The executive's guide to the IBM Personal Computer. (book reviews) Susan Glinert-Cole.

The Executive's Guide to the IBM Personal Computer

If you are just interested in VisiCalc, or you feel your image needs some upgrading The Executive's Guide to the IBM Personal Computer by Alan J. Parker from Reston Publishing may help you out, but I rather doubt it. The section on VisiCalc is very small and won't tell you very much that couldn't have been gleaned from reading the VisiCalc documentation. Most of the book concerns itself with teaching Basic to the businessperson, and the content presupposes that the student already knows how to operate the machine. But, in the introduction, the author assures the reader that when this book is finished, he should be able to understand the manuals that came with the PC. This is putting the cart before the horse; he continually refers the reader to these manuals for information on getting the system up, using DOS, and dealing with disks.

There is a little section on How to Use a Computer, but this deals with computerizing payrolls and such. It might better have been titled How to Put a Computer to Use (or What Should I Do Now That It's Plugged In?). All the exercises and problems are on a disk, provided with the book which, by the way, is one of the handsomer offerings around. The chapters cover simple calculations, data entry, and files. Again, if a person is going to all the trouble to buy a $4000 computer for a business, you would think that he would spend the money for a decent business package, rather than write one himself. The programs are not very comprehensive, and would be suitable only for very simple applications.

Review Grade: C+