On 06/07/2016 01:22 PM, Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Having grown up in the early 8-bit era and wanting to share the experience with my children, this is something I think about often. I liken the general lack of knowledge about the inner working of computers to the general lack of knowledge of automobile internals. in the first half of the century, it behooved you to have a very good working knowledge of your car so that you could keep it running in any kind of good order. It was easier then, as engines, suspensions and electrical systems were vastly simpler, and anyone with a modicum of mechanical aptitude and desire could do most routine maintenance and repairs. Todays vehicles are an order of magnitude more complex with virtually unserviceable electronic systems controlling virtually every aspect of the car. So in defense of users, they shouldn't have to know the intimate details of the car if they just want to drive. And much the same, users should not need to know the inner workings of computers if they have tasks to complete. This is the goal that programmers, user interface and human factors engineers have been striving for years. Now we finally have it, at the cost of a loss of interest of what's going on under the hood. The upside is computing power for everyone.
Agreed 100%. The big problem we have, though, is that people have lost sight of what knowledge is necessary to write software (not throw it together, but WRITE it) effectively and efficiently. They know they've lost sight of it, and they think that's fine. The other problem is that we still call them "computers". Yes, of course that's what they are, but then so are our phones, and our air conditioners' remote controls, and most everything else. What most people sit in front of nowadays are terminals, simple communications devices which do little other than browse the WWW on any given day. If it's not that, it's running games, turning a complex very capable machine into a toy. In short, very few people COMPUTE with computers anymore. That's not a problem, of course...but still calling them "computers" rather than "terminals" or "toys" confuses people and affects their thinking. If you "know computers" that might mean you "can browse the WWW" or you "can play with toys". It very rarely means that you actually "know computers". -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA