Continuation without compulsion

In other words, persisting in something because of its benefits, and not because one must. Such is my relationship with DataPerfect, with which I became acquainted in 1988, as I began* that portion of my career spent with WordPerfect Corporation. I continue to use DP regularly, having, in the last four months alone, created nine database applications to assist me in my current job as a web developer.

DataPerfect is a software jewel, very compact yet complete and powerful. It's most remarkable characteristic is that it has enabled people who would never have considered themselves programmers to create wonderfully useful data-based applications. People are considered computer-literate** if they can use programs to do work. They are programmers when they can create applicatons that other people can use to do work.

There are descriptions of DataPerfect in words, but of course the best way to understand it would be to learn to use it. The setting for the jewel is DOS, which modern computers no longer run directly***. Here are some dimensions that could be included in such a description.

1. Modes: define mode vs. run mode
2. Organization: panels, fields, indexes, and links
3. Usage: single user vs. multiple concurrent users
4. Operations: lookup, browse, create (i.e. data entry), edit, and delete
5. Relationships: one to one, many to one, one to many, and many to many
6. Communication: clipboard, importing, exporting, phoning, reporting, and printing
7. Security: none, definer password, user credentials
8. Usability: panel and report lists vs. menus
9. Help: general, context-sensitive for each field
10. Add-ons: print spooling, mouse usage
11. Documentation: manual, books, web sites
12. Support: active community

An article with a good description of DP was written many years ago by Ralph Alvy****. It touches on items 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11 and 12 from the outline above. Unfortunately, the links in this article are no longer working (suffering from "link rot") but you can find information about his book at https://www.sanbachs.net/compusofl/dpbook.html.

I expect to continue using DP any time that I need to process textual data with any amount of structure, not from compulsion, but because it is so very useful.

* At first, I was kept busy with a new language that our team was creating, TOOL, later described in my dissertation. The purpose of TOOL was to become the next implementation language for a new and different version of DataPerfect. Once the new language was up and running, I felt that it was important to learn what DataPerfect was, and so I gradually became an expert user, despite the fact that others on my team assured me that that wasn't necessary. I'm glad I did.

** Several years before this story, I taught computer literacy courses as an itinerant instructor for Lethbridge Community College. Generally, these were three week courses, and I would take my Apple ][ computer and drive to a small town one evening a week to join a small group of adults in a local school computer lab. First a three hour session on word processing. The second week another three hour session on spreadsheets. Finally a three hour session on databases. Both interest and mastery trailed off during each such course. Most people grasped word processing, which was after all, a lot like using a typewriter. They had more trouble with spreadsheets, and didn't get databases at all. I think it was too abstract. And probably too much based on a textual description of what would later happen. Making that connection, between a textual description, and something that happens later because of it, is what separates programmers from non-programmers.

*** Instead, one must first install a DOS virtual machine, as outlined in this story about one DP application.

**** The article is not dated, but is probably from around the turn of the century (which makes it "dated" in that sense of the word, but still applicable). Incidentally, Ralph is a good example of someone who is not self-described as a programmer, yet who has created DP applications, and even wrote a book about it!

Communicate without conversing

In other words, read and write: be literate. (One could easily imagine other ways of communicating that don't involve the voice, such as miming, dancing, etc., but, this post is mostly about reading.)

While living in Mauritius for a couple of years, we came to know about the languages used there. Most Mauritians speak a creole language, Morisien, which is the native language for most of them. Traditionally it had been only an oral language. However, in 2011, an official spelling system* was approved by the government. So, it has now become interesting to ask how many people can read this language, which can now be written in a standard way.

Dev Virahsawmy, a noted Mauritian linguist, told me in personal conversation that he estimates about 20% literacy. That is, only a small portion of the population can read and write Morisien. Yet according to Google (as of this writing) the literacy rate in Mauritius is 88.8% and wikipedia reports a rate of 89.8%.

Education is compulsory through age 16, and is free, even beyond high school. And the transportation to/from school is free. Everyone must learn both English and French in school. So, the high literacy rate is for these languages. Since 2012, Mauritian Creole is being offered as an optional subject, starting in the first year of school, and available to second year students in 2013, to third year students in 2014, and so on.

