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? GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR NEW PC ?
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I have been programming for twenty years on all sorts of computers,
but the PC is my favorite. I've seen it all (almost), and done it all
(almost) and I'd like to take this opportunity to help those of you who have
just purchased your first PC. I am going to give you a few do's and don'ts
- feel free to disagree, but at least I'll give you some interesting ideas
to think about. First of all, if you have not yet purchased a PC, please
follow the following RULES OF PC PURCHASE:
1. If you can, buy at least a 286 or 386.
(Why? Because the older 8086 PC's are
just TOO SLOW!)
2. Get the biggest hard disk you can afford.
(Why? Because they fill up with good
software much faster than you would expect.)
3. Get a color monitor, preferably VGA.
(Why? Because I like color, of course,
and have three monochrome monitors
sitting unused in my closet!)
4. Make sure one of your floppies is 5 1/4 inch
size (that's the standard size).
Now that you have your PC up and running, here are the things
to do:
1. FOCUS YOUR INTERESTS. Try to figure out why you got a PC and what you
want to do with it. Are you interested in writing, music, art, programming
or what. Come on, you must be interested in something! A PC can be used
for virtually anything. It is even good for teaching your child to read
(Reader Rabbit, Amy's Primer). Focus, focus, focus.
2. USE A SURGE SUPPRESSOR. Go ahead, I know you are almost broke after
buying that 220 Megabyte hard disk, but GET A SURGE SUPPRESSOR BEFORE
YOU TURN IT ON! The very first night I put together my first PC,
there was a huge thunder and lightning storm. My house wiring took
a direct hit while my $3500 investment was on for the very first time!
A surge suppressor saved my bacon by turning off automatically. After
30 minutes it mysteriously went back on by itself, and my PC was undamaged.
3. TRY DESKTOP PUBLISHING & A WORD PROCESSOR. Remember using a typewriter?
One tiny mistake and you had to retype the whole page! Now, with any
simple word processor, you can correct your errors before you print the
first copy. And if you write a lot of letters, it's great to have an
automatic file of all the letters you wrote on your hard disk, complete
with addresses. Desktop publishing is also a terrific advance, and
with inexpensive products like Publish It! or First Publisher, it is
also easy to get started. Perhaps you have an idea for your own
newsletter?
4.TRY LOTUS 123 OR ANOTHER SIMILAR SPREADSHEET. The PC became so incredibly
popular because of Lotus (and Word Processing). Though I personally am
bored to tears by spreadsheets, fifty million users can't be wrong,
so give it a try.
5.TRY THE BASIC INTERPRETER YOU GOT WITH YOUR MACHINE. Basic, or the GWBASIC
you probably got free with your clone, is an easy and surprisingly powerful
language (GW stands for Gee Whiz!). Even if you plan to buy most
of your software, you will understand your PC much better if you write a
few simple BASIC programs of your own. If you find you like BASIC, you
may eventually want to move up to QuickBasic or Turbo Basic, which
run about $69.95 and allow you to compile your Basic Programs to true
EXE files, just like the professional programs you buy.
6.LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT DOS. The Disk Operating System you got with your
machine is also a powerful language, and you should run, not walk, to
your nearest bookstore and buy the slimmest book you can find about DOS.
7.GET A HARD DISK & LEARN TO ORGANIZE IT. If you already have a PC without
a Hard Disk, you have already experienced the incredible frustration
of computing from only one or two floppies. Get a Hard Disk, 40 Megabyte
minimum. It shouldn't cost much more than $300. Right now, there is
a mail-order bargain on the Seagate 65 Meg RLL Drive. You will need
an RLL Controller, but the disk is only $260 and built like a tank.
(See Computer Shopper).
8. GET THE NORTON UTILITIES. This bag of tricks and techniques will more
than pay for itself with Quick Unerase, which will allow you to easily
recover those files you deleted by mistake.
9. BACKUP IRREPLACEABLE FILES TO FLOPPY DISKS. If you are writing the
great American Novel, copy your work once a week to a floppy and stash
it in a safe place. It only takes a second, and imagine how you
would feel if the only copy on your hard disk somehow became
unreadable. I leave the question of full hard disk backups completely
up to you. If you have a lot of important files on your hard disk
it may be advisable, even if it takes 60 or more floppies. Fastback Plus
or DSBackup can ease the task. I don't personally backup, but I have
three machines (one 386, one 286 and one old 8086) and each has copies
of my most important files. They are all surge protected, and the
chance of three simultaneuos hard disk disasters is only 1 in 47,000,000.
(Approximately).
10. BUY A DOZEN SHAREWARE PROGRAMS FOR $1.99 EACH, AND REGISTER AT LEAST ONE.
Shareware is an interesting and inexpensive way to experience a broad
range of software. It is a unique marketing concept - try before you
buy. You will help keep it alive, and more good shareware coming, if
you register the shareware you like and continue to use. You will
absolutely need a simple ASCII Editor to use your PC properly.
Without a simple editor, even changing your AUTOEXEC.BAT file
is a real chore. QEDIT is nice. Put PROMPT $P $G in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file RIGHT NOW if it isn't already there. It
identifies directory names when you change directories.
