Playing with computers

Press, 2 September 1980, Page 21

Playing with computers

By

ADRIAN BERRY,

“Daily Telegraph,” London

With the price of elec* .Ironic equipment now fall« mg so fast, an increasing; number of people are buying their own home computers. I have now owned one for a 'year, and have had with .it both , triumphs and disasters. \My experiences ; may encourage — or deter — other would-be purchasers. The first golden rule is to decide what you want your computer to do. It is always a mistake to be too ambitious. There have been sensational reports that a home computer can perform such chores as regulating the central heating, turning off unwanted lights; maximising the; legal avoidance of income tax and paying the household bills. ' No doubt a computer can do these things, but making it do them is another story; unless you are an electrical genius and an accomplished tax lawyer rolled into ■ one, it is wiser to settle for more modest tasks. If you have children of about six upwards, there is no need to invent any -tasks for the machine at all. Be honest, and admit that all you want to do with it is have fun. It can

play innumerable games in the form of cassette tapes, from spaceship; battles.. to Naval patrol. The machine can be a psychiatrist or it can challenge you to solve: mazes. ■ Since: you yourself interact’ with the comput- - efs 1 ; television , screen, • it can provide a great deal more interest than watching ordinary television programmes over which you have no control. The computer itself is Idiot-proof.. There is no combination of buttons one can -press on its t; -: : • : • - - : ■ •

typewriter-style keyboard that will damage it If the machine does not understand what you have typed, it will simply display. the words SYNTAX ERROR, and you must try again. You can confidently walk out of your house and leave your children happily, thumping away at the keyboard. They cannot do it any harm, and it makes an excellent baby-, sitter. -

From between $430 and $2500, one can buy the computer itself, usually consisting of a keyboard and a television screen, : and a tape cassette drive, which loads “programs” (always spelt this way in computer “programs”) that have been written by

other people and records those you have written yourself. Writing one’s own programme is both an amus-; ing and maddening occupation. ;It is necessary to learn the simple language; Basic in order to tell the machine what to do. This language comprises about 100 command words, which you will gradually learn. The most commonly used are LOAD, (enter a programme from cassette), RUN ? (start the < programme. playing), PRINT (write something if On the screen),. INPUT (make the computer ask you a question), LIST (make the machine display all your instructions so far), and NEW (erase the programme). When you are a begin* ner, ;the computer, for rea*

sons mysterious to you, will often refuse to execute the programme in the way you want. Those infuriating words SYNTAX ERROR will appear constantly on the screen. It is essential to know an expert whom you can telephone and ask what to do next. Do not rely on the instruction manuals, which tend to be vilely written and unintelligible to all

but the technicians who wrote them.

Petsoft, of Birmingham, which distributes many of the cassette programmes, actually employs ‘..a person to sit at home and give soothing expert advice on the telephone to comouter-owners who are on the point of taking an axe to their machines. He can usually solve the problem and he makes no charge.

A growing number- of authors are using computers to write their manuscripts, . since it is much more pleasant and efficient to compose on an electronic keyboard than on a typewriter. The computer must be linked by cable to a "printer” - which is usually nothing -more than a specially-rig*

ged electric typewriter. The text of the manuscript is then stored in the computer’s memory or on cassette tapes until it is ready to be typed. At last comes the exciting moment when the author orders the computer to print his manuscript. The cheapest way he can do this is to switch on the printer, load it with, a continuous ream of paper and give the following command to the computer: OPEN 4,4: CMD4: LIST If he were typing out the first verse of the Bible, these words ; would then be printed: 10 PRINT" IN THE BEGIN* NING GOD CREATED, THE HEAVEN 20 PRINT” AND THE EARTH The author now deletes the - programming instructions from the script and retypes it in lower case. This sytem - is far from ideal, but the printer does type at several Words a second, which is faster than the world’s fastest secretary. ’ For about $55, the author can buy on tape cassette a programme known as a ‘*word processor.” With this, the text will appear more or less normally and in lower case. But disaster can lie in wait if he tries to be too . ambitious, and buys a “deluxe” word processor for about $650.- For this programme is at...present only

available on a “floppy disc,” which loads into the computer, not from the familiar cassette drive, but from a devilish machine called a “disc-drive.” This gadget can cost a further S2OOO. Until you have ha'd considerable experience, do not buy a disc-drive. Unlike the computer and the cassette drive, which are rugged and depend-, able, the disc-drive tends to be delicate and can easily go wrong. When buying computer equipment, it is a good idea to try the Child: Test: ask your dealer whether a child can safely handle it.’ If the answer is no, then you probably shouldn’t handle it either. The Child Test should ’ insure that you end up with the' equipment, that suits you best, riamqly a - computer with a reasonable amount of . memory - storage ; a "xas-f sette drive, -a printer, (preferably a bulky ahd’i rugged IBM machine), and; a cassette, storage rack filled with packaged' pro- ' grammes and; blank Jtapes. ' Computing can be a compulsive activity.. It: requires a strong will to switch off themachihe and go .to?bed. In:more 1 , than ; one household; the; wife has threatened : to ; xnake legal history < by, divorcing her husband iaridi citing the camputer as corespondant.