Instruction manual
~"\
Women and Chiidrenk,Lastl
I have a feeling that the real "revolutionary" part
of
the microcomputer revolution is
just
starting to take
place. Of course, parts have gotten smaller and
cheaper; more software is available; new high level
languages are coming along; and
50
forth. The real
significance
of
all
of
these things lies, I believe, in the
fact that millions
of
new people are going
to
get involv-
ed
in computers and computing. While the overwhelm-
ing majority
of
individuals involved in all levels
of
com-
puters currently are men, the microcomputer has made
access to computers available
to
women and children
too. This growing interest was demonstrated to
me
recently at a computer show in Boston. A significant
number
of
the people who stopped by the MICRO booth
to ask questions or talk about systems were women and
teenagers. This issue
of
MICRO contains
·thefirst
arti-
cle by a woman.
We
have several articles in process
from the younger set. The home computer is starting to
make its effect.
I am hoping that the inclusion
of
these two new
groups
of
computerists is going
to
have a beneficial im-
pact on computing. Many
of
the individuals who owned
the earliest micros were men already in the computer
business in one way or another. They came
to
microcomputing with a large set
of
preconceived no-
tions. Most microcomputer programs in use today are
either games or new versions
of
old programs. Not
many really exciting new concepts, ideas, programs,
techniques, languages, approaches, etc. have appeared
- yet. One
of
the reasons has to be the
self-imposed
restraints
of
the microcomputer 'professionals'. Since
they already know 'how to solve problems', they tend
to
use the old tools that they are used to: BASIC, index
se-
quential access methods, etc., and may not be alert to
the new possibilities that the microcomputer provides.
Where are the 'innocents' willing and able
to
try new
directions, create chaos out
of
order, invent new techni-
ques?
Watching my six and eight year old children 'at-
tack' the computer answers the question for
me.
They
are not interested in what "Daddy knows about the com-
puter". They
just
want to push and poke and find out for
themselves. And my wife - she asks some pretty in-
sightful questions when I try to explain why a program
does what
it
does. Perhaps the concept
of
'ego-less pro-
gramming' really takes on meaning when you get
amateurs
just
having fun.
If microcomputing is going
to
break out
of
the
doldrums
of
games and inventory control, then signifi-
cant numbers
of
new ideas and individuals are going to
have
to
be added to the system. Perhaps 'a child
williead them'!
~??/.
~
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