Chapter2

2.1 Introduction

Initially there seems to be an overwhelming amount of information to learn in order to use a computer system. The best way to start is to break apart the tasks to be learned into small, manageable modules.

If you carefully review the manual system you now have, it will be apparent that it is also a complex system. The only reason it appears to be rather simple is because the computer you are using is your own brain.

The computer can only do exactly what it is told either by the programmer or by you.

One of the unique disadvantages computers have is the inability to deal with the concept of "maybe". It works much better with a precise answer, such as, either a "yes" or a "no".

Therefore, it is up to the programmer to eliminate when possible any ambiguities from the program for managing the video business.

One simple example can be mentioned. Suppose a customer returns a rental tape after three days. Your store policy states if he returns it on or before a set time, he will not be charged a late charge. According to this policy, if he returns it five minutes later than the due time, he normally would be charged either a late charge or an extra days' rental.

Now, suppose this person is a valued customer who rents many tapes from you. Since you are dealing directly with him, you now have the option of not charging him any late fees.

In this example, you have made several decisions which allowed you to determine if you should collect any late charges from this customer or not.

The first piece of information you processed is how late is this customer (five minutes). The second piece of information you processed is customer status: is he a good customer, or just a one time renter. If he was a one time renter, then would you still charge him a late charge, or would you not, in order to encourage him to return and rent more tapes?

Assuming this is a good customer and was two hours late, would you still charge a late fee, or would the decision be harder to make? What about six hours? At what point do you charge this customer a late charge? Would you handle another customer the same way, or would another customer have to pay?

Would you tell him this time he doesn't have to pay, but the next time he's late, he does? Would you remember him the next time, or would someone else be there during that shift?

As you can see from this example, even the above decision making process is not as simple as it first seemed.

How do we tell the computer to handle all these "maybes"? One way is to let you enter the late charges, if any, manually.

Can your clerks make a sound decision as to when to collect these late charges? Do you want the clerks to have the ability to do this?

If you answered yes to these questions, then the ability to collect late charges is no longer a computerized function. You are just recording the event in the computer to be used in the reports and cash totals. Another way is to have the computer automatically calculate the late charges, but still have the ability to change them if you desire.

Would you want your clerk to have this ability as well? This method will be as close to a maybe as you can get in a computer.

As you can see from the above example, what appears to be simple tasks are often very complicated when examined closely.

You will find that computerizing a video business will make you keenly aware of every aspect of your business. You have to analyze and dissect every small operation in order to understand how the computer will process all the information you are feeding it. (We won't mention the old cliche about "garbage in garbage out").

You will be able to print reports about every aspect of the business almost instantly, whereas before you either had to wait until the end of the month or until you had the time to compile the information.

The computer will allow you to take a realistic look at your business under a microscope. Sometimes what you find may not be what you expected to see.

2.2 Major Computer Functions

All computers have basically three major functions:

Displaying and Entering information.

Storing and Retrieving information.

Extracting information in a usable form.

The computer can be thought of as a unique type of tool. Like any other tool, it serves to reduce the effort we have to expend to perform a certain task. In most cases it not only reduces our efforts, but can produce benefits that are impossible to achieve without it. In this case, the task is to help manage a video store business.

Of course the business can be managed without this tool, just as you can attempt to draw a straight line without a ruler. But drawing it with a ruler (tool) dramatically increases the likelihood of a perfectly straight line.

The computer is the type tool that requires strict adherence to established procedures. These procedures are setup by the program that runs the computer. The computer by itself cannot do anything! It has to have a program to tell it what to do. You can think of a program as the interpreter between you and the computer.

Telling the computer what to do with the program is only half the job. If it could do everything it needed to do without help, you wouldn't need to know how to use it. It could run by itself! (Some claim that it does).

Since there are too many things that can be done by the program, you have to direct the computer how to do these things via the program and you have to give, the computer the data it needs.

There are only two things you can tell the computer.

First, you can give it information to use such as tape names, quantities, etc.

Second, you can give it commands as to what to do with the information you have given it.

There must be an easy way for you to enter all this information into the computer. Also, the computer must have a way of acknowledging the receipt of this information.

Human beings design mechanical devices to emulate human functions and the computer is no exception. We designed a communications method between computers and humans that's very clumsy. The "Keyboard" is our mouth so we can "speak" to the computer and the "Screen" of the computer is its mouth, so it can "speak" to us.

2.3 Displaying Information

2.3.1 Display Screen

The display screen is one of the two means of communications between you and the computer that is interactive. It can be thought of as being equivalent to a sheet of typewriter paper. When you use a typewriter, you are placing thoughts onto a piece of paper to send to someone. In this case, this someone is the computer.

As you are typing in these letters, the screen shows you each letter. What you see on the screen is exactly what the computer "sees". The only difference between the paper in the typewriter and the computer is that the computer intercepts and remembers exactly which letters were typed in.

