Thursday, March 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024
72° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Publications

CONSUMER COMPUTER-EASE

New software that speaks your language
By Emily Freeman Pinkston |

SINCE TECHNOLOGY HAS brought the computer into Everyman’s home and office, the microcomputer market has been changing as rapidly as Superman in his booth. The explosive technology may be wowing us, but it has produced some problems, too: computers that require a tin-kerer’s brain to operate them, instruction manuals written in computertalk, a voluminous mismatch of hardware, software, peripherals and an obsolescence rate bar none.

Now for the good news: Much of what’s happening in the computer marketplace is aimed at correcting those problems. The big word around the stratospheric places where computers are designed is “ergonomics”-making those machines more approachable by humans. In retail shoptalk, it’s “user friendly.” Although computers aren’t friendly yet, they are showing some signs of neighborliness.

In the past, you told your computer what to do (pull a file, print what you’ve done, whatever) by typing in a set of (usually cryptic) letters, numbers and/or symbols. Witness some options you now have:

It’s polite to point. If you have a Hewlett-Packard 150, you can let your fingers do what they naturally do-point. To select a command from a group of options, or to move a paragraph or create a graphic, you just touch the appropriate spot on the screen. On the Gavel in, you use a touch panel below the screen to do the same thing.

Of mice and men. Software is being produced for many computers, such as Apple’s Lisa or Macintosh, to work with a small box that has a long tail (a wire connected to the central unit), a head (a button) or perhaps ears (two buttons). You scoot the “mouse” along your desk or on a special pad, and a corresponding symbol moves across the screen. Move the critter until the symbol rests on top of the option you want, push the button, and your computer gets the message. A light pen (the computer “senses” the location of the light) works in a similar way.

One picture is worth… On your screen, pictures, rather than words, show you what you can do. Move your mouse or light pen over to the picture of the trash can, for instance, and the computer deletes the information.

The one-key solution. Some people feel perfectly comfortable typing in commands through a keyboard, and in the long run, the keyboard may be easier and perhaps faster for these people to use than a mouse or finger. The old programs, however, often took a series of keystrokes to perform anything. When you’re busy doing something, you don’t want to slow down to look up-much less memorize-some cryptic command (i.e. control key and G plus L). You want to press a key and get on with your business.

The Epson QX-10, among others, lets you use single-key commands to perform major functions (and they also make sense on the keyboard). For instance, key labels include “store,” “retrieve” and “undo.”

Even if your computer keyboard isn’t quite that state of the art, you may be able to use the function keys (extra keys, frequently on a row above or to the side of the regular keyboard, which the user can program) for one-stroke commands.



LEARNING TO USE your computer isn’t an altogether friendly proposition yet, but much progress has been made:

Plain English, please. The instruction manuals (called “documentation”) were originally written by and for computer programmers. Some still are, but savvy consumers are peeking at the documentation before making a purchase. If they can’t read it, they don’t buy. Manufacturers are getting the picture.

“We’ve been 360 degrees on documentation. Manuals used to talk about bytes and bits that no one needed to know about. They had no tutorials. Now they’re getting where they ought to be,” says Margaret Gilbert, co-owner of The SoftSource, a specialty software store for the IBM PC and its compatibles.

Hands-on learning. If you would like to use your keyboard to learn, rather than turn the pages of an instruction manual, you can buy software packages (Cdex Corporation is a popular label) designed to teach you how to use your computer. Plug in the program, and learn as you compute. And software is available to teach you how to use other software. Even better, high-quality, serious software comes with an on-screen tutorial.

Seller training. If you buy your computer or software at a store that’s serious about doing business, you should be able to buy some training-and have support after the purchase is final.

“Training is becoming a vital part of the business. That’s one of the biggest changes. If you buy something, you want to be able to call and say, ’Hey, I’m stuck,’ ” says Jackie West, head of training at ComputerLand, where training is one on one. Leading software companies also are providing more after-the-sale help with toll-free phone lines and dealer support.



WHEN COMPUTERS CAME on the home scene, consumers had some wonderfully mundane and tedious notions about how to use them: Storing recipes for “easy” access; plugging in the Christmas card list. But no one needs a computer to do what a simple 3-by-5 card system can do with equal efficiency and about the same amount of effort.

Things have changed a bit. In part, we’re simply more sophisticated about what we want to do with a computer. And manufacturers are becoming more knowledgeable about what we want to do.

“The computer is now a tool that people can use. With minicomputers and mainframes, the programmers decided what the people would do with computers. But now, with microcomputers, instead of the programmers, driving the industry, the consumer is [making the decisions about what the computer software should be],” says Jan Josephs, an account executive for Microsoft Corporation, a leading software producer.

More usable software. With the introduction of major “spreadsheet” software, programs such as VisiCalc (which acts like a ledger and not only performs calculations in seconds, but lets you ask “what if I do such-and-such?”) have become increasingly useful. Home financial packages, for instance, don’t just save you time on the calculator, they also help you earmark and calculate items that may affect your taxes.

