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Review of "Assembly Language for the Applesoft Programmer"
                         ......reviewed by Bob Sander-Cederlof

Roy E. Myers (author of Microcomputer Graphics) and C.W. Finley, Jr., are the authors of the new book named above, and published by Addison-Wesley.  We like it.

Until August of last year we consistently recommended Roger Wagner's "Assembly Lines: the Book" when you asked us which book would best help you learn Apple assembly language.  It was especially well-suited to beginners at assembly language who were nevertheless somewhat familiar with the Apple and Applesoft.  But it went out of print with the demise of Softalk Publishing, and we can't get them now.

Finley and Myers have not only filled the void, they have improved on our previous favorite.  Physically, the book is larger (7x9, paper, 361 + vi pages).  It is set in large clear type.  And it only costs $16.95 (Wagner's book was $19.95).  I especially like the fact that they use the S-C assembler for all of the examples.  However, if you don't use our assembler, the book loses no value; all the examples are written so as to be as compatible as possible with other possible assemblers.

Take another look at that title:  "Assembly Language for the Applesoft Programmer."  There is a double meaning there.  This is not only a text for the Applesoft programmer who wants to learn beginning assembly language.  It also for the person who wants to USE assembly language along with Applesoft programs.  Combining both languages gives the best of both worlds, but doing so involves a lot of work.  This book will help.

The book divides into five main sections:

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*  Introduction

*  Fundamentals of 6502 Programming:  6502 architecture, instruction set; addressing; branches, loops, nesting; logical operations and bit manipulation.

*  Linkage:  fitting a program into the Apple; accessing machine language programs via BLOAD, POKE, USR, ctrl-Y, and "&"; soft switches; using Applesoft ROM subroutines, esp. floating point math; development of a working example.

*  Graphics:  the Screen, its organization and addressing with text, lo-res, and hi-res; ROM routines for lo- and hi-res graphics; bit-pattern images and animation; bit-masking techniques and complementary drawing; development of a working shoot-em-up video game (GREMLIN).

*  Searching and Sorting:  &-routine to sort array elements; another to search strings.

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There are five useful appendices and an index.

We think enough of this book to add it to our stock.  Check our list of books on page 3 for price.
