One of the things that has motivated me to do this is that I have become the owner of a computer1. Can you imagine a 75 year old person trying to learn how to operate a computer? But, I’ll bet that I can do it. Maybe not as quick or as efficiently as younger people who think in terms of BITS, BYTES, BAUD and I/O PORTS, but I’ll get what I want out of it, or else.
I am amazed at the capability of this machine. I can remove parts of text and insert other parts, in their place, or when I think of something that I should have put in earlier, I can just go ahead and put the thought in where ever I want to without loosing any of the material before, or after. I am sure that, from time to time, I will think of things that I should have put in at this first writing, but did not think of them, so rather than rewriting the whole thing, I will just insert the thought where I think that it belongs and let the reader decide whether, or not, it is in the right place. I sure wish that I could have explained all of those things to my Dad, who has now been dead for 35 years.
My method of operation is not very well organized, in fact, I am not real sure that I have an M/O. I use 5-1/4 inch disks and back up everything that I write to be sure that I will not lose anything. When working with text I keep things in small files, usually not more than three pages per file, because small files are easier to edit and search, with the equipment that I have. The only way that I can see that I lost that material is that I must have saved it to the back-up disk and then, before I got back to it for editing, backed it up with the operating disk, that did not have the material on it. Leave it to me, if a thing can be goofed up, I am one that can do it.
1. I first wrote this in 1985, when I was using a Radio Shack Color Computer. I now have, because of the kindness of our son Skip, a modern IBM compatible, lap-top computer loaded with MS Works, that will do everything that any other computer can do. I did, for years, long for a computer just like the one that I now have, so that I would no longer be plagued with lost files, and the like. Now I find that this machine can lose files, just like the Radio Shack Color Computer. The only difference is that it does it faster.