The next day, Monica was awakened by her alarm clock playing music on her favorite radio station. Rose awoke at the same time and opened her eyes only to close them again. "Time to get up again," she said. "I can't believe how fast the night flies."
"Yes, it sure does," added Monica. She pulled her wheelchair to the side of the bed and hopped aboard. "Come on Rose," she said. "We mustn't make me late for school this morning."
"You are right, Monica, I would be holding up the world for one of the most gifted programmers, which you are on your way to becoming."
"I don't know about the great programming part, but I am enthused about taking the course, as I told you yesterday."
"I'm happy that you are happy," said Rose, as she lifted herself from the bed.
After eating breakfast of cereal and juice, the two friends made their way to the elevator, which would take them to the underground parking garage in the apartment building.
"Being able to enter your car by going down an elevator and into your garage is a great way to stay out of the reach of the cold and people who shouldn't be around the apartment," said Rose as they entered the elevator.
"Yes, it does save a lot of playing around by having an automatic door opener and being able to park inside all the time," said Monica. The people mover stopped on the garage floor, and they departed for the automobile.
"What do you think you will learn in school today?" asked Rose, as they drove along in her car towards the city of Pittsburgh.
"I really don't know, Rose, but the course should turn out to be pretty interesting as the instructor seems to want to teach everything he knows about data processing. Even though that may be just a little tough because of the time restriction on the course length, I think he will do a good job. That's my opinion anyhow," said Monica, full of enthusiasm.
"You really believe in the programming field a lot, don't you, Monica?" Rose smiled.
"I hope to make it in the field after I learn what the work is all about and pick up enough skill in the art of telling computers what to do and how to go about it," laughed Monica.
"What are you supposed to learn about today?" asked Rose.
"You know the manual that I was reading last ...I should say one of the manuals?"
"Yes," answered Rose.
"One of them was about flowcharting which is a system used by programmers to lay out the logic of their program before they actually sit down to do the coding. Each of the blocks on a template is used to represent a function and the combination of the symbols coupled together represents a flowchart. Some people, according to the manual, use flowcharts and other people write programs without the aid of flowcharts."
"Seems to me you have already learned a great deal about the subject, Monica, and I believe if any person in your class will turn out to be a winner, you are the one I would bet on," said Rose.
Rose guided her automobile to the curb to allow Monica to depart. "As soon as I line this thing along the curb, Monica, I will help you get out of the car," said Rose.
"That is okay, Rose," said Monica, "I want to get out of the car by myself because I must learn to become self-sufficient if I am gong to make something of myself in this world, and I don't expect you to be with me all my life."
"Okay," laughed Rose. "But if you want me to help, just say the word."
Rose watched as Monica opened the passenger door of the Pontiac and pulled the wheelchair from behind the front seat and stood the vehicle on the sidewalk. Monica opened the collapsible tool and positioned it for her entry.
She pulled her body up and into the cushioned seat, looked at Rose and said, "See you tonight." Monica backed away from the opened door and then closed the hinged portal, waving good-bye to Rose.
"That girl seems to have picked up strength from someplace," said Rose, as she watched Monica head for the entrance to the building housing the school, which Monica was attending. "God bless her."
Rose looked into her rear view mirror and then pulled away from the curb and headed for her own job.
A man entered the building where Monica was going. He held the door for her to enter and she thanked him. As she made her way to the elevator, her eyes met Joan's, the girl who had introduced herself in school yesterday.
"Hello, Monica, how are you today?" asked Joan.
"I am fine, how are you doing....did you study last night?" queried Monica.
"Just a little," said Joan, "because I thought some of that stuff was pretty deep. Did you understand the flowcharting?"
"I don't know if I understand the flowcharting principles, but I did have a good time reading about a field that I think is very interesting."
"Ping! The elevator signaled its arrival on the floor. "Go ahead, Monica, I'll hold the door for you."
"Thanks."
"You push the floor button," said Joan, as she moved onto the elevator with Monica. "You certainly don't think that I am going' to do all the work for us, do you?"
"Heck, no," laughed Monica, "I am glad that you will let me carry my weight. I mean, help us both out."
"I think I know what you mean," Joan smiled, and patted Monica on the left shoulder.
They watched the floor numbers light up as the elevator progressed to their stop and when the doors opened, Joan stepped out first and held her hand over the beam of light to keep the doors from closing on Monica as she exited.
Monica turned her wheelchair in the direction of the classroom and started as Joan walked along her side.
