TRAMP.DOC ·
DOC ·
17 KB ·
1987-01-21 ·
from CompuLink-User-Group_Magazette_Feb-1987
The story of the ups and downs of a Hitachi MBE-16002 PC
Bruce Ainge
As a sales executive (representative) for a company that supplies
reprographic materials to printers and phototypesetters and the like,
I have been using an Hitachi MBE-16002 PC for about two years. My use
of this machine was for storing information on a database. Simple
stuff like names and addresses of customers and prospective clients in
the South-Eaat the time, though I'm very casual
and blase about it now. But my PC is a rare beastie, there being only
perhaps 5 or 6 hundred in the country.
In the normal course of my duties as a sales representative, I walked
into Systemset a phototypesetting company in Bromley, Kent, run by a
guy called Terry Hancock and was staggered to see an Hitachi PC parked
on a bench there. (The only one I'd ever seen was still at home.) It
turned out to be the typesetter that had typat the time, though I'm very casual
and blase about it now. But my PC is a rare beastie, there being only
perhaps 5 or 6 hundred in the country.
In the normal course of my duties as a sales representative, I walked
into Systemset a phototypesetting company in Bromley, Kent, run by a
guy called Terry Hancock and was staggered to see an Hitachi PC parked
on a bench there. (The only one I'd ever seen was still at home.) It
turned out to be the typesetter that had typeset the manuals for the
Hitachi PC. He hastly told me that he was not to be held responsible
for the poor English, he had only set what he was told to. It was
some months after, that I contacted him again, as I had moved. But on
this occassion he asked if I'd be interested in computing the scoring
at a trampoline competition. He'd asked a number of other
organisations, (Amstrad was one), but no-one was interested in
handling it, much to his surprise. There was a program, I was
assured, to do the actual arithmetic, all we had to do was key in all
the scoring data as it was passed on to us by the officials there.
Foolishly, I agreed to take the job on.
FIRST HICCUP
The event was to take place on Sunday the 22nd of June - 8.00 am
prompt. I met Terry at the Lazy Toad for lunch and we went over the
details. 'Twas there I discovered that there was no program. A
number of people, had been working on such a program, but somehow,
when asked for them, the so-called authors admitted that their
programs didn't actually work. The day we had lunch together was
Tuesday the 17th, a program would have to be written, pronto. As
there was no way to actually test the program before it could be used,
I realised that taking this job on could bring on a few more grey
hairs.
WHAT WAS INVOLVED
Never having been to a trampoline competition in my life, I hadn't a
clue what was needed, so Terry explained it to me. There would be
four classes.
1) Under elevens 2) Under fifteens 3) Over fifteens 4) Open
Each competitor in each of the four classes has to complete two
routines.
1) A set routine 2) A voluntary routine
There are five judges who dish out points like 7.6 or 6.8 after each
competitor has completed each routine. However, only the middle three
points are added together, while the top and bottom points are
ignored. In the voluntary routine, there is an additional point for
difficulty, called a TARIFF. So What was needed, was a program that
would record all the points from the five judges for each competitor,
and total the middle three, for both the SET routine and the VOLUNTARY
routine, and then add the TARIFF. We then needed the total points
scored, entered on another field, enabling us to sort that field into
a descending order, for the positions of each competitor. (71 in the
under elevens - 55 in the under fifteens - 42 in the over fifteens and
67 in the open.) There was one more thing. Apart from their
individual efforts there would be a recognition of certain ones being
part of a team that represented their various clubs, of which there
were seven in the under elevens - eight in the under fifteens - five
in the over fifteens and eight in the open. (Are you able to follow
all this lot?) Basically, I have covered the main requirements for the
program we would need to use. The Mayor was going to present the
prizes at the end, and we went into the competition hall with an
untested program two Hitachi 16002 computers, and two printers. The
program was PC-FILE III. You would think we had enough to contend
with wouldn't you? Believe me, before that day was over (7.45 pm), I
suffered one coronary after another.
