February 11, 1988 volume 1 no 1

INTRODUCTION

This newsletter is to inform people

of developments in an effort to ad-

vance computer education. Workers at

the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, MI.

were denied computer programming

classes. There was an effort by ad-

ministrators of the UAW-Ford program

computer is still in the early stage

of development, the ideas and experi-

ences of the users need to be shared

and built on if this technology is to

advance. To this end, this newsletter

is dedicated to all people interested

in learning about computers. We wel-

come articles, programs, reviews,

etc. We want this newsletter to help

people use their computers in ways

Try This (IBM). . . . . . . . Page 3

Future Belongs to Programmers Page 3

Why Learning Programming. . . Page 4

Commodore Tips & Tricks . . . Page 7

The Amateur Computerist invites con-

tributions of articles, programs,

etc. Send submissions to:

R. Hauben

P.O. Box 4344

Dearborn, MI 48126

chine Age to the Mind Age, here we

are. Let not any force or forces keep

it under wraps. Let it be free to

circulate in the Public Domain. Let

us base it upon principle, not on

price, like Truth or Love. From the

Great Wall to the Great Pyramid, from

the hieroglyphics to the screen of

the computer, mankind is still pro-

gressing. So make the new born sci-

falling star to the falling apple,

from the minute to the multitudinous,

from secrets to disclosure, I am

pleased to endorse the amateur

method. Therefore I implore all to

plan and to participate even though I

have been on disability for 26 years

and have not had the opportunity to

participate in the great sea of know-

ledge that has flowed over the Dam of

Continue to Make Use of It to the

Advantage of the Masses — Come, Let

Us Reason Together. With an open mind

and a free spirit, let me reiterate,

there is so much more to know, that

what we do know, is still insignifi-

cant. It gives me great pleasure to

endorse this free-for-all program of

a restless mind.

Floyd Hoke-Miller

sen so that this issue could be ded-

icated to the Flint Sit Down pioneers

on the victory of their battle to win

industrial unionism 51 years ago.

Floyd Hoke-Miller, whose article

"Dawn of a New Era" appears elsewhere

in this newsletter, was a sit-downer

in Plant 4 in Flint, MI during the

Great Flint Sit-Down Strike. He con-

tinues to participate in the battle

newspaper in which he tried to sum up

the gains and unresolved problems

that the sit-downers had left behind

them. He wrote, "Each generation has

to solve its own problems. The

sit-down generation solved the prob-

lem of organization. The postwar

generation solved the problem of pen-

sions and inflation. Not entirely,

but a good start was begun. The pres-

The Amateur Computerist is an ef-

fort to encourage discussion on the

problem of Automation. Microcomputers

are now an important fact of life.

They are new. The first microcomputer

design was announced to the public

only 14 years ago. (It was the Mark-8

by Jonathan Titus featured on the

cover of the July 1974 issue of Radio

Electronics.) Today, personal com-

that knowledge about computers is

available to amateurs as well as

professionals.

In a book written shortly before

the invention of the personal com-

puter, Ted Nelson warns against al-

lowing a computer priesthood to de-

velop. He writes, “Knowledge is power

and so it tends to be hoarded. Ex-

perts in any field rarely want people

group of insiders would have hoarded

computers just as much.... But things

have gone too far. People have le-

gitimate complaints about the way

computers are used, and legitimate

ideas for ways they should be used

which should no longer be shunted

services like Compuserve or the

Source. They bill users a fee for the

time on line.

Another user sums up the value of

telecommunications: "You exchange

ideas, you discuss, you might not see

these people, but you have connection

with them thru the modem so if you're

stuck at home, you're still out in

the world. You exchange ideas, mes-

10 KEY OFF:CLS:SCREEN 1

20 X=4*RND:Y=4*RND:IF X=Y THEN 20

30 COLOR X,Y

40 FOR A=-120 TO 120 STEP 4

50 FOR B=0 TO 1

60 LINE (160,100)-(A,199*B),RND*4

70 LINE (160,100)-(319-A,199*B)

80 NEXT B

90 NEXT A

100 FOR D= 1 TO 5

170 PAINT(160,100-E*2.5+2),RND*4

180 NEXT

190 LOCATE 13,17:PRINT"THE END"

An article in the Jan/Feb.1988

issue of Computer Update, the maga-

zine of the Boston Computer Society,

explained that Microsoft is recom-

mending that computer users learn to

program in BASIC. Microsoft sponsored

the seminar to explain the importance

of learning to program. "Microsoft

t o d a y i s b u s t l i n g w i t h

activity...Oddly enough, Microsoft

chose not to talk about any of these

activities with the user group commu-

nity. Instead, it focused all of the

sessions on its work on programming

languages," reported the Boston Com-

puter Society representative.

become more sophisticated, Microsoft

believes, they will eventually find

themselves needing performance and

specialized functions that only a

programming language can provide."

The article quotes a Microsoft

engineer, "In the future, everything

should have programmability." The

User Group Representatives were fur-

ther surprised by another development

obsolete language." The writer went

on to cite the slowness and lack of

sophistication of BASIC as the rea-

son. "More and more" programmers "are

opting for C as their language of

choice," he explains.

