|DÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ |Dº |5Diskussion |DºÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ |DÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ^C^1Blue Notes Dear B.B. Disk, Well, here I am again. Thanks a lot for publishing my letter (after you cleaned up my refinery language) and my recipes in Issue 13. Many thanks also to the programmer (whose name I can't remember) who generously took the time out to talk to me today (10/19/87) and read me the correct Status.dat file after I somehow butchered it. He was right - that space at the end of it made all the difference in the world. I also really enjoyed talking to him and am looking forward to trying "KLONDIKE". It just so happened that I had just mailed in my renewal about an hour before I called. I would like to ask you several questions that may become the basis of some articles and/or discussion. First, I would like to know the difference between the various chips used in the MS-DOS machines. My IBM XT has an 8088 chip with a 8087 math co- processor. My boss's IBM AT has a 80286 chip with a 80287 math co-processor. So far, so good. The new IBM Model 30 has an 8086 chip, as does my Amstrad. To top it off, I see clones advertised with "8088-1" or "8088-2" chips, like these were something different than a plain old 8088. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each chip, explained in plain English, not computer gibberish? Now, let's hear it for the computer gripe department. Why did I have to buy two extra books at 20+ bucks per just to find out the correct syntax and commands to be used with EDLIN and PROMPT as well as a few others? Why couldn't these simple instructions have been put into the original manual? They spend 20 pages telling you how wonderful their machine is, how to plug it in to the wall and how to put a disk into the little slot. Then they can't write three pages of documentation to explain those mysterious commands that make the machine's gizzards work the way they are supposed to work. Part of my job in the refinery includes writing manuals for safe, efficient operation for the units of which I am in charge. I'm talking about 40 - 50+ million units which supply the refinery with a constant supply of utilities - note that I said CONSTANT. An oil refinery runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The operators I write these manuals for are great people, but occasionally there are one or two who are not quite that sharp. Few, if any, have more than a high school diploma. Operating manuals must be written in plain everyday English, direct and to the point, with nothing left to chance and with no possible misinterpretations. With these manuals, I can take anyone who can read English and have them start or shut down a 2000 horsepower steam turbine driven pump safely within a matter of hours. He (or she) will also know exactly what they did, why, and how to do it again. I have been doing this for over 24 years and have never had any trouble. I don't consider myself any type of "brain" and neither do my supervisors. This is normal in an oil refinery. Now if a dumbbell like myself can do this, why is my Lotus manual written in what seems to be some obscure form of Chinese? The words are English, but their meanings are something out of Alice In Wonderland. Why doesn't the "@@" command work in Lotus macros like the manual insinuates that it should? What would be so difficult in providing a "trouble-shooting" chart that we ordinary mortals could use when things don't work out the way the book says it should? My favorite is "Error 12". Just what in the hell does THAT mean? How do I fix it NOW? Sending anything back to the factory or even trying to call them is usually an exercise in instant insanity. I think the people they hire to answer user questions must have majored in "Oral Confusion" or "Non-Communications" in college. About the only response I have been able to get is "I can't understand what seems to be your problem." Whenever a program doesn't work, I need a simple and IMMEDIATE fix, or the entire program becomes expensive junk, as far as I'm concerned. They could at least provide us with a toll free number to call in an emergency - manned (personned?) by someone who speaks the same English you and I speak. Incidentally, this is why I was so pleasantly surprised today when I called your number and got immediate help with my Status.Dat file. Other people should follow your lead - maybe they just might sell a few more programs. Speaking of selling programs, I have become extremely wary of buying any program that I haven't seen or tried first. Software rental stores are booming in this area. I'm not crazy about Lotus 123 or Symphony, but all the other spreadsheets I have tried just haven't cut it yet, especially in the area of multiple automatic graph generation thru macros. I bought 3 word processors before Volkswriter III was forced on me at work. Now think I will buy my own copy soon. As far as Autocad is concerned, the manual is written in gibberish, the program is overpriced by a factor of at least 10 - maybe 30, and I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole if it wasn't the only option available at work. It has some great features that I really like, but too much of it is undocumented, and sometimes strange things happen without explanation. Worst of all, the menu takes up about 1/4 of the screen and most of the rest of the screen is unavailable