& LIGHT-YEARS! - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

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Computing Gets Easier Every Day 16 COMPUTE . DAVID STANTON Q £ "F" 'II never understand all those but- I tons," a colleague recently admit- \- ted. speaking of her VCR. "Playing back a tape is simple enough, but when I want to record something. I just ask my son to set up the machine." My nemesis is the telephone system at work: Three outside lines coming into the building serve who knows how many phones. Only those who understand all the lights and buttons can capture a dial tone, and that's only half the battle. The town of Friendship is just ten miles away—long distance in tele phone talk. Travel 25 miles in the opposite direction and you'll reach Olean—"local calling area ... no charge ... no need to dial 1." explains the operator. What about Niag ara Falls, three counties and 80 miles away? Same area code. Alfred? Same county as ours but different area code—more numbers to dial. All this is not to suggest any basic fail ing of Ma Bell. It simply serves to highlight some of the common complexities we all cope with as part of the cost of modern technology. Like my friend the VCR-phobc, some of us resent all this unnecessary confusion. Others revel in it. Some have even figured a way to turn it into cash. But for many of us. high-tech and confusion have become synonymous. Until recently, microcomputers only served to exacerbate the growing division between techies and technophobes. Limited memory, a lack of programming standards. and hardware incompatibilities conspired to make it so. In the early 1980s. you never knew computers; instead, you knew the TI- 99/4A or the Atari 400 or the Commodore PET. You didn't know word processing; in stead, you knew PapevMate or PaperClip or 77 Writer. Computer literacy came slow and hard. Now, as then, RAM, ROM. CAD, CAI. CMI, WYSIWYG, 80386, 65C8I6, 6510, CPU, and similar cryptic jargon add to the popular view that computing is a complex skill best left to the few. Knowledge is pow er, and those who learned the hard way too often oppose moves to simplify computing. What else could explain the resistance so many experienced computists have to ward simpler-to-learn operating systems? Can it really be true that some hard-core types actually prefer MS-DOS's command structure to the growing number of DOS shells that make things so much easier? What rational user could seriously object to the desktop metaphor made popular by the Macintosh and now available for virtually all popular microcomputers? Do some really believe that learning to use each new com puter brand or program should require hours of tedious study? No matter. Resist though some will, things are changing, and today's truth will out: Computing in 1989 need not be compli cated! Today's best computers are not hard to understand. Today's most powerful soft ware packages need not take hours to learn. Apple Computer probably deserves a large part of the credit. When the company introduced that first I28K Macintosh, many laughed. "Real computists don't use mice!" doubters scoffed. Considered in retrospect, that view was a bit shortsighted. Since then, point-andclick devices have proliferated faster than rabbits. Today it's almost impossible to find a computer system that doesn't come with a mouse as standard equipment or, at least, as a strongly recommended option. Similarly, graphics-based operating systems and DOS shells have spread everywhere. Consider GEOS for Commodore 64s and 128s. or GS/OS for the Apple IlGS. or GEM Desk top. Even IBM is making moves in the right direction with its DOS 4.0 operating system. Although these environments differ in some respects, they look and feel similar enough to ease the pain of moving from one machine to another and from one applica tion to another. Increasingly, software is bridging the gap of hardware incompatibil ity. As this trend accelerates, hardware will become almost incidental. What docs it matter which machine you're using if it boots to a familiar desktop? This trend toward uniformity of human interfaces holds great promise for both current and potential computer users. The less time we all spend learning about computers, the more time we can spend learning with them. Increasingly, computing is becoming as easy as it should have been all along. If you've avoided buying a computer out of some vague insecurity, now is the time to re consider. If hardware and software require hours to master, place the blame where it belongs—with the manufacturer or publish er. And if you can't program your VCR or dial your telephone without help, don't wor ry. Computing really isn't tough! H David Stanton can be contacted via Compu Serve (72407,102) or by mail at P.O. Box 494, Bolivar, New York 14715.
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REVIEWS pers before the music stops
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Turn On Your Computer and Throw Ope
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