BASIC And The Personal Computer Dwyer Critchfield 1978 Programming Textbook Vtg

• Back to the early days of Microcomputers and the BASIC Programming language!
• This listing is for BASIC and the Personal Computer, an English-language trade paperback computer programming textbook by Thomas Dwyer and Margot Critchfield.
• Written for beginners with no prior experience, the book explains how personal microcomputers work and teaches interactive programming in BASIC and extended BASIC through real-world applications.
• Chapter 1 introduces the world of personal computing, definitions of the word computer, examples of personal computing systems, packaged computer systems, basic programming sessions, coping with your computer, timesharing, and project ideas.
• Chapter 2, The Eight-Hour Wonder, presents an intensive, step-by-step introduction to BASIC statements such as PRINT, INPUT, IF...THEN, GOTO, loops, random numbers, and constants using practical programs for arithmetic helpers, hot dog stand calculations, shelf labels, batting averages, and bank-balance checking.
• Chapter 3 covers simple computer graphics and subscripted variables, including mathematical functions in BASIC (SIN, COS, LOG, EXP, TAN), scaling and plotting graphs, bar charts, pinball simulation, formatted output with PRINT USING, fractured fractions, and saving programs on paper tape, disk, or cassette.
• Chapter 4 focuses on word processing in BASIC using string variables and arrays, with projects such as an automated wish generator, permutations, computer poems, a computerized letter writer, and a monster word game.
• Chapter 5 explores computers in sports and recreation and introduces sorting algorithms through programs for statistics, football scouting, management information systems, simple and more advanced sorting routines, and record-library organization.
• Chapter 6 presents computer games, including matrix games, optimal strategies, grid games, dynamic space games, plotting trajectories, horse-race simulations, and a Planet-X Lander project.
• Chapter 7 expands computer art and graphics with material on alphanumeric character sets, computer folk art, paint-by-numbers, electric field art, Christmas-tree graphics, plotting multiple-valued functions, automatic scaling, ultra plots, and additional project ideas.
• Chapter 8 introduces data bases for fun and profit, explaining DATA statements, sequential and random-access files, and applications such as diet information, charge-account management, and other business programs.
• Chapter 9 discusses computer simulations, including simulation terminology, data structures for queuing systems, deli and multi-server simulations, game-style simulations, and a space colony game.
• Chapter 10 shows how to extend microcomputers with color graphics, binary, hexadecimal, and octal numbers, analog input/output, joysticks, oscilloscopes, and forward-looking application ideas, concluding with project suggestions.
• Back matter includes Appendix A on using a timesharing system, Appendix B listing ASCII codes, Appendix C summarizing BASIC syntax, and a detailed index for quick reference.
• The text is heavily illustrated with black-and-white cartoons, diagrams, flowcharts, code listings, and photographs of microcomputers such as the TRS-80, reinforcing both programming concepts and application ideas.
• Bibliographic details: authors Thomas A. Dwyer and Margot Critchfield (University of Pittsburgh); publisher Addison-Wesley Publishing Company; copyright 1978; Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 77-90173; ISBN: 0-201-01589-7.
• Published in 1978 by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, as part of the Joy of Computing series for adult and further education.

• Condition: This vintage Addison-Wesley trade softcover volume shows some exterior use and edge wear with rubbing, light surface soiling, and small corner creases to the covers. Spine remains solid and square. Pages are lightly age-toned but clean and fully legible. Previous owner information is written in ink on the inside front and rear blank pages; interior text pages are otherwise free of writing, highlighting, or underlining. Binding is tight with no loose or missing pages.

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