When you use a typewriter, you always know what part of the paper you are currently typing on. You can see the typewriter paper and the indicator on the typewriter carriage which points to the spot on the paper where the next letter will be typed.

Just as with the typewriter, the computer and you have to know what part of the screen is being worked with.

In order for you to know what part of the screen you are currently working with, an indicator called a "cursor" is placed on the screen by the computer. This cursor is a blinking underline placed under the normal characters on the screen.

As the you move the cursor on the screen, it points to the spot that is currently active and where you are typing in a single character. As you type a character, the cursor will advance to show you the next position available on the screen. This cursor movement is always under program control. Thus, the cursor is strictly an indicator or pointer to the spot on the screen being worked on, and has no effect on any programs.

2.4 Entering Information

2.4.1 Keyboard

The most common method of communications with the computer is the keyboard. The computer keyboard serves a similar function to the keys on a typewriter. It's a way of placing words on the screen that the computer will "read", instead of placing words on a piece of paper that another person would read.

Unfortunately, not all of us are great typists and not all of us are great spellers. To allow for these different levels of proficiencies, programs have been developed which provide a practical way to talk to computers without forcing every computer user to be a great typist or speller.

If you make an error with a typewriter, you have to erase the incorrect letter and backspace the carriage to retype the correct letter. With BizPie, you perform a similar action to correct errors, with one major difference. This correction is performed directly on the display screen, so you can see the newly corrected word displayed.

Rather than having the computer user type in the correct spelling (sometimes you still have to) for an expected response, a shorthand method of talking to the computer was developed.

This shorthand method of talking to the computer is done via certain keyboard keys called "Function Keys". These are the keys that do not automatically place a character on the screen when typed in. They are under program control and nothing happens unless the program tells these keys to do something.

2.4.2 Function Keys

In addition to the normal typewriter alphabet keys, number keys and punctuation keys, there are special purpose keys on the keyboard.

These special purpose keys are setup by the program to be a shorthand way of telling the computer to do something special. These extra keys can be changed by the program at will for a particular purpose to control a function within a program. Therefore these keys are called "Function Keys".

Instead of typing in the words "Save All Data", you can press the F9 key and the computer knows it has to save all the data displayed on the screen into the computer.

Any one of the function keys can be assigned by the program to mean different things in different sections of the BizPie system.

As you look at the left side of the keyboard, the function keys are labeled Fl through F12. There are more special keys on the right side and these have more specific labels such as "Home", "End", etc. These keys share two different meanings with the numbers 0 9, as can be seen by the two different labels on the keys themselves (ie: 7Home).

2.4.3 Function Keys FlF10

The set of keys on the top or left side of the keyboard labeled Fl through F12 are called function keys.

These function keys have no specific meaning by themselves, which is the reason they are labeled F1F12.

The programs being used can assign specific uses for these function keys. An example for use of these function keys may be found in the Inventory Maintenance section of BizPie. The function key labeled "F9" means "Save Information" when pressed. In the POS section of the system F9 key is re assigned by the POS program to mean "Go to Customer Name Field" when pressed.

When you are ready to print a receipt in the PointofSale program, the program could ask you to type in the word "Print Receipt", or you can press one of these special keys which tells the computer to print a receipt, in this case the Enter key. Obviously pressing a single key is easier to remember and much faster than typing in all those letters.

2.4.4 Function Keys Numeric Keypad

The "Numeric Keypad" section is to the extreme right hand side of the keyboard. They can be recognized as the ones with all their keys being white. They are surrounded by gray keys, which are not part of the "Numeric Keypad".

The set of keys included in the "Numeric Keypad" are the ones with numbers 0 through 9 and the period key.

These keys perform two different sets of functions when pressed. The first set of functions are the actual numbers 09 and period. The second set of functions are the screen and cursor movement functions as indicated by the other set of labels on these keys.

To activate the "Numeric Keypad", a special key labeled "Num Lock" must be pressed. This "Num Lock" key selects between the two meanings of the numeric keypad section. It behaves similar to a light switch. Press it once, it selects the screen movement functions, press it again, it selects the numbers and the period.

On some keyboards, there is an indicator of the status of the "Num Lock" key. If this indicator is on, the numeric keypad number keys are in effect. Thus pressing the key with the "9 PgUp" printed on it will produce a "9" on the screen.

The keys with arrows pointing in four different directions normally moves the cursor in the direction of the arrow when a key is pressed.

When used as numbers, they are the exact replica of the set of numbers from 0 to 9 as if you had pressed the numbers on the top row of the keyboard. It's just another way of entering numbers which some people find more convenient.

If you recall, typewriters have a "Shift" key. The purpose of this key is to allow you to enter capital letters and special characters on the paper (dollar sign, plus sign, etc.) as you are typing. The shift key on the computer keyboard serves the same exact purpose.