But not only is BASIC available on

more personal computers than any

other language, it is also easier to

learn than any other language. "For

for a `universal macro language' for

personal computers." The article goes

on to suggest that "This language

would allow users to write procedures

that work on all different applic-

ation programs and operating systems.

(It could, for example, permit you to

write a macro in 1-2-3 that called up

a program in dBase III and then

tra nsfe rred information to

micro language." The result would be

that BASIC, "then could become the

Three years ago there were classes

in computer programming (in BASIC)

at Ford's Dearborn Engine Plant and

at Ford UAW Local 600. Also, there

were classes in programming in BASIC

amming in BASIC in the Dearborn Pub-

lic Schools. Thus there has been a

substantial change in computer edu-

cation both at the workplace and in

the public schools. Why has this

change occurred? Also there were

public moneys, from both the Federal

and state government allocated to

provide for these and other classes.

When public funds are involved, there

Over the past three years UAW mem-

bers at the Ford Rouge Plant made

clear that they were interested in

learning computer programming. The

personal computer is a young technol-

ogy. It's only beginning to be devel-

oped in terms of uses at home. More

people have computers in their homes

now and they want to be able to use

them for things they previously had

ggle as to whether the factory owners

or the workers would determine the

content of the classes offered.

were supposed to be available as

adult education classes run by a

local school system. And there was

State and federal funding supplement-

ing the class offerings. A Professor

from the University of Michigan who

wrote an evaluation of the program in

Spring, 1984 said that the computer

classes were the most important as-

pect of the program, and he recom-

workers at the Rouge be notified of

all the classes that are offered at

the Dearborn Engine Plant. Yet in

Fall 1985, the computer classes were

removed from the brochures advertis-

ing the classes available at the

Dearborn Engine Plant. And then some

of the computer classes were cut out.

When UAW members tried to inquire

about why this was happening, they

And the D.E.P contract also stipu-

lated that there would be advanced

computer classes offered at the

D.E.P. Yet when U.A.W. members tried

to register for these advanced clas-

ses, they were told that they would-

n't be available. They were told they

could take classes in computer appli-

cations at Local 600. Why was such an

effort made, despite federal funding

workers won't have to program a com-

puter, they will only have to operate

it. Thus computer classes need only

teach how to run a commercial com-

puter program. But the computer is

not a word processor or a spreadsheet

or a data base machine. Almost any

personal computer can be used in a

variety of ways. It can be used for

plication is not necessarily helpful

in learning the flexible nature of

the computer. The personal computer

is an all purpose machine. It has

only begun to show its varied poten-

tial. But to utilize this machine,

you have to understand how it works

and how to get it to do what you

want. Thus you need to know how to

program it.

same goes for the personal computer.

The more you use it at home, the more

you will be able to understand how it

functions and be able to use it at

work. Some U.S. corporations seem to

believe they can control the com-

puter, so they are keeping workers

and schoolchildren from learning

programming. One company officials

told a mother his company didn't want

learn to program they will change the

operation of a machine. But are

these fears realistic?

First of all, the computer is new.

People using computers will be run-

ning into new, unknown situations.

Management may claim they don't want

workers trying to deal with these

situations, they want PRODUCTION.

There are salary programmers. But

problems that occur in the course of

operating the computers that are

being installed on the shop floor.

In the pre-computer era, someone

running a Keller machine needed to

know what cutters to use in what

areas, what direction to run in, how

to set the job up, the size of the

tracers, which cutters to use for

certain areas, when the job was done,

grammers at another location. But if

the cutter gets dull or hits screws

and dowels, or there's too much stock

or no stock (for example you can't

take off 4 inches of stock at one

time as you would break the cutter)

then the operator has to intervene in

the program and override it. Kellers,

now, are run by direct numerical con-

trol, rather than by paper tape. In

thing is wrong, it is now possible to

edit the program and correct the

error. Therefore, it increases effi-

ciency for the operator to know how

to program the machine. Also, it is

more likely a worker who doesn't know

programming will make some mistake

that may interfere with the program

in a machine, while one who knows how

the machine operates and is equipped

programs. It also makes it possible

for a beginner to write simple pro-

grams. If someone doesn't know BASIC

or another programming language, he

doesn't know what a computer can do.

He doesn't know if the computer is

capable of adding, subtracting, or

how it does it. If he runs into trou-

ble, he has no idea why. Someone who

has learned a little BASIC programm-

other file on the disk:

10 INPUT "name of current first

program"; F$

20 INPUT "name of program to be

first"; P$

30 PRINT "validating disk" : OPEN

15,8,15,"V0"

40 PRINT "swapping files" : F1$ =

F$+"." : P1$ =

PRINT#15

, "S0:"+P$

70 PRINT#15,"R0:"+P$+"=0:"+P1$ :

PRINT#15,

"R0:"+F$+"=0:"+F1$

80 CLOSE15 : PRINT"{ 2 curser

downs} all done!"