Excerpt from ABACUS, a short-lived, very lively computer publication in Fargo, ND: At first glance, programming a computer appears as easy as unscrambling a Sanskrit crossword puzzle. Can these intimidating machines be controlled by those of us who cannot balance a checkbook or identify a transistor? What if we foul up the computer? Does programming belong to the professionals, or is it a skill the average computer user would benefit from? These are the kinds of questions Abacus recently asked of Lyle Faurot, a computer consultant from Moorhead. Lyle has been involved with computers for the past two decades. He began studying about computers on his own while in the Air Force and received further training from the University of Minnesota during his years of post-graduate study in the field of vocational education. Besides his work with larger computers, Lyle has taught courses on using the personal computer and related software. He displays a vibrant enthusiasm for the potential of personal computers. Lyle is a free-lance consultant for small business users who want to learn how to make the most out of their computer systems. ABACUS: Why would an ordinary person even want to learn a programming language in view of all the professional software on the market? LYLE: There are several reasons. First, programming is fun. To see a task and make the computer do it is personally rewarding. Secondly, it is difficult to find a commercial package that will do all that you want it to do. Though the selection is getting better all the time, you always find some needs that have been overlooked in commercial packages. Thirdly, most users of commercial packages are forced to do some programming themselves anyway. dBASE III is an example of a software package that really contains its own programming language. You can't take advantage of its power and features without knowing something about programming. Learning some basic techniques helps you set up programs like these to do all they can for you. ABACUS: Are men more adept at programming than women? LYLE: No. I've trained both men and women. I haven't noticed any inherent difference in their ability to work effectively with computers. ABACUS: Do you need any special skills or abilities? What if you don't like math? LYLE: The idea that you have to be a whiz at mathematics is an old myth. Almost anyone can learn how to set up a condition--to tell the computer "If THIS happens, then I want the program to do THAT." Mathematicians have no corner on the kind of thinking required to structure a useful program. ABACUS: What language would you recommend for the new computer user? LYLE: I'd recommend BASIC. ABACUS: Why? LYLE: In BASIC it is easy to get started doing things where you can see your results. To enjoy learning people need feedback-- they need reinforcement. It's fun to type in a few short lines of instructions and then watch something happen. BASIC was designed for that purpose. It is a teaching language that helps you pick up skills rather easily. ABACUS: What about the charges that BASIC is rather primitive, and that it leads to bad programming habits? LYLE: Oh, it does have weaknesses. You have to be careful with global variables. Say you define some variable as x. You have to make sure that you never use x for a different variable anywhere else in the program. You can also abuse the GOTO statement. But any BASIC programmer who is careful can learn good structured programming. ABACUS: You are constructing a tutorial package for Turbo PASCAL. How did this interest develop? LYLE: I've always liked PASCAL. It is a good quality programming language. Programmers waste a lot of time debugging their programs--trying to find the little mistakes that prevent them from working. Turbo PASCAL makes that often frustrating task much easier. I designed the tutorials because of the appeal of Turbo PASCAL. It's fast, efficient, and yet cheap. Many people are out there trying to learn it. ABACUS: What, in your opinion, makes a good tutorial? LYLE: A good tutorial must be organized around action and involvement. The computer user must be given the chance to do things. In many cases people will spend half their time typing in lines of a program from a book. That's a waste. What you need is a program already written that you can play with. You change one instruction and watch the results. You modify another instruction and something else happens. That's how you learn what the language commands can do. Good tutorials give you the chance to experiment and play around. ABACUS: What advice would you give to anyone interested in learning a programming language? LYLE: Learners should allow for mistakes and not be afraid to experiment--which means working with copies of critical data. In the long run, most people really teach themselves by trying things and seeing what happens. You can't do that if you're learning with the only copy of your financial records. ABACUS: How can you help a business that owns a computer? LYLE: I can show business users how to computerize their files, how to get reports out quicker, how to get the most out of the software they are running on their computer--saving time and money. ABACUS: Why should a business user consider training for himself or his employees? LYLE: Some people need encouragement to overcome fear of computers--or simply their fear of making mistakes. They often need help performing tasks not covered in the manual--how to get a program loaded and running, how to see what's on disks and perform other electronic housekeeping chores. They need to know what to do if something goes wrong and how to react to common problems. It doesn't take much training to resolve these initial problems. Without it, businessmen may become frustrated to the point where they use their computer very little or not at all. They may think that their computer hardware or software is no good. A little personal training in which you can ask all the questions you want can prevent that from happening. ABACUS: What kind of services do you offer as a consultant? LYLE: One of my jobs is to help train people to enjoy using their computer systems effectively. I help them to get started, to find the appropriate software, and to use popular commercial programs--like Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE III. On a larger scale, I offer seminars to businesses introducing their staff to the basics of using a computer, to Lotus 1-2-3 or dBASE III, or to working with particular programming languages. I also work on customizing and designing programs to fit the specific needs of a business operation. ABACUS: How have computers changed in the last two decades? LYLE: The change has been tremendous! When I was teaching at St. Cloud State, we worked with the IBM 1620. We had to sit at a keyboard that would punch out a card for each line of code in the program we were writing. Our program came out in the form of a deck of cards. Then we had to take the cards and feed them into the computer. It would print a second deck in what's called object code. If everything worked to that point, we would go back and type out another deck of cards with the data we were to process. Lastly, we would feed the computer the object code deck and the data deck of cards and hoped everything would work. ABACUS: Sounds slow and cumbersome. LYLE: It was--especially at the university where you had to wait for someone else to feed the cards into the computer. You could only run the cards through three or four times in a day. It might take days to find one or two mistakes that way. That's how I learned PASCAL. But now with Turbo PASCAL, I can reduce that week-long card feeding process down to five minutes on my personal computer. ABACUS: What's ahead, Lyle? LYLE: The bigger computers will stay around to handle large files and large programs that can't run on a PC. They will remain the backbone of large scale scientific applications. The Cray will still be cranking out giga-instructions per second. Mainframes offer more security, too. But the personal computer will be doing more and more. Why tie up a mainframe computer for a spreadsheet program or for wordprocessing? Remember, too, that the PC is a personal computer--that means almost unlimited flexibility. No one else has control of it. There's no waiting. You use it when you want to at your convenience in a location of your choice. In talking with Lyle, one realizes the why the personal computer is so popular. The PC brings all this technology and convenience to the doorstep of almost any businessman. It has a bright future--especially with people like Lyle to build the bridge between the machine and the consumer.