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		    Computer Literacy: a Holistic View

It is important to  view the "computing phenomenon"  in a broader  context
than just a  technological, engineering accomplishment.  While it is  true
that electronic computing machinery  is a recent  addition to the  world's
society, the ideas of computation --indeed even primitive realizations  of
these ideas-- have existed for many centuries.  It is therefore  important
to put "computing"  in perspective to  the development of  other arts  and
sciences:  examining the  fundamental ideas independent  of their  current
manifestation  as   "Computers";   relating  computing   to   "information
processing";  relating   the  "information   explosion"  to   "knowledge";
examining the impact of personal computing on society, technologically  as
well as aesthetically and ethically.

One should view  the content of  "computer literacy" as  comprised of  two
facets:   the  "form"  (or  training)  facet,  and  the  "substance"   (or
educational) facet.  Literacy in "substance" implies that one  understands
the fundamental principles that support the specific discipline.  Literacy
in "form" implies that  one is conversant  with the current  technological
tools. In the computing field, technology has the typical physical  aspect
of  an  engineering   discipline  --the   devices  that   carry  out   the
computations.  However one  important novelty of  computing technology  is
its dependence on,  and attention to,  areas not traditionally  associated
with "hard science".  In  particular, there is  a linguistic component  to
computation.  One  expresses requests  for  computation as  "programs"  in
artificial languages;  these  programs may  be  as  simple   as  numerical
computations; they may be as  complex as artificial intelligence  programs
that attempt to simulate some fragment of intelligent behavior.  In either
case, these programs represent the  "literature" of the languages and,  as
such, may be analyzed.  This analysis involves issues of style,  elegance 
and expressibility; questions of quality too often ignored in science.

The integrated  examination  of  these  facets  --  "substance"  for  mind
training, and "form" for  fluency and literature--  can give substance  to
the term "computer  literacy". This report  proposes a University  faculty
and staff  seminar that  will establish  a solid  understanding of  modern
computing.

				The "Form"

Computing is  a puzzling  phenomenon.  It  is driven  both physically  and
intellectually, and  its  "form"  contains  both  these  components.   The
physical component contains the devices  --the instruments that we use  to
express our  ideas and  requests.   This component  is apparent  in  other
technology-driven  domains;  however,  in   computing  we  also  have   an
intellectual component.

In computing,  we express  our ideas  and requests  to the  technology  in
languages.   Though  these   languages  are   "artificial",  rather   than
"natural", one should expect that a literature exist.  Unfortunately,  the
quality of  expression in  these computing  languages typically  is  quite
poor, though a few exceptions exist.  A study of computing should  discuss
this phenomenon of  expressibility, and  examine the issue  of quality  in
computing languages.

Like the phemonenon of driving,  fluency in the computing domain  requires
experience with an instrument. Therefore a computing laboratory is  needed
to reinforce the concepts. As  with other experimental domains,  computing
experience should be gained  on the most  modern equipment possible.   The
bellweather of computing is the "personal computer".

These personal computing devices will soon supply the power of the  last
decade's  research  machine.   The  potential  information  processing  is
staggering, not just in terms of the computing power but, more importantly,
in terms of the novel ways that  people will be able to interact with  the
machine.  In this view of information interchange, the local user will  be
able to interact  with other individuals  through a network,  and will  be
able to  send computations  or  data to  larger  machines when  the  local
processing power is insufficient.   In summary, a computational  community
is formed,  where  the  "local  nodes"  are  highly  interactive  personal
machines, perhaps  with  some  shared  devices;  these  nodes  are  linked
together to  larger machines  that can  supply more  processing power  and
perhaps a more global view on the local communities.  We propose to supply
an Interactive Programming Laboratory that will be a prototype for a local
computing community.

Besides bringing  the  concept  of personal  computation  to  Santa  Clara
University, the laboratory will be able to relieve much of the burden from
the DEC 20/60.  Many applications, like text editing, program  preparation
and small-scale student  computations are  well-suited to  these  personal
machines;  several systems that  are available on the  DEC 20/60 are  also
available on personal computers. Experience  has shown that these  smaller
systems can, in many cases, operate at about one-third the effective speed
of the larger machine,  making them very  cost-effective.

Furthermore, these  small machines offer  several  packages that  are  not
available on the larger processors.  The hallmark of these applications is
their highly interactive behavior, involving rapid manipulation of  screen
images to communicate results.  Such activity is difficult to sustain  on
a time-shared machine since the amount of information needed to change the
screen tends  to  be  substantial  while  the  communication  channels  to
terminals tend to be low speed; furthermore, unpredictable execution rates
on a shared machine can detrimentally affect visual performance at a local
node.

The laboratory  will be  demonstrate  these interactive  applications  and
offer the opportunity  to the seminar  participants to become  comfortable
with these techniques.   It is  this class  of applications  to which  the
general public will  be exposed and  it will be  this class of  individual
that will be responsible for disseminating an accurate, humanistic view of
computing to the University community.

