Working with Computers

Abstract

There was a time when people entered their data into computer systems using punched cards and paper tape. This was slow and inefficient—as those of us old enough to remember the consequences of dropping a card deck will testify. On-line interactive terminals were a rarity—outside a few specialized areas of application. The increasing availability of low-cost computing power in compact units of hardware has changed all this. From the early 1970s, visual display units (VDUs) have been an increasingly common feature of working life—in offices, shops and on the factory floor. As an increasing number of industrial processes are becoming computer controlled, the VDU is becoming the universal, general-purpose display medium and interface. The trend will certainly continue. It has been estimated that, by the end of the century, at least 50% of workers in the advanced industrial societies will be engaged in terminal-based tasks (de Matteo, 1985). This is probably an underestimate rather than otherwise—although by that time technological innovations (voice input, speech synthesis, new display media, etc.) may well have rendered the conventional hardware configuration of keyboard and screen obsolete.