Several of the students were already in the room talking with each other and when Monica and Joan entered, they wished each a "Good morning."
"Good morning to you all," responded Monica and Joan.
"Are you going to give us the answers to the questions, today?" asked a fellow in the back of the room. "I was thinking that you would do that," said Monica.
"Me!" said the young man of twenty years. "I only understood one word of the homework and that was flowcharting."
"Isn't that what you would expect from a man, Joan? Always wanting the girls to carry them," said Monica, winking as she finished. "Yeah, all the guys are that way," added Joan.
Just as she spoke her last word, in walked Mr. Beers, the instructor. "What is this about all the guys being gay?" he said.
"I didn't say that," responded Joan. "I said all men were the same when it comes to learning something and they all depend on the women."
"Oh, jeez, I apologize," said Mr. Beers. "I guess my ears need a little cleaning out. That has been my problem more than once."
"I forgive you this time," said Joan.
Students continued to file into the classroom and at nine o'clock, the instructor walked to the door and pulled it shut. "Okay, gang, everyone get into their seat and after I take the roll, we'll plunge into the study of programming."
After Mr. Beers determined those present, he took the list of absentees to the school office. He had left the door to his room open and upon re-entering, he saw a black-haired youth in the process of shooting a paper wad at the girl sitting about three rows behind the perpetrator.
"If you shoot that, young man, you can kiss this school good-bye!" yelled Mr. Beers.
"Furthermore," he said, "you people attending this class are supposed to be adults. What happens if you put someone's eye out when shooting such a stupid thing as a paper wad? How would you feel if someone did the same thing to you, my man?
The fellow opened his mouth to speak, but before any words could exit, Mr. Beers interrupted.
"Never mind, you will be thrown out of this class and school if I ever catch you throwing or shooting anything at any individual again. Do we understand each other, Mr. Roberts?"
"Yes, " responded the villain, "
"I apologize to the class for acting like an idiot."
Mr. Beers was taken by surprise because he didn't expect the young man to respond in the manner in which he did and mostly by calling himself an idiot.
"We accept your apology, Mr. Roberts," said the instructor. "Let us get on with the course of instruction. For most of this morning, we will again be learning about the keypunch and spending time operating the machine. Even though the course of instruction allows time for teaching the unit, we do not want to become so entwined with keypunching, that we forget the primary reason of why we are here, that being to learn computer programming. I will therefore give you some more information on keypunching, then we will move into the area where we will do some practical work, then return here for the background principles for programming a computer."
"Why do we have to learn how to operate the keypunch?" inquired a student in the back row.
"The need for instruction on this machine is so you can, if necessary, correct your programs or keypunch small programs and job control cards or even punch test data without having to rely on the data preparation department."
"Depending on where and when you get a job in the computer programming area, the size of the department and its operational facilities will determine how much effort one has to expend to accomplish his or her work. In some companies, programmers are not allowed to do any keypunching and all the work must pass through a data preparation area. In others, programmers can do as much keypunching of their work as they like. By this, however, I mean to show the contrast from company to company; not only is keypunching affected, but actual compiling and testing of computer programs may have to be accomplished by the computer operations department through instructions given to that department by the programmer. Other companies have the policy whereby all compiling and testing is handled by the programmer. But enough of this for now and when we come back later on, probably after lunch, we will get into the study of programming and I will try to tell you what I have learned."
The clock in the hallway of the school showed the time as 12:18 as Mr. Beers' class trickled back into the classroom. When everyone had returned, Mr. Beers released them for lunch and asked them to return by one o'clock.
The instructor was ten minutes late in getting back from lunch and arrived after all the students.
"Looks like everyone is ready to tackle the next subject," said the instructor after sitting down at the table in the front of the room. "Here we go, then. I asked you people to read the manual last night on flowcharting. Can anyone explain to me the purpose of the procedure called flowcharting?"
He looked at Monica, "Do you know the answer, Monica?"
"Well." she said, "I think flowcharting is the method whereby a programmer explains to himself or herself how he is going to solve a programming problem using different symbols for operations which will later be converted into instructions."
"Very good, Monica," said the instructor.
"Anyone want to or care to add anything to what Monica just said?"