11. TRY SOME ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMS TO PEEK INTO THE FUTURE
OF COMPUTING. You have probably heard about Expert Systems, that
follow rules-of-thumb to give advice like a human expert, but
through Shareware you can also try one yourself. Other areas are
Natural Language Programs, that respond to your english language
sentences, and Neural Networks that mimic the thought process of the
human brain. Many can be experienced at low cost through shareware,
or though the miracle of Modems and Bulletin Boards. Or you could
select one of the three very special packages we'll introduce you
to at the end of this Tutorial. Each package is usually $99.95,
but is offered here for only $59.95.
12. AFTER YOU ARE FAIRLY COMFORTABLE WITH DOS, TRY WINDOWS 3.0.
Windows 3.0 is a GUI or Graphical User Interface. It requires
the use of a Mouse, because you operate Windows by pointing and
clicking with the Mouse. It also requires a serious 286 or 386
computer with VGA and plenty of hard disk space. Windows alone
wants about 5 Meg of your hard drive geography.
Although most of what you want to do on a computer does not
require Windows, you should eventually try it, because it
probably represents the future of PC Computing.
THINGS YOU SHOULD TRY TO AVOID
DON'T:
Move your PC without very good reason. It can destroy the
programs on your hard disk.
Get any weird programs that mess with your hard disk if you
havn't had a problem!
Make millions of directories within directories.
Keep your hard disk almost full.
Worry about OS/2 - it is a dead issue for home users.
Leave your machine on all the time.
Worry if you can't learn to program in C, Lisp or Prolog.
Write COBOL on a PC.
Worry much about Viruses. They are dying down now.
Load your machine so full of TSR's at start-up that it gets confused.
Open your computer unless you absolutely have to.
Upgrade to a 386 if you have a fast 286.
Upgrade at all - buy another machine. Two is nice.
Try to to turn your PC into a MAC - buy a MAC.
Don't overload your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
Don't type FORMAT C: unless you really mean it!
A QUICK INTRO TO DOS FOR BEGINNERS ONLY
DOS stands for Disk Operating System. It started ten years
ago at Version 1.0 and then matured with 3.1 and 3.3. It
gives your machine the primitive intelligence required to
run programs (Applications), and organize a hard drive.
DOS 4.1 is current as of the beginning of 1991, but a Beta-test
Version of DOS 5.0 is already available to industry insiders.
It is recommended. DOS is a brilliant engineering accomplishment
by Microsoft. Over the years, hundreds of very bright programmers
have contributed to it.
DOS is built around the concept of a Hard Drive divided into
file folders called Directories. C:\ is the root.
C:\DOS > is a direcory OFF the ROOT. (You could think of branches
off a tree, and yes, there are often directories within directories.)
Try to avoid copying files to your root.
Instead, make a new Directory (file folder) with a meaningful
name (MONEY, TEMP, WORK, NEW, LOTUS, WORD, etc) and change
to that Directory. Then copy your files into that Directory.
The exact commands are given below, and you will keep your
Hard Drive neat and tidy.
Most used Commands: (you press the ENTER KEY after you type
any one of these commands. Practice on
a formatted floppy, not your hard drive.)
DIR produces a directory list of files and programs on the
disk, example DIR A:, or just DIR
DIR/P pauses when the screen is full for long Directories
DIR/W (Directory Wide) puts the Directory list in several
columns across the screen
COPY copies a file or program to a new name, new directory
or new disk, example COPY *.* C:
(If you have a new disk in A: and want to copy ALL the
programs on the disk to C: you would type this at the
A:> prompt.)
CD changes from one directory to another. CD\ changes back
to the root CD\MYDIR, then to change back: CD\
MD makes a new directory
example MD MYDIR
TYPE displays the contents of an ASCII file on the screen
TYPE ORDER.FRM
PRINT prints a file on the printer
PRINT ORDER.FRM or COPY ORDER.FRM LPT1
Note: there really is an ORDER.FRM on this disk,
so you can try this command later on the MoneyMaker Disk!
Pressing the Shift/Print Screen Keys causes the current
screen to be printed
DEL deletes a file....be careful DEL BADPGM.EXE
RD removes an empty directory RD MYDIR
Using different disk drives: to switch to another drive,
type the letter of the drive followed by a colon
File Extensions: File names are made up of three parts:
a name, a period, and an extension, example LOTUS.EXE
name: up to eight characters
extension: up to three characters
Some extensions are reserved names: EXE, COM, BAT
an EXE or COM file is a program ready to run just by
typing the first part of the name (and pressing ENTER)
a BAT file consists of DOS Language statements, and
most BAT files are used to start COM or EXE programs
The AUTOEXEC.BAT File runs automatically whenever
you boot or start your PC.
if you get hopelessly confused, just BOOT!
(turn your computer OFF and back ON, or
press CTRL-ALT-DEL simultaneously).
LIST.COM, included on this disk, should be installed
in the Root Directory of your PC. It is better than
the type command. To use it, just type LIST followed
by the text file name you want to read. When you
EXIT the Main Menu from AITUTOR, try typing
LIST CATALOG.TXT to read a selection from our AI Catalog.
Serious DOS mistakes:
typing FORMAT C: (erases your whole C: Drive)
not backing up critical files to floppy disks
typing DEL *.* in your ROOT (deletes all root files)
pouring coffee in your keyboard. (keyboards prefer water).
(C) 1991 Thinking Software, Inc.