back in the early days of personal computing, people often had to program their own applications. This book contains several programs written in TRS-80 BASIC, a variant of the BASIC language used on most computers back then. The language is dead and the programs listed here are obsolete, but some of the algorithms and principles used are still valid. ( )

Think of this book as providing a starter set of business programming applications for the TRS-80 Model I/II/III/16 computers. Barden's programs were built up from a few general purpose modules (GPM): MENU, FORMS, INPUT, PROMPT, AINT, ASRCH, AADD, ADEL, SECSRT, SSRCH, SUNPK, and SPACK. The final two sections of the book are devoted to two business applications: MAILLIST and INVENT, the latter being a simple inventory system.

Trivia: On average, Barden said that he (a professional programmer) could write about 60 lines of BASIC code a day (less during the design phase, more during the actual coding phase).