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Edward D. Perry's [Pete] Presentation

December 07

CD/DVD storage device from “discGEAR”.

RILug Talk
Hi all. Let me start by saying that I think of a computer as a pencil. I use it to make drawings or write letters. I am not interested is how a pencil is maid or why it makes black lines on a piece of paper. When it needs sharpening I use a pencil sharpener.

In my mind, the computer is the pencil and the computer program is the sharpener.

I am a structural engineer and have been designing building major structures since the late 40s. Long before any of you were born. I was fortunate to have a sort of inventive approach to my work which led me to inventing a precast concrete building system. This led me to the inadequates of my pencil sharpener, I mean computer, which got me started in programming.

I started my own precast concrete plant in Tampa, Florida in 1970. I used an Olivetti Programmable Calculator to convert feet and inches to a code used by the form setup “jigs and fixtures” and I have been programming in one language or another ever since.

My interest in a computer is what can it do for me in my work as an engineer. I am not in the computer industry; I am a “user”. As such my perspective on what a computer program should be may be different then yours.

When designing structures we used slid rules, pen or ink on paper or linen for our designs, then came along computers and their “programmers” looking around to where their computers could be used. Here came a gigantic missteak.

The computer programmers came to us pencil pushers and told us we could make our drawing on their computers. So we now had CAD. Boy we really could make drawings now! WOW. But there was a difference. When a draftsman drew a line on a piece of paper, it was not just a line going from this point to that point, it was a beam, edge of a door or an opening in the floor. To the computer it was just a line between two points. Yes, we could add a note labeling it this or that, but it was still just a line. IT IS EXACTLY THE SAME TODAY! I will go into this further if there is time later.

Recently I have given considerable though to the increasingly steep learning curves of today's programs and at my age and that of my friends who may be “casual” computer user, e-mail and maybe a letter or two or maybe even a game or so.

I have two programs that address this learning curve problem with out compromising the functionality of the program. If it takes more then an hour or two to learn, then I have not done my work. I believe these approaches would be viable for almost any functional program . I am working on one that will include 3d modeling and rendering.

I have brought with me a CD/DVD storage device from “discGEAR”. Since I use Linux almost exclusively, I wrote an “indexing” program for it,

The second program is an Avery labeling program which has several lists. on it. Marylyn, would you like to try your hand at it. I will give you 5 minutes to learn how.

I have some hand outs that shows the user interface for the two programs so lets talk about them.

Thanks