Librarians considering the pur-chase of microcomputers for use by members of the public are constantly alerted to the importance of selecting equipment for which a wide range of software is available. Fine advice, but how does one determine the width of the range of software available for a particular machine? Taking a strictly numeric approach, the Washington Post recently calculated the number of soft-ware packages available for various microcomputers and identified the "top ten" in terms of program availability as
| Apple | 2,201 |
| Radio Shack | 2,142 |
| IBM | 1,488 |
| North Star | 569 |
| Commodore | 496 |
| Heath | 359 |
| DEC | 351 |
| Atari | 339 |
| Texas Instruments | 272 |
| Cromemco | 206 |