"Okay, we will move on. If most of you, or all of you I hope, read the assignment last evening, then you will be able to follow me along. Feel free to ask me any questions as I proceed. The computer programmer is an individual capable of defining the instructions for a computer in a specific manner so the computer can perform certain operations and accomplish a specific objective such as calculating a payroll, designing the specifications for a building project, keeping track of a patient's condition in a hospital or communication of terminal or computer with another computer. At this point in your lives, the programming field is not overcrowded and many companies are looking for employees, but mostly with experience. If anyone had experience you could just about name the area where you want to go and live. But your first hurdle is the gaining of the proper credentials, then the experience, which will put you in the position of being able to offer your services, to clients seeking the use of your expertise. What you get out this course will depend on how much you desire to work and how much effort you put into the learning process, which is nothing that you have not heard before. You will learn as we go along, that programming takes quite a bit of your time and unless you are an individual who likes working with details, you are wasting you time in this course. One thing I will not do is read to you out of the texts as other instructors do in this school. If you want to learn the field of computer programming you must put in the necessary time for study because no one here can teach you how to think. You will have to work with whatever faculties you have at the current time in your life. Because the programming of computers requires a certain logic in one's thinking, you can rest assured that if you have trouble linking steps together, you will have trouble comprehending computer programming. This may come as a surprise to you because of what you may have been told by the people who enrolled you in the school. But regardless, not all people can make it in the field of computer programming or systems analysis, just like all people don't have the ability to become bricklayers or accountants."
"One thing about the trades is that these type of workers are finished with their work after an eight hour day, whereas the programmer may no be and in fact may work a fourteen or sixteen hour day and not be paid for overtime. But the whole thing boils down to what you want to do in life. I know that a number of you will have trouble in this course and I will try to help you as best I can, but I just want you to understand now, that some of you will be wasting your time and regardless of the instruction or how many times you may repeat the course, there is no way, if you excuse the expression, 'in hell' you will ever make the team if you fall into the category I just mentioned."
"Even though I am one of those people who believes that one can do whatever they desire, there is always the limits of an individual as to his or her abilities. I am not trying to talk all of you or any of you out of taking the course of instruction, but just laying the cards on the table to show you the possibilities if you wish to play."
"Any questions before we continue on? No, good. We will proceed through an explanation of the flowcharting symbols and then we will do several problems which I will give you and, by the way, are not covered in your text as I made them up from actual cases."
"Basically, instructions for computer programs consist of five types, input/output, arithmetic, logic such as comparison and tests for status, branching for conditions, and transfer operations. A computer is pretty much of an overgrown typewriter with the features I just mentioned added to the unit. The parts of a computer usually consist of a CPU, an input device, which can be a card reader/punch or a terminal, a printer, and tape and/or disk drives. A CPU or Central Processing Unit, handles all the instructions and interface with the other units, which make up a computer system. A printer does exactly what the name implies and that is print at speeds anywhere from ten characters a second up to and over many thousand of lines per minute. The card reader/punch is used to read programs and/or data and to punch out into cards. Tape and disk storage units are used to record information for use in data processing applications. The information stored can also be programs."
"Our first use of flowcharting will consist of a general block diagram which will explain how these pieces of equipment fit together. We will then proceed to the other type of flowcharting known as detail block diagramming which is the method some programmers use for laying out the solution of a program whereby the coding of a program is done from the block diagram."
"If you will look up here to the blackboard I will show you the block diagram explaining the computer system."
Mr. Beers used up several minutes laying out the blocks on the board using a magic marker, then he asked for questions.
"This use of a general block diagram will serve to give you an idea of how certain symbols might be used to explain certain functions. You will see, as I have just drawn, the difference between general and detailed diagramming. Forgetting about the different types of blocks used for a few minutes, as we progress, I will try to explain to you how to draw a flowchart. If I did not mention it before, I use the words block diagram and flowcharting to mean the same thing."
"Suppose I asked you to tell me what you would do to start an automobile engine. Bob, can you tell me what you would do in order to accomplish this?"
"Just put the key in the ignition and turn it," replied Bob.
"Not quite, Bob," said the instructor. "To give you and idea of how we would have to tell the computer to accomplish this we would approach the problem as follows: first, we would have to make sure we obtained the correct keys for the car, then we could leave the house or wherever, we would then walk to the auto, check to see if the door was unlocked, if not we would have to place the proper key in the door lock and open the door so we could get inside the auto and sit on the seat. We would then be in position to place the correct key in the ignition, press the gas a little, then turn the key to start the engine. These are the steps that we will diagram and then we will go onto the next problem. As we continue, the diagramming will become more difficult, and then you will have an appreciation for programming."
At quitting time the instructor bid the students good-day and gave the homework for the next day.