Educational programs are becoming more sophisticated, too. Rote memorization and multiple-choice guessing may be fine if your child is learning the multiplication tables, but new programs-such as The Learning Company’s Rocky’s Boots-can help your child develop logical thinking. Games continue to proliferate, but they no longer seem to be filled only with monsters and spaceships that go “zap!” and “bonk.” Now, you can play a heady game of chess or tickle your gray matter with sophisticated word or mystery games.

Expert advice at your fingertips. Perhaps the ultimate advance in software to date, “expert systems” do more than give you a neat column of tabulated numbers or entertain you with a game. Developed by Human Edge Software Inc., this type of “thinking” software can advise you on specific strategies for dealing with a specific person in a specific situation. You answer a series of simple questions (with agree/disagree answers) that describe the situation you’re in, your own characteristics and those of the person you’re dealing with (actually very sophisticated psychological tests). Then you choose the area you need help in-such as ways to motivate the person. The computer draws from a huge base of expert advice and research and correlates it with you and your “opponent’s” psychological characteristics to come up with a personalized step-by-step approach for handling that situation. The programs now developed include The Management Edge, the Sales Edge and the Negotiation Edge. These programs are designed primarily for the business world, although you could conceivably use them in your home (to negotiate the price of a house, for instance). More on target for home use, however, is a series called Life Strategies that will be sold in bookstores in the fall. Based on the same psychological approach, they’ll give you advice ranging from ways to get your spouse’s atten-tion to approaches to handling your preschooler.

And on the slightly wacky side of the disk… If you want to travel out to left field a bit, you can find a program for almost anything you (or your computer) could dream up. Undoubtedly, many fall into the category of gimmickry, but some could prove interesting. Software is available to psychoanalyze you, record and tabulate your daily caloric intake, generate your horoscope or direct your exercise efforts. The list goes on and on.

Integrated software. The term “integrated” is a big one around the computer business. People tend to use it in different ways, but the bottom line is that integration tends to make computing easier on you. One level of integration is the “all-in-one” or “multifunctional” software program. In this case, a single program, such as Lotus 1-2-3 or Context MBA, performs more than one function. Typically, the multi-functional program performs one function (such as spreadsheets) extensively while also doing a couple of other things, such as word processing or graphics.

At another level, integration refers to a family of software packages that are all based on the same system of commands. Thus, if you run VisiCalc, you’d have to learn very little more in order to run its sister word-processing program, VisiWord.

The ultimate level of integration occurs when you can pick up any software package, plug it into your computer and use only one set of commands. And you can run more than one of these programs at once-again, governing them with the same commands.

More for your money. The sophistication of software is increasing both in what it can do and in how easy it is to use.

“We’re seeing that software is becoming more capable at the same price. For instance, last year we had a word-processing program for $495. This year, another word-processing program sells for $495, but it also includes a proofreader and merge program,” says West.

Moving down from room-sized mainframes to desk-top microcomputers was an innovation of major significance. Today, we’re moving into the age of battery-powered, lap- sized, briefcase-sized and even hand-sized portable microcomputers with the likes of the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100, Epson HX-20, NEC PC 8201, WorkSlate and Sharp PC 5000.

Many of these models are as much a portable office as they are a portable computer. Not only do you have a keyboard, central processing unit and screen rolled into a tiny package, but some also have a tape recorder, clock, printer and the capability for hooking up a modem (a device that allows you to use the computer with a phone).

As these battery-powered portables become more compatible with office-style microcomputers, you’ll be able to transfer information from your office computer into your portable and work on it at home, then load it back into the office computer the next day at work.

You can-almost literally-be on line to a world of information and services through your telephone and your computer. You can dial into a major computer data base such as Dow Jones News/Retrieval, CompuServe or The Source via the phone, and you can “talk” and “listen” through your computer. Although each data base has its strong points, all three provide an array of current information and services. You can check the weather in Albuquerque or the flight schedules to Miami, find out who won an election in Albany or the price of gold in London. Or you can read a movie review, chart your biorhythms or shop for a book. You can connect with computer-users groups or get on line with an encyclopedia source to help your child with a term paper. The same add-ons that make your telephone and computer communicate with each other also let you tap into the as yet-untapped world of electronic mail.



SOME OF THE highest hi-tech available in microcomputers is still more at home in the office than in the home. Occasionally, though, the breakthroughs that begin in the office filter into the home market. A few of the more tantalizing capabilities that deserve watching:

Speak to me. Imagine being able to command your computer in the most natural way possible-by talking to it. That day isn’t too far off. With the Texas Instruments Professional Computer, you can hook into a Speech Command System that’s capable of both recognizing and understanding your voice. It talks back, too. The technology is in place, but the software that will make it useful will take more time to develop. Once software producers link up the voice capabilities with the programs, for instance, it’s possible that one spoken word could replace up to 40 strokes at the keyboard.

Real English. Ever get so frustrated that you just want to be able to ask a computer a question in plain English? Don’t worry about the jargon the computer understands; communicate in your language. TI’s Natur-alLink is a system that allows you to query the Dow Jones News/Retrieval data base in English. Your video screen is divided into sections called “windows”; from each window, you select a word or short phrase until you’ve formed a question. You move the cursor or a mouse to the word you choose each time and press “return.” So simple.

