Elementary Basic - Learning to Program Your Computer in Basic with Sherlock Holmes

Elementary Pascal - Learning to Program Your Computer in Pascal with Sherlock Holmes

From Baker Street to Binary - An Introduction to Computers and Computer Programming with Sherlock Holmes)

Review of the three books: The books in question are all writen by Henry Ledgard and Andrew Singer. The third book (From Baker Street to Binary) lists Patrick McQuaid as second author and Singer as third. They were published as follows:

• Elementary Basic (Learning to Program Your Computer in Basic with Sherlock Holmes) [Random House, 1982. $16.95]
• Elementary Pascal (Learning to Program Your Computer in Pascal with Sherlock Holmes) [Vintage Books, A division of Random House.1982. $12.95]
• From Baker Street to Binary (An Introduction to Computers and Computer Programming with Sherlock Holmes) [McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1983. $10.95]

All three books use the device of running investigations by Holmes and Watson to illustrate their main subject. The books on Pascal and Basic develop programs that produce solutions to the problems propounded in the stories. These programs are created as parallels to the thought processes of Holmes and are quite ingeniously contrived. The stories are interesting and, within limits, are fairly Canonical. The requirements of programming do lead to some quaint situations.

The final book, on the subject of computers in general, is quite well done and very readable. In fact, all three books are interesting and quite accurate in their presentation of the logic of computers and programming. As Holmes stories, they are amusing and fun, but somewhat out of the ordinary as pastiches. All three books are well-written and they achieve their stated aims of introducing the reader to computers and programming languages quite well.

The problem with the whole series is that they were written about 20 years too late and are now even 20 years more out of date. I began working with computers in 1966 and received my Professional Certification (CDP or Certificate in Data Processing) in 1970. At that time I would have enjoyed these books but would have thought them somewhat dated. In the 21st Century all three qualify as museum pieces. Although both Pascal and Basic are still used as programming languages, both are used in entirely different forms than are illustrated in these books. The basic information about computers and how they work and are used is also correct, but quite remote from current practice and usage.

These books are interesting and fun to read but of no particular practical use. As historical examples, they are probably worth the shelf space they occupy since they are paperback and not hard cover editions.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, 2003