This book contains 30 programs that Barden and his wife, Janet, wrote for the IBM PC and compatibles. He personally guaranteed the programs were thoroughly checked and would run as listed.

The programs are self-contained and can be entered into your PC in any order. Programs that create disk files can be accessed by other programs.

The presentation of each program follows this pattern: (1) Program Description, (2) Using the Program, (3) Background of the Program, (4) How the Program Works, (5) Special Notes, and (6) Program Listing.

There are a variety of applications in the book from home finance and small business programs to educational programs.

My Favorite Program. When I purchased this book, I was especially intrigued by the final program in the book, "A Simple Word Processor." It had its limits, such as, 80 characters per line, but it had great practical and motivational value for programmers in training. (I was teaching a course in BASIC programming at the time.)

Trivia. By comparing the title page with the facts-of-publication page in this book, the careful reader will observe that William Barden, Jr. and William T. Barden are one and the same person. ( )