Using the same technology, business users can program their own system so that the same natural language query approach can be used for the office data base.

Windows on the world. Imagine that your screen is divided into a number of sections or “windows” so that you can see your word processing program in one area, your financial management program in another and your graphics program in another. This capability becomes interesting when you need to transfer information or refer to information between programs. What’s known as the “windowing environment” makes this all possible. If your software didn’t do windows, you’d have to put in one program, save the data, put in another program, enter the data, etc. With windowing, you can also see more than one section of the same program simultaneously and swap data around with ease. A key advantage of some windowing products is that, within some limitations, you can choose the programs that you use together.

“The [windowing environment] software is like an extension of the operating system, which acts as a working layer between the hardware and the programs. It becomes the command system and manages the applications of the programs,” explains Microsoft’s Jan Josephs. Ultimately, you may be able to buy your computer with the windowing environment built in-if producers are able to sell their systems as an addition that could be made by manufacturers. Although many windowing environments require a hard disk, some, such as Microsoft’s Windows, can only be used with floppy diskettes.



YOU MAY HAVE been putting off buying a computer for a perfectly normal, if not downright practical reason: What you buy today may well be out of date tomorrow. With a new generation of computers born about every six months, there’s reason to wonder if today’s computer will be tomorrow’s junk. Obsolescence is still a major issue, but some manufacturers are figuring out that a quickly outmoded model (one for which no one, including the manufacturer, is producing compatible products any longer) doesn’t make for good customer relations-or for repeat customers.

“There’s less and less obsolescence. Users are pushing manufacturers, saying, ’Hey, don’t build a computer that won’t allow expansion.’ There are just certain price points you can push so far,” says Josephs.

Expand, don’t trash. Like stereo equipment, many computers come in components. You can buy the basic parts and add others, such as a printer, later. In much the same way, the internal workings come in parts. The better computers have expansion slots and ports into which you can plug system expansion boards, cards and hardware in order to add on capabilities (such as more memory). These slots may also let you take advantage of some new feature as it comes off the drawing board. For instance, if you bought your computer before the “mouse” was readily available, you might be able to add one to your system if you had a compatible expansion slot open.

Some expansion boards even allow your computer to virtually change its identity by giving it a second disk operating system. (With a second operating system, your computer could then use software written for that system as well.) There’s no question that it will cost money to expand, but it’s better to update your capabilities than to trash the machine.

Enhance. Often, software is updated to accomplish more tasks or to get some bug out. But you don’t always have to buy the whole upgraded edition if you want the improvements.

“Many times, you’ll get an ’enhancement’ with a piece of software,” explains Josephs. “You send in your original disk, and the software manufacturer will upgrade it for you at a nominal cost.” For instance, Mul-tiplan was just enhanced at a cost of only $20 or $25; the original program was $250. (A cardinal rule: Send in the warranty card; it’s frequently the basis for notifying buyers about enhancements.)

Some standardization, more software. Disk operating systems (the internal workings that tell the hardware how to function and how to understand the software) used to be kept top-secret. Typically, when a computer came on the market, only the manufacturer had software for it. Then, before a good selection of software was available, a new, revised computer with a new, revised operating system was sure to appear. It got all the attention, and you were up Computer Creek without software.

“The operating systems are becoming more standardized. They’re not so proprietary in the sense that only the manufacturers have access to the operating system. Now anyone can have access,” explains Josephs.

With knowledge of the operating systems, software producers can have software available as the computer comes on the market. With more options, you’ll be more likely to get your system up and running to suit your needs. If it works, then obsolescence is less of a concern.

“If the cost of the system can be justified today, then the system will pay for itself regardless of what else becomes available,” says Joe Harmon of CompuShop.



EVEN IF YOU don’t have the most popular computer model, software and peripherals may still be plentiful. With increased standardization (no one could say there is standardization yet) in the operating systerns, it’s not as difficult for companies to write a piece of software that can be modified for use on different models. Up to a point, the capabilities can be about the same even if the computers are a few “generations” apart.

The increased standardization has created another phenomenon: a generation of work-alike computers, all patterned after the IBM PC. A mini-business world has grown up around producing programs and peripherals for these computers. With so much investment on the part of both manufacturers and consumers, manufacturers will have to think twice before changing the system so radically that new breakthroughs are incompatible with the equipment. Of course, there are no promises.

Related Articles

Image
Arts & Entertainment

Here’s Who Is Coming to Dallas This Weekend: March 28-31

It's going to be a gorgeous weekend. Pencil in some live music in between those egg hunts and brunches.
Image
Arts & Entertainment

Arlington Museum of Art Debuts Two Must-See Nature-Inspired Additions

The chill of the Arctic Circle and a futuristic digital archive mark the grand opening of the Arlington Museum of Art’s new location.
By Brett Grega
Image
Arts & Entertainment

An Award-Winning SXSW Short Gave a Dallas Filmmaker an Outlet for Her Grief

Sara Nimeh balances humor and poignancy in a coming-of-age drama inspired by her childhood memories.
By Todd Jorgenson
Advertisement