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A2-MY FIRST CLOSE LOOK AT DESK TOP COMPUTER

 

 

By pragyansharma polavarapu

 

 I recall the time when I purchased a  personal computer(the “Micro”) for my daughter’s use about 20 years ago. I did not dare  even to go near  the keyboard even though I was  a physics graduate -- having a general  idea about the electrical/electronic  aspect of the computer. In  such situations science graduates will be really more careful than others. I feared that if I touch any key the entire digital circuitry inside the costly computer would be damaged! 

Being a physics graduate I read now and then  simple  technical books on computer operation with great pleasure and interest .I would read  sections of the books again and again and found them  quite   easy to understand. I felt as if I was myself  a student of computer science. I continue to read  simple computer science books even now . I purchased  a  book on   PASCAL  computer language . It was  interesting like   high school algebra   .PASCAL  is  so perfect, mathematical and  elegant  like algebra.

Being immensely interested in the subjects  like radio transmission and  current electricity (i.e. about  electricity flowing in wires) I purchased  Dr.Andrew Tannenbaum’s  bulky but extremely interesting book  on  Networking—  networking of computer systems  and telephone systems . I liked the subject  immensely .The theories  and ideas were  presented in a  easy non-mathematical way.I could understand  many sections. I  read several sections  repeatedly for months ,perhaps  for two or three years. In the beginning I could not fully understand the  meaning of  the terms like logic gates, registers etc .

I realized  that  computer science is entirely different from the physics which I studied ---though both have the same mathematical base. The  terms "Constants" and "Variables"  in computer science have a similar meaning as in algebra. However in computer technology we may  compare "Constants " to hotel rooms and "Variables" to the persons  who stay in them for a day or two and go away!  

  THE WONDERS OF THE “WORD” PROGRAM 

  After two or three months I could with my daughter's help confidently open a file in the "Word" program! I typed a few English rhymes. I could not believe my eyes when what I typed ( the steps in the familiar nursery rhymes) appeared on the computer screen! The “Word” program is readily available at our service  the moment the computer’s “desktop screen” opens .

If we just “right click” anywhere on the blank screen of the computer ,a “drop down” list( hanging flag- like ) appears. If we click the  word “New” appearing in that menu , still another  dropdown list appears beside the first list.  We select  “Microsoft Word Document” in the second dropdown menu .  Immediately a huge white sheet spreads over entire computer screen. It is the white page of the  Microsoft “Word” file equivalent to a sheet of white paper .

 On the “WORD” file page there are  at the  top and bottom long “bars” containing tiny half centimeter size  “toggle” buttons---the switch on/switch off operations combined in single button. We can use  many such buttons in the WORD window like push buttons.

The entire top bar containing  many such  buttons is called “TOOL BAR”( just like the  tool box of a TV/computer mechanic ). There is another such bar at bottom called “TASK BAR” containing other  push buttons . There  may be more than one bar at both top and bottom.

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When we do not use the “WORD” program the blue colored" HOME SCREEN " reappears . It is filled with many little pictures the “ICONS” . They too are tool buttons but are far more powerful than the toggle push buttons of task bar and title bar . In fact each ICON button opens the entrance door  of  a giant proffessional program---like PHOTO STUDIO,SOUND STUDIO,BOOK SHOP ,PRINTING PRESS ,TELEPHONE EXCHANGE  etc.

These icons  on the blue main screen  too  are like “tools” of a TV/computer   repairer ( the screw drivers ,wrenches and little hammers). So the  computer’s screen, on which all the computer’s “electronic tools” are shown, is aptly named as the  “DESK TOP” !  It reminds us of the mechanic’s table on which all his tools lie scattered.

*****

 Now let us  return to the "WORD " program.I observed to my great delight that whatever I typed through  the key board was  printed on the computer screen .After seeing my little essays on the computer  I felt  as if I became a master of all computer science . After a few months I could compose little science articles for children in my computer files. I could find my articles listed among the search topics on the GOOGLE SEARCH page of Internet !

 My slowness in going to the computer   was deliberate .Being a science student  I  created some small   word files of five or ten sentences and studied the  actions of  different   toggle buttons.  I tried ,by trial and error way, some “safe”  buttons  of the “tool bar” and the “task bar”. Being a  physics  and mathematics graduate  I could see that  a software program is just like the  working steps in a big  algebra problem . This view helped me in understanding several simple software programs in PASCAL  and C .I always firmly  believed (and believe now) that it is  mathematics coupled with electric circuit theory that is  behind everything happening on the computer.

 

 

 

 

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