If you press the shift key and hold it down, all keys on the computer keyboard now have a different meaning. The letters are now capitalized and the numbers now are the special characters such as dollar sign, plus sign, as shown on the top row of the number keys.

The numeric key pad on the right side of the keyboard now will display numbers when pressed, instead of acting on the other functions printed on the keys. Essentially they are now the exact duplicates of the top row of numbers.

2.5 Using the Computer

There are two major types of information a computer needs from the operator. The first is data, such as name, address, etc. and the second is commands, which tell the computer what to do with the data.

There are a variety of ways used to tell the computer that we are giving it a command, rather than data.

As mentioned previously, one common way is to assign a function key on the keyboard to mean a certain command when pressed.

Sometimes when you type things into the computer, you don't see anything different on the screen. This is because the program either was setup not to display it, or you entered a command (with one of the function keys or explicitly typed in) which resulted in some action rather than a displayed character.

When one of these commands are entered, BizPie always lets you know whether you entered it correctly or not. It will always acknowledge all commands with a message on the screen, or in some cases a sound of a "beep" using the built in speaker.

If the command you asked it to perform may cause a drastic action, such as deleting a name from the computer, BizPie always ask you to verify the deletion before it actually does it.

There is very little chance of accidentally pressing the wrong key that may cause damage with this method of protections. Even if this name were to be erased accidentally, the rest of the data will be left untouched, so you only lose one name.

2.5.1 Entering Data

The BizPie uses a simple way of entering data into the computer. It is similar to filling in the blanks on a full page questionnaire.

You can make any type of changes on the screen until you are satisfied with the results.

You have to tell the computer when you are done filling in the information on the screen. Unless you do so, the computer has no way of knowing when to take that information and use it. Just entering data on the screen is meaningless without saving it.

Press function key F9 after all changes are completed, to signal the computer to save the information as it is displayed on the screen.

(Remember the program might have asked us to type in the words "Save Data", but we used a function key F9 to tell the computer the same thing by just pressing this key.)

The data on the screen being displayed is not yet part of the data in the computer. Therefore, unless you specifically tell the computer to save the data by pressing function key F9, you can always go back to the original data (which the computer remembered) by pressing the "Esc" key, thus not lose any information.

2.5.2 Full Screen Editing

Until you are satisfied with all the data displayed on the screen, you can go back and change almost anything. This method of changing data on the screen is called "WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet" or a more common term of "full screen editing".

This method can be thought of as having all the data displayed on the screen in "pencil" so you can make a reasonable amount of changes until you press function key F9, which will then save the data in the computer files. While this data is in the files, it is converted to "ink" and can be changed only under program control.

The next time this data is displayed on the screen, it is reconverted to "pencil" mode and once again you can change almost anything that is displayed.

The only items that cannot be changed readily are the item ID number, the Main Title and the SubTitle.

The screen always displays at least two types of data:

Display of text information (prompts).

Areas to enter information into, on the screen called " Gelds".

There are 25 lines and 80 columns of information that can be displayed on the screen. BizPie sections this off into several different areas that relate to the function within that area.

When entering information on the screen, it is entered into an area called a "field". A field is defined as the single block of open space on one line on the screen, such as a name field, address field, tape title field, etc. The length of the field is determined by how much information is required by the program.

The top two lines are reserved to show the name of the business and other information relating to the data you are working with. The bottom two lines are reserved for system messages. The 24th line (second line up from bottom) is the error message line. If you entered data into a field incorrectly where error checking is performed, a message is displayed on this line, telling you what the error was and how to correct it.

The 24th line has a secondary function of displaying the message "*REQD" on the left side of this line. This message is displayed whenever you are in a data entry field which must be entered.

The 25th line (bottom line) is called the prompt line. Whenever a new screen is displayed, the appropriate assignments for the ten function keys, F1 through F10, are displayed. Thus you always know what action will take place when you press these functions keys without having to memorize them or refer to the manual.

You must have the ability to move from one field to another field to enter or change information there. You must also be able to tell the computer when you have completed entering information. You can tell the computer to go anywhere on the screen where there is a field just by pressing the special keys we mentioned earlier.

The Enter key will only have the effect of moving the cursor to the next available field.

2.6 Keyboard Special Keys

2.6.1 Esc

The "Esc" key is an abbreviation for "Escape". This key is used throughout the BizPie system to allow you to return (Escape) to the previous screen or section that was in use.

2.6.2 Num Lock

This key selects between the two alternate meanings of the numeric keypad keys designated as 09 and the . (period key).

Thus the "Num Lock" key selects one of the dual purpose functions of the numeric keypad.

If the "Num Lock" is on, the number keys are a duplicate of the number keys on the top row of the keyboard. They remain in this mode until "Num Lock" is pressed again, which will turn off the "Num Lock" mode.

