PIPS: We've cracked the BASIC problem

Sord, which had been selling its M100 and M200 business-focussed micros in the UK since the early part of 1979[source: "Agency appointments for Sord range", PRAC, August 1979, p. 37], is here advertising software rather than any of its actual hardware, but that's probably because this is really an advert for potential resellers, rather than the public.

That said, it's still a bit abstract, as it's advertising its PIPS - Pan Information Processing System - as a solution  to the problem of the BASIC programming language. 

[picture: SordM100_prac_aug79.webp|Sord's M100 micro, as seen in August 1979's PRAC]

PIPS was a high-level language apparently 20-times easier to learn than BASIC, although it's answering a question that wasn't really being asked: although BASIC had many shortcomings, it was by far the most popular home-computer programming language for a reason - it was already easy-enough to learn.

The hardware which is mentioned in passing includes the Sord M5, which had been launched in Tokyo only the month before. This was a Z80-based machine which was almost an MSX micro - a standard devised by Microsoft Japan which was meant to make things easier for software and hardware manaufacturers. 

It didn't do too well in the UK as although its price put it in the "ferocious under £200 market"[source: "This week", Popular Computing Weekly, 24th November 1983, p. 1], it was still more expensive that Sinclair's Spectrum or even Commodore's 64 - both of which had thousands of software titles backing them up.

MSX didn't do that much either. Although the Japanese invasion had been feared since the 1970s, Japanese companies were hesitant to take on the highly-competitive UK market until they were absolutely sure, and by that time it was too late.
