Learning from a computer drama

Press, 28 August 1982, Page 16

Learning from a computer drama

The Soul of a New Machine. By Tracy Kidder. Allen Lane, 1982. 254 pp. $17.95. Illustrating Computers (Without Much Jargon). By Colin Day and Donald Alcock. Pan Information, 1982. 103 pp. $6.95 (paperback). Managing with Computers. By Terry Rowan. Pan, 1982. 299 pp. $8.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Neill Birss)

Tracy Kidder's “Soul of a New Machine,” much acclaimed in the United States and Britain, is ndn-fiction. popular technology, given readability by a dramatic plot. A team of Data General engineers raced to develop a new machine in hot competition with a rival team within the firm, and in competition with development teams from other corporations. The keenness of the competition is illustrated in the book by the stripping down of a rival computer in a way that makes the recent Japanese debacle look much less than sinister.

Around this story Kidder painlessly educates the reader in the terminology of the computer world and in some of the mysteries of its technology. But the main interest arises from the characters. These are the computer experts with whom Kidder worked and studied during their project in 1979. They emerge as researchers driven by a compulsion that kept them in their laboratories long hours into the night.

Kidder likens their motivation to that of the craftsmen who built the Gothic cathedrals. In the medieval case, the craftsmanship gave meaning to lives of men who were not working simply for wages. Similarly with the Data General engineers. He quotes one; “Ninety-eight per cent of the thrill comes from knowing that the thing you designed works, and works almost the way you expected it would. If that happens, part of you is the machine.”

As Kidder explains the nature of the engineers’ work as being like dealing in “skeins of logic,” it becomes.clear that the magnetism of the job is related to other things than cathedral building. It seems not dissimilar to the attraction that draws thousands to hobby computers, or even to that which has children bludging “bus fares” in Cathedral Square when the only

trip they are going on is to a “space invaders” slot machine. The new research heroes prove to be individualists. Some were pushed into computing when they joined companies making defence equipment so that they would avoid being conscripted for service in Vietnam. Beards, jeans, tramping boots, or running shoes, and long hair are the uniform in the laboratories. But even such men and women can wilt under the pressure, and one in the Data General team, with a gutsful of slaving to build a machine that works in billionths of a second, deserted the project, leaving a note reading: "I’m going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season." The group completed its task and in April, 1980, their machine was announced to the public as the Eclipse MV/8000. Kidder has taken the reader on a trip to a fascinating world where an engineer is old at 35 and where a machine is “ancient” after 10 years. No prior computer knowledge is required of the reader. Day and Alcock’s “Illustrating Computers” is sub-titled, “A Beginner’s Guide to How Computers Work." It must be one of the best of the scores of introductory books on computers that have been published. Alcock is also the author of an excellent introduction to the microcomputer

language, BASIC, “Illustrating BASIC." The style of “Illustrating Computers” follows that of the earlier work; superb, whimsical illustrations, and a delightful typeface resembling hand printing. The effect is of a fireside explanation, rather than a formal lecture. Day and Alcock take the reader gently through the workings of computers and programs, the meanings of the terms such as “operating systems” and "machine instructions,” how to get information in and out. what developments are likely; and then they spend a whole chapter on microcomputers. If you have only the time.-money, or inclination to read one book about computers, this is it. Terry Rowan’s "Managing. with Computers" is much more specialised, and may appeal to the managers of bigger firms still thinking of going into computers. However, most of the companies of the size that this book would benefit in New Zealand have long since gone into computers. Rowan has some interesting things to say about cost-benefit analysis before making a purchase, and his strong user point of view is commendable, but the formal and traditional management theory that permeates the book does not match the less rigid way of life in New Zealand.