PRODUCTIVITY AND THE PERSONAL COMPUTER
by Andy Abramson

Productivity... the concept intrigues me more and more in relation to how we work with computers. Word processing made it possible to write, rewrite and rewrite again, all without having to key the same words over again.

Now a revolution is upon us; word processing is being carried to major extremes. Not only can we modify our text, but now, the computer will check our spelling, provide the correct spelling should a mistake be made, and also provide us with synonyms if we find ourselves using the same word too often.

But productivity is available to us in more than just the context of word processing. The whole issue is being raised by the development of memory-resident software, like HOMEBASE and SIDEKICK. Machines that were designed to handle a single task are now functioning with other tasks in the background, ready to come alive at the touch of a few keystrokes.

In the MS-DOS, IBM-ruled world, this is all possible because the operating system allows programs to load and remain resident in memory until called. They also get put back into memory and allow us to resume whatever foreground application we are working with.

In the electronic-communications world, the concept of E-MAIL is important, and its need ever-growing. Software that drops into the background and serves as a mailbox, ready to receive electronic letters is now available, in the IBM PC world, with memory resident software like HOMEBASE from AMBER SYSTEMS and MIRROR from SOFTKLONE.

This "CALL WAITING"-like feature allows you to continue your work on a spreadsheet, data base, or any other foreground application. You are never out of touch and always available to receive an ASCII file, right at your computer, unless of course you happen to be communicating with another system at the time.

In the realm of Computer Conferences, the memory-based software allows you to read online and reply to the memory of your machine, while you download the messages. You can "cut and paste" a segment of something you read to a file and save it for later reference. You can even save it to a file, make your comments and send it back, all without logging off and on. This helps cut down on valuable online time. It also gives you the opportunity to make notes to the computer's memory, not just your own.

Most of all, memory resident software makes you more productive and gives your computer more to do, all the time saving you time and... keystrokes.

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Author's Note: I am a time management junkie, online so much that I have
to find ways to make it up. The rapidly growing world of RAM-based
software helps me make up for the online time I spend, since I don't have
to swap programs to accomplish simple tasks like writing short text,
updating an appointment schedule, using a calculator or looking up phone
numbers. This whole article was written using SIDEKICK and TURBO
LIGHTNING, two BORLAND INTERNATIONAL products that are always there when I
need them.

Andy Abramson is President of Hockey Central, a non-profit organization
established by the Philadelphia Flyers Hockey Club. He is also Chairman
of the Spectacor PC Users Group and reviews software as often as he can to
make others more productive, so he can do his own work.