So, the situation is that while almost everyone can read and write a language, and almost everyone speaks Morisien, most cannot read or write it. This will improve gradually, and in ten years or so many young adults--who will have studied the language for 12 years--will be literate in their native language.

The official spelling is interesting, as it is a highly phonemic orthography. That is, the spelling is regular, with few exceptions, so that if you read it out loud, following a few simple rules, you will hear the oral language and thus immediately understand it. This means that it should be very easy to learn to read Morisien.

Hence, a project idea: produce a series of YouTube videos to encourage learning the few simple rules. Now all I need are: an expert in producing video, a native Mauritian for voice-overs, and a script**. Almost everyone in Mauritius has a smart phone, so, if this could go viral, literacy could soar.

Encouraging Mauritians to read: to communicate without conversing.

*Lortograf Kreol Morisien
** I have written elsewhere about a list of common words that could star in such a script.

Contemplation without confusion

A friend posted on facebook her opinion about the future of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This shows a fundamental confusion about what the Church is.

The confusion can be put into very sharp focus with the question, "Which came first, God or man?"

In other words, did God create man, or did man invent god?

This is the great conflict, between religion and secular humanism, respectively. Every religion has a creation story which places God in a preeminent position, and human beings as creations of God. Secular humanism claims that human beings evolved and invented god and religion, and now, as enlightenment begins to dawn, can progress beyond that, having no further need of religion or gods.

My friend's question clearly shows that she believes the particular religion spoken of to be a creation of man, and not a revealed organization, directed through prophets, and created by God himself. From that point of view, what else could she imagine might become of the church? It will have to adapt to the forces of the world or go out of existence.

The headline can be considered another way. Had the Church immediately changed its doctrine when the Supreme Court handed down the decision, it would clearly be a church defined and controlled by men. This writer cannot understand why anyone would want to belong to an organization that, on the one hand, claimed to be divine, and yet, on the other hand, just crumpled up under pressure from the world.

Given that she believes the Church was founded by a man, and has since been directed by men, is it any surprise that she no longer wants anything to do with it? She believes that it has a history of ultimately folding and caving under pressure from the world and that it will on this one, "just like with so many other issues." But, then she threatens that it won't survive as a religion unless it does this, and continues (presumably) to do so, as the world "progresses." She can't have it both ways! Either it is a religion or it is not.

Her argument is internally inconsistent, because what is a "religion" except an assertion that God created man and not the reverse. The argument allows no outcome for the Church except to just go away. Either it capitulates (demonstrating it is not truly a religion) or it persists and cannot "survive as a religion." The latter alternative is a chilling possibility as government flexes its power "just like with so many other issues" and legislates it out of existence. And secular humanists are actively waging war* on religion, to hasten what they believe to be the inevitable outcome.

Never mind that the Constitution (actually the Bill of Rights) does not allow Congress to pass such legislation. One of our nation's founders, John Adams, wrote, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." It is only a matter of time before the forces behind the war on religion will realize that a new constitution will now be needed. Our current constitution is now, or soon will be, "wholly inadequate."

With a new constitution, this nation, founded by religious people seeking religious liberty, will cease to exist as such, and will be reborn in the image of secular humanism. Such is my friend's prediction, taken to its logical conclusion. Religion will be outlawed.

What other outcomes might occur?

We could all "just get along." This is how secular humanism captures the minds of well-meaning onlookers. Clearly, this isn't compatible with the progressive agenda, although it uses it to get votes.

Or, the world could be burned at His coming when it is "ripened in iniquity."

*The declaration of war is not some "conspiracy theory" but has been published openly by Sir Richard Dawkins, the prophet of secular humanism.

Contrivance without content

This post is simply a link to a web page which describes more programming work which I accomplished using the Bash scripting language. So, about another contrivance, but no content here. Please enjoy the page at https://sanbachs.net/bruce/ntkm/

Why a separate page? Because I needed to use features of HTML and CSS which are difficult to embed in this blog.