Don Schullian

Hi,
   Navigating this page should be easy. I've listed all the code and stuff over there, on the left. Each file has a small icon next to it indicating which version of BASIC it is meant for. These icons are just indicators as, in most cases, the code can be moved between the different versions.
    PowerBASIC Console Compiler
    PowerBASIC Windows Compiler
    PowerBASIC DOS Compiler
    Generic BASIC code
   As you can see, I'm kind'a hooked on PowerBASIC. It has been a good compiler over the years and now comes in 4 versions. The "missing" one, from the list above, is FirstBASIC. It is a shareware compiler for DOS. For those of you just starting out I'd suggest FirstBASIC for the first few weeks or months. For those of you moving from DOS to Windows I'd suggest the Console Compiler. (Oh, by the way, I'm not on PB's payroll, just a very satisfied customer.
   The first computer I ever had to deal with looked like a small room out of one of those 3D shoot-em-ups and you had to punch holes in pieces of cardboard to get it to do anything! It was a mastodon with blinking lights, whirring tapes and card-punch consoles the size of rolltop desks. We used it to produce the biweekly payroll for the USS Shangri-La CVA38 and it was debatable if the computer was faster than doing it manually or not! The one indisputable fact was that it was a lot cooler in "the computer room" than anywhere else on the ship so all was not lost!
   My next experience came in a club in Italy. Space Invaders was a new, hot invention called a "video game" and they still hadn't been introduced in the USofA! It left me mesmerized.
   Years later, in the mid '80s, the credit union I was working for decided to enter the computer age and install four IBM XT's, a humongous 30MB server and a modem in my branch office. (Talk about being on the edge of technology!) Not being one to panic I raced out and purchased a Commodore 64, color monitor, floppy drive and a few other accouterments within the hour! With the help of a friend we put the thing together after work. That night (yes, all night) was spent playing Load Runner. (This was even better than Space Invaders!) Some of the next evening was spent a bit more productively with my nose in a book on programming the C64 and I've never quit! You can read all about it in my forthcoming book, "How to Get Totally Hooked in 36 Hours".
   From those early days of building programs to help my teacher wife keep track of her students' grades until this, I'm enthralled with programming, video games and computing in general. It is mind boggling how far things have come from those days of punch-cards to today's ultra fast CPUs, and the games just go off the scale. I just dawned on me that my present 2.4Gh machine is 1,000,000 times faster than my C64!
   My forte in programming is user interface. I firmly believe that 70% of a good program's code deals with keeping the user safe from him or herself, making the user's input as simple and foolproof as possible, and getting the information back out to the user in as useful a format as can be. That includes culling spurious data and keeping the info-glut to a minimum. Too much data is, IMHO, more destructive than no data because if an intelligent person has no data (s)he will acquire it before (s)he acts. Too much data may lead to poor decisions because the human brain just can't process raw data like a computer and most people don't have time to sift through tomes of printouts.
   Another bugaboo of mine is clean, legible code. I'm still supporting programs I wrote 8 and 9 years ago; updating, bug-chasing, and vertical modifications. Without well written, remarked code this would be an impossible task. But, thanks to several people that helped me when I was getting started, I've developed some good habits and they have saved me uncountable, frustrating hours in front of the monitor.
   In fact many, many people have given me a helping hand with my programming and that, I guess, is why I'm here. I feel that I owe something back so now it's my turn to provide the helping hand where I can.

   d83)