Several classes of examples are projected:

At the simplest level one has a selection of computer-based games:  Kalah,
Adventure, Chess, or even Space Invaders. The point here is to demonstrate
that computing  can  be  entertaining  and  need  not  be  numerical.  The
important  components  in  these   applications  are  that   non-numerical
computing is taking place and visual/graphical output is highly important.
These applications can also put the novice at ease with respect to  simple
operations of computing tools.

Special  purpose   applications   packages   will   also   be   presented.
Text/word-processing: several  very  elegant  video  editing  systems  are
available, including one that is a substantial subset of a DEC-20  editor.
Since  a  large  portion  of  computer  usage  involves   text-processing,
familarity with such systems is necessary.

A business applications product  that is attracting substantial  interest,
VisiCalc, is only  available on micro-processors.  This system displays  a
segment of  a business  ledger in  such a  way that  whenever elements  of
related quantities are modified, one immediately sees all ramifications of
that action.  It is an excellent tool for planning and hypothesizing.

Another work-reduction tool that utilizes both numerical and non-numerical
capabilities is an "algebraic manipulation system". These systems are able
to compute with  algebraic quantities much  like hand calculators  perform
with  numbers.   They  will  perform  complex  algebraic  simplifications,
symbolic differentiation and integration, as will as arithmetic operations
whose accuracy  is  not  restricted  by the  hardware  of  the  underlying
computer.
       
Several languages  exist  that  utilize  the  visual  potential  of  these
machines.   These  involve  applications  as  diverse  as   computer-aided
drafting, machine  design, and  animation. Audio  experimentation is  also
possible using speech and music synthesis programs.

At a further level, we will examine the tools and techniques that  support
the games and special applications. Though the discussion of the ideas  is
in the "substance" part of the seminar, the lab will have several  general
purpose  interactive   systems   available  to   demonstrate   issues   of
expressibility  in  computer  languages.   These  systems  include:   USCD
Pascal, the widely  used personal  Pascal system;  Rosetta Smalltalk,  the
example of  the  Xerox Parc  personal  computer language;  and  LISP,  the
language that supports much of the substance of Smalltalk and the form  of
UCSD Pascal.

We expect to have an experimental Computer-Aided Learning system available
to  aid  the  novice  in  learning  about  LISP.  This  includes   on-line
documentation and assistance. One novel benefit of computers is that  they
are potentially able to aid a user in helping to understand the  computing
phenomenon itself; other technologies are not so fortunate.

			      The Substance

Just as there is more to creative writing than knowing how to type, so too
we  must  not  overlook  the  explication  of  the  fundamental  ideas  in
computing.  As with other fundamental disciplines, the principle computing
ideas  are  not  technological,  mathematical,  or  electronic;  they  are
intellectual. In  the computing  sciences these  principles are  based  on
simple information  processing  concepts  involving  the  manipulation  of
symbols.  These  symbol manipulation  rules, coupled  with the  phenomenal
speed of present-day computers,  result in the  powerful machines that  we
now see.

Computing  languages  allow  one  to  combine  these  simple   information
processing steps into complex entities.  These more complex entities  form
the the  literature of  computing.  Just as  some natural  languages  have
difficulty expressing some  concepts, many of  these artificial  languages
suffer from restricted expressbility. A few languages exit that are worthy
of study; they support creative expression and experimentation with ideas.
It is these languages that  are worth presenting, initially to  illustrate
examples of  "guality  computing  literature", and  ultimately  allow  the
participants to express  their own creative  experimentation in  computing
terms.

The challenge, then, is to present these concepts in such a way that  they
are clear and practical.  We are  fortunate in at least two useful  models
that we can look to:

First, as an  interesting piece to  "set the tone",  Robert Pirsig's  book
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" gives valuable perspectives on
the relationships  between art  and  science, and  more generally  on  the
concern for quality in human endeavor.

A less oblique  support for our  work is the  Pulitzer prize-winning  book
"Godel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid", by Doug Hofstader.   This
fascinating  book  relates   many  computational   ideas  underlying   the
mathematics of K. Godel to themes appearing in M. C.  Escher's art and  J.
S. Bach's music.  It  is a highly  readable account of  many of the  ideas
that support modern computing.

Furthermore, a book by John Allen will be available as course notes.  This
text will discuss the computational  ideas directly, relating them to  the
laboratory work. Drafts of this book will be used for a course this spring
at Santa  Clara University,  and  in the  summer  at the  Eleventh  Annual
Institute in Computer Science also to be held at Santa Clara University.

--------- the PLAN-------

the course
    geb
    zen
    rubik
    course notes

the lab
    version of C-games with really screen?
    adventure/zork
    alto-like games??
       maze wars
       space invaders/war
	today's flight simulator = tomorrows arcade game
    smalltalk
    personal computing
    networking
    ai and cognitive sciences
    ethics
    music
    graphics
      art (in tlc and smalltalk)
      drafting  (in tlc)
      culler-freid(?)
       

    ucsd pascal?
    visicalc
    lisp 
    smalltalk
    mince: Mince Is Not Complete Emac

------- the cost --------