly language, it is quite clear, and forms a good introduction to these subjects.

On the subject of programming with style – has anyone looked inside the Nascom Basic ? It’s only a 8080 basic, with input output patches all over it. It provokes the throught of how much faster/​more compact it would be if it were written in Z80 code from the ground up. Benchmarks on the Xtal Basic and Nascom Basic might be interesting to compare.

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Classified Ads

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Two Olivetti TE318 teletypes. Upper/​lower case, ASCII, nice looking typeface, with paper punch/​reader. 110 BAUD input. Fully working, but no guarantee though. Offers around 200.00 each. Phone James Roberts, __-___ ____.