for use. Couldn't they have used a pop-up menu? I would gladly buy one of the lower priced CAD systems that are available on the market, IF I could try it out first - and IF it did what I want it to do without hassle, and IF it did not require one of my other pet peeves - the mouse. I think that mice are nice where they belong - in traps, not in computers. Wasn't it bad enough for computers to have bugs in them - now they have mice? Is there no end to the vermin infestation? What's next - chipmunks? The meeses I have tried were slower and less accurate than a keyboard. They may be nice for games, but who cares? What's the matter with WORDS? Have we forgotten how to use plain, simple words? This brings me to my other pet hate -the infamous Icon. Why Icons? Can't we all read English? Must we have cutesy little pictures to tell us what to do next? Are we raising a nation of people who are computer literate but English illiterate? One of the programs I bought and threw away had a picture of of a hammer in it. I never did find out what it was supposed to mean, but I know what I thought it meant - I should have hit myself on the head with a hammer for buying anything so childish and inane. Expensive trash! And just EXACTLY what do the scissors mean? Cut & Paste? Cut what? Paste what? Paste what to what? What is the matter with simple words like "insert" or "delete" or "move"? If I wanted to see a picture show, I'd turn on the Boob Tube and let the over-paid, shallow minded fools like Merv Watchamacallit do my thinking for me. My opinion is, if you MUST have pictures to run your computer, you should really take up something that fits your mental aptitude better - like knitting - or sky-diving, sans 'chute. One of the great strengths of Volkswriter is its simple menu, ready to use at any time. No artsy-craftsy pictures of garbage cans and scissors - as they used to say on "Fishnet": "Just the facts, ma'am." Well, I guess I've bent your eyeballs enough and made enough enemies for one session. If you decide to use any of these meanderings, I'd be grateful and be interested in any reader reaction. I love a good word fight - only feelings get broken and the hospital bills are less. Don't say it - I know - I talk too much. P.S. As I am writing this, I hear the stock market has gone bananas. I sure am glad that I have all my money tied up in something with real value -something that always goes up, never down - - - DEBTS! P.P.S. My opinion of stock brokers is that they all "make money the old-fashioned way" - they steal it! ^RBob Talley ^RNederland, TX |5ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Dear BBD: I just purchased BBD #12. All works well, except for Blueline Editor. The reason I am not requesting a replacement is that the problem may have been my fault. I started Blueline and, when it asked for my file name, I had forgotten it. I went in to SIDEKICK to get a directory to find out the name. Then the whole system croaked. Any further attempts to run the editor continued to lock up the system. As it is, I have Fred, PC_WRITE, SIDEKICK, and, of course, EDLIN; so I don't really need another editor. Everything else on BBD seems to be OK. I will be interested whether you can read this, or if it looks normal, under BLUELINE. The point that you don't have room for source code is well taken. Yet many of us like to mess around with code. Perhaps it would work to put requested code on self-addresed stamped disk (SASD). Source code for VERY simple-minded word processor, data base, and spreadsheet (just enough to show how one goes about such things) would be of interest to many of us, especially if the structure of the program made it easy for us to modify and add our own features. ^RJerry Bryson ^RRichmond, VA ^1> I guess Sidekick does something that messes up BlueLine. Any other readers ^1> have experiences of this sort? |5ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Dear sir, I found ExpressCalc great. The disappointment came when I found in the files programs that cannot be used (Budget, Amort, Function, Craps). Try as I would, I could not get the programs to run, and I found no instructions on how to run them. ^RLamar Moriss ^RLayton, UT ^1> Those files are templates, which must be loaded into ExpressCalc in order ^1> to run them. With ExpressCalc loaded, type the slash key (/), followed by ^1> the command L for Load. Then type the name of the template to load, and ^1> follow other prompts. It will then pop up on the screen for your use. |5ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ To BIG BLUE DISK: I would like to know why you are putting recipes in a computer disk magazine. If I wanted recipes I would have bought a cookbook. Instead of recipes, I suggest you put more games, utilities, or better business software that will run on a 128K PCjr. ^RDavid Poage ^RYukon, OK ^1> We're sorry you didn't like the recipes; others appreciated this change of ^1> pace. We plan on keeping such all-text material to a minimum, though, so we ^1> can concentrate on what we do best: ready-to-run programs. Next month's issue ^1> has a program that will be of interest to recipe fans: the first in a series ^1> of sampler disks from Vanilla Software's Diskette Cookbook series. This ^1> contains a number of recipes, presented by a program which lets you search for ^1> the one you want, and even prints a shopping list for you. ^1> ^1> We require a minimum of 256K, so we do not support 128K PCjr's. Sorry.