Becoming a "Super User" (was Re: Teach files to AppleWorks Gs)

[sheldon@atlcom.net (Sheldon Simms)]

In article <Pine.PMDF.3.91.961202125312.1264403B-100000@OBERLIN.EDU>, Toby
Reiter <str4552@OBERLIN.EDU> wrote:

> As it is right now, most computer users can be at only 
> three levels: illiterate, moderate user, or super user.  The road from 
> illiterate to moderate user is easy to follow: simply by reading all 
> your manuals cover to cover you can pretty much get to that level. 
> However, there is no way to get from moderate to super user as far as 
> I can see (on any platform).

If that were true then there would be no "super users" as you seem to
think there are.

I am not one of the illustrious people you mentioned but I'll tell you how
I learned about my Apple II and computers in general. My father got an
Apple IIe back in 1983 (with white letters centered on light brown keycaps).
The salesman who sold it to him convinced him to buy every manual in
stock, including "Applesoft Tutorial", "DOS Programmer's Manual", and
"Applesoft BASIC Programmer's Reference Manual", volumes one and two,
all of which I still have. I read all of the books and tried the things
they said. After going through all the books I knew how to program the
IIe in BASIC, not at an expert level, but good enough.

Several years later, in high school, I wanted to learn assembly language.
I got a second-hand copy of Merlin, A book on 6502 assembly (which really
stunk), "Inside the Apple IIe" by Gary Little, and "The Apple IIe Technical
Reference Manual". I followed a similar procedure with these books. Once
again, after a good bit of reading and experimenting, I could program in
assembly language. Once again, I was no expert, but I could write programs
to do interesting things. Assembly was a little bit difficult for me at
first, mainly because of the huge culture shock I experienced going from
BASIC to assembly. Even after becoming a pretty good BASIC programmer
I didn't really understand how computer memory worked, which is central
to assembly and languages like C.

I learned pascal in a class in high school, although I can say that, knowing
BASIC, no class would have been required. At that time there were as many
"LEARN PASCAL IN ONE DAY" books as there are "LEARN C++ WHILE YOU SLEEP"
books today.

I college I studied computer science - I guess going back to school is more
than most computer users want to do, so I'll just mention that introductory
programming classes in college taught Pascal. Great for me, I leaned back and
went to sleep since I already knew it. My first sophomore class was in
data structures and on the first day the professor said "We'll be using C
in this course, I hope you all know it well". I said "ULP!" and after class
a friend of mine and I who were taking the class went to the bookstore,
bought "The C Programming Language", 1st edition, by Kernighan & Ritchie,
and over the next week we spent a lot of time in the lab and learned C.

The books are out there. If really do want to learn how to program and
you are willing to put some time into it you can do it without having a
degree in computer science. Try asking what books you should get rather
than just saying that you don't think they're out there.

Specifically, for you and your Apple II, call the Byteworks, or post a
message to c.s.a2 with the subject "HELP ME MIKE WESTERFIELD, YOU'RE MY
ONLY HOPE!" If you have an Apple IIgs, you might want to check out The
Byteworks' "How to program..." books to teach you C. Otherwise tell us
what kind of thing you want to learn to do, and you will get some advice.

-Sheldon

-- 
W. Sheldon Simms III - sheldon@atlcom.net