In the "Num Lock" off position, the second set of functions as designated by the keycap printing is in effect. These are functions such as "Home", "PgUp", etc.

Another way to select the number functions of the numeric keypad is by pressing and holding down the "Shift" key. This has the same effect as the "Num Lock" key, except its in effect only as long as the shift key is held down. The "Caps Lock" key has no effect on the numeric keypad. Pressing it will not lock the numeric keypad into the number mode.

2.6.3 Scroll Lock

The "Scroll Lock" key serve no function in the BizPie system.

2.6.4 Prt. Sc.

The "Prt Sc" key is an abbreviation for "Print Screen". It's used to capture an image of the screen on the printer, without having to go to a special report section of the system. It may also be

used to obtain an image of the screen when there is no appropriate report choice to save information on paper.

To activate "Print Screen" function, you must press and hold the "Shift" key, and at the same time tap on the "PrtSc" key.

This initiates the "Print Screen" process, therefor once it begins, you, cannot stop it until it completely prints the image of the screen on the paper.

If there is no paper in the printer, the computer will halt and display an error message on the screen. Thus if there is no printer attached to the computer when you press the "PrtSc" key, you will have to reset the system in order to continue.

2.6.5 Home

The "Home" key serves the function of always returning you to the top left hand enterable data field on every screen. For example in the POS screen, the Home key will place the cursor to the "Clerk Name" field. In the "Item Maintenance" screen it places the cursor to the "Item ID" field.

2.6.6 Up Arrow

This key will move the cursor up one field on the screen if the program allows this type of movement. If the cursor is in the top field on the screen and "Up arrow" is pressed, it will go to the first field on the bottom of the screen.

2.6.7 Down Arrow

This key will move the cursor down one field on the screen if the program allows this type of movement. If the cursor is in the bottom field on the screen and "Down arrow" is pressed, it will go up to the first field on the top of the screen.

2.6.8 Left Arrow

These keys will move the cursor left one character on the screen if the program allows this type of movement.

2.6.9 Right Arrow

These keys will move the cursor right one character on the screen if the program allows this type of movement.

2.6.10 PgUp, PgDn

The "PgUp" and "PgDn" keys mean "page up" and "page down". These keys are used when there is too much information to be displayed on one screen. The screens are divided into many "pages" of data for a single item being displayed. One example is in the "Rental Item Maintenance" section. There are four pages of information about each rental tape that can be displayed by pressing "PgUp" or "PgDn" keys.

The computer can show only one page at a time, so you have the ability to move between pages, forward (PgDn) and backwards (Pgup).

Even though you are looking at different screen pages, you are still looking at the same tape ID as displayed on the top of the screen.

Page numbers are placed on the top left side of the screen so you know which page is displayed.

2.6.11 End

The "End" key is called an "editing" key. It's used to delete text within a field. Deletion occurs from the current cursor position, including the character at the cursor, and all the characters to the right of the cursor to the end of the field.

Deleted characters are lost permanently, if after deleting the data it is saved by pressing the F9 function key. If you accidentally deleted the data, you can recover it by not pressing F9 function key. Pressing the "Esc" key will allow you to abort the change, and exit the current screen, leaving the data as it was before you modified it.

2.6.12 Ins

The "Ins" key is an abbreviation for "Insert". This is an "editing" key used while entering data into fields.

This key is a toggle key. Press it once, the insert mode is on, press it again the insert mode is turned off.

When this key is active, you may insert letters anywhere in the middle of existing words or within the field without having to retype the rest of the field.

When this key active, a special cursor is displayed. Instead of being a solid blinking block, it has an blinking bar on top and bottom of the letter. This signifies that you are in the insert mode.

The. insert mode will move the existing information from the current position of the cursor one character to the right to make room for the new characters as they are typed in. If any letters "fall off' the right side of the field, they will be lost if the changed data is saved by pressing F9 function key. You can recover the lost characters by not pressing F9 function key. Pressing the "Esc" key will allow you to abort the change, and exit the current screen, leaving the data as it was before you modified it.

2.6.13 Del

This key allows you to delete a character which is directly under the cursor. The character being deleted will be lost.

All characters to the right of the cursor will be moved to the left one position to fill in the deleted characters space.

The "Del" key can be used at the same time the "Ins" key toggle is active.

2.6.14 Enter

The key labeled "Enter" tells the computer you are done entering information into a field on the screen. It will move the cursor to the next enterable field.

2.6.15 Tab and Backtab

The key with two arrows with a vertical bar, is the Tab key. The reason it has two arrows is because when pressed, it moves the cursor to the right one field and when the Shift key is held down and the key is pressed, it moves the cursor backward one field. This key is also equivalent to the Enter key.

2.6.16 Ctrl

This key is not used. Pressing it will not have any effect in the system.