HOW I BECAME A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER
by Peter Davy
This is an up-dated version of an article which appeared in the Summer
1988 issue of "Microwaveband", the journal of the now defunct
organisation CABE - Computers and Adult Basic Education.
Acquiring the all-absorbing hobby of computer programming was a direct
result of my involvement with the Adult Literacy Scheme.
For many years I was a volunteer literacy tutor at the Wakefield
District College. It so happened that about sixteen years ago the
classroom we used was next to the computer department. A member of
their staff, seeing the sort of work we were doing, suggested that we
could be helped by the use of computers. In those days my feelings
towards computers bordered on the hostile. In the course of my work as
a gas industry chemist, my experiences with computer people were not
happy ones. They spoke a language I could not understand and made a
speciality of telling me what I could have, which was always different
from what I actually wanted.
The suggestion from the computer department was that they would put on
a short course in BASIC programming for volunteer tutors so we could
write our own programs. I only learned later, of course, to spell
"programs" that way!
I couldn't see how computers could possibly be of help to us and it
was with little enthusiasm that I enrolled on the course. Having
enrolled, I nearly gave up without starting as I was unable to attend
the first session because my work demanded that I was elsewhere that
evening. I turned up, diffidently, for the second session. Having
missed the first, the words of our lecturer meant little to me. After
his talk we trooped into a room housing what I later came to know as
computer terminals and to my astonishment each of my fellow students
sat at one and started vigorously typing at its keyboard, filling the
room with an unpleasant clatter as typing oozed out on what looked
like kitchen rolls. Seeing my look of bewilderment, our friendly
lecturer took me aside and quickly went over what he had covered the
previous week. Things were a bit clearer but I don't think on that
night I had the courage to type anything in at one of those terminals.
Before the third session (my second) I happened to look in the window
of our local Tandy's - the electronics and hi-fi chain. I saw what
looked to be just what I needed. And so it turned out to be. What I
saw (and bought) was a book called "Complete Programming in Basic for
Everyone" by Thomas A. Dwyer and Michael S. Kaufman. All the mysteries
of the BASIC language were explained. On my next visit to the computer
department I had with me one or two short programs which I had written
to try out.
By now I was beginning to get hooked on computer programming. I was
still doubtful that computers had a place in the teaching of adult
literacy but now I wanted it to have a place because I wanted to
continue with this fascinating occupation of computer programming. I
had always had an interest in gadgetry and in my work had a reputation
as a small time inventor of machines to carry out tasks which were
usually carried out manually. Computer programming seemed to be an
extension of this. Instead of a machine with levers, cams and
sprockets you have a program with ideas, instructions and tests. The
satisfaction when it works is the same whether "it" is a gadget or a
program. Perhaps I should explain that the computer we were using was
the college main-frame machine - a big computer serving a large group
of what are known as teletype terminals, each of which resembled a
large clattery typewriter.
As the weeks passed, members dropped off the course until after about
eight weeks I was the only one attending. I ceased to be a man
attending a course and became instead a man writing programs to help
adult literacy students. My first program was very crude. The student
was given a sentence to read and had to supply a missing word. I had
not discovered how the computer can be made to do things randomly. In
my program the sentences came up in the same order each time and for
each sentence it was always the same word which was missing. I was
very gratified that my program was very popular with both students and
tutors despite the slowness and noise and the text in capital letters
only.
In due course some visual display unit terminals appeared. These were
better for our purpose as they were quicker and quieter and would
display lower case characters. Some students did however deplore the
absence of a piece of print-out to take home. As my enthusiasm for
programming grew, my attendance at the computer department increased
from a weekly two hour session to twice weekly three hour sessions.
But even this was not enough. My appetite for programming could be
satisfied only by having my own computer at home. I bought a Tandy
TRS-80 Level 2 micro computer. Programs started to roll off the
assembly line. I could write them at home, get them working and then
translate them from TRS-80 BASIC to college computer BASIC. The two
were very similar so not much translation was needed.
Every jar of ointment has its fly. The happy state of affairs
described above became less happy. Quite often the computer department
needed all of its terminals for its own students. Then both
departments were moved so we were not in the same building. Use of the
computer for adult literacy almost ceased. Clearly the department
needed its own terminals or, better still, its own independent micro
computers. After prolonged lobbying, two BBC-B micro computers became
a reality. I bought a BBC-B of my own. Then came the job of
translating from the main frame to the BBC-B. I didn't translate all
that many programs as it soon became apparent that it was better to
re-write programs to make use of the many special features of the BBC
computer.
My present output consists of nearly 150 programs, mainly for literacy
but a few for numeracy, occupying 19 40 track single-sided disks. I
have supplied copies to more than 500 colleges, schools, hospitals,
prisons etc. The software is free. Users pay only for the disks,
postage and packing. My software is now available from the 8-Bit
Software PD catalogue as 5 double sided 80-track disks TBI-46-1 to
TBI-46-5. Many of the programs can be enjoyed by young children.
Among readers who have continued to this point may be some who have
access to a BBC computer, have no knowledge of programming but would
like to have a go. Such readers should look out for my other article
entitled: "An Insight into Programming".