HOME GROUND OF THE CRYSTAL FLYERS
I awoke at six in the a.m., and stumbled around trying to get myself
together. I'd entered the last name into the database I'd formulated
using PC-FILE III, only a few hours before. Everything had to be
loaded into the Mazda for the trip to the sports centre in SE London.
I left around seven, and arrived about 7.40. The first to arrive. A
friend of mine, Len, agreed to help, despite having to leave a house
full of visiting guests, still partying from the night before. He
hadn't slept all night, so I was really surprised when he turned up
early too. About eight, a guy unlocked the front gates to the sports
centre, and we drove our cars into the complex. The same guy opened
the main hall and we started to cart the Hitachi stuff in. It was
impressive. The home ground of the The Crystal Flyers. The back of
the hall was for the spectators, as was the gallery. The judges were
to be seated at the front of the hall. There were four trampolines
placed in the centre, two to the left, two on the right. We were
between the two sets of judges. My Hitachi taking the left side (bed
B), and Terry's took the right side (bed A). The under 11's were to
start at 9.45 on bed A with their set routine. Also at 9.45 the over
15's were to start their set routine. The medals were all laid out in
the middle of the hall, between the two sets of trampolines. Lots of
them. I can't remember if I was nervous.
HICCUP NUMBER TWO
By 8.30, we were all set up, and I was going through the program with
Len and Terry. Though we were placed about six feet apart, we would
not be in a position to actually see each other during the routines.
The little under elevens were warming up on bed B from 8.30, and the
place was beginning to fill. There was a fair bit of noise, and a
number of people were bouncing confidently on both beds by 8.45. The
contestants all wore the various clubs outfits for identification,
like the silver and blue of The Rock Steady Crew. The ten judges
arrived and were seated along the front, five on either side of us.
The scorers were sat next to each of us who had the job of entering
them into the database. Having now been through the program to the
satisfaction of the others, it dawned on m covering the voluntary routine. Apart from
that minor problem, all the other classes stuck to either A bed or B
bed for both their set and voluntary routines. About 9.00 an official
came up and asked if we had the ammended lists for each of the
classes. Huh? Seems we had some drop out at the last moment. Some
to be replaced, some were not to be replaced. Some were too late now
to compete, etc.. Nothing we could do accept to alter the records
when covering the voluntary routine. Apart from
that minor problem, all the other classes stuck to either A bed or B
bed for both their set and voluntary routines. About 9.00 an official
came up and asked if we had the ammended lists for each of the
classes. Huh? Seems we had some drop out at the last moment. Some
to be replaced, some were not to be replaced. Some were too late now
to compete, etc.. Nothing we could do accept to alter the records
when then the
voluntary routines plus the TARIFF. Does it sound easy to you?
Simple, maybe. Easy, it wasn't. After half an hour of solid figure
entries my brain begun to seize up, and concentrating on nothing but
getting the proper field called up for updating, as each competitors
score was handed to me, at an ever increasing speed, was making me a
little dizzy. I needed a drink badly. I couldn't see the other two,
so I didn't know how they were coping, b then the
voluntary routines plus the TARIFF. Does it sound easy to you?
Simple, maybe. Easy, it wasn't. After half an hour of solid figure
entries my brain begun to seize up, and concentrating on nothing but
getting the proper field called up for updating, as each competitors
score was handed to me, at an ever increasing speed, was making me a
little dizzy. I needed a drink badly. I couldn't see the other two,
so I didn't know how they were coping, but then there were two of them
operating their computer, and covering bed B, there was only me. You
won't believe what happened next.
The Formulation Of Our Program, Using PC-FILE
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ NAME | JANINE SCOTT │
│ NUMBER | 36 │
│ EVENT | OVER 15 │
│ SET1 | 7.5 │
│ SET2 | 7.5 │
│ SET3 | 7.4 │
│ SET4 | 7.4 │
│ SET5 | 7.1 │
│ VOL1 | 7.9 │
│ VOL2 | 7.7 │
│ VOL3 | 7.6 │
│ VOL4 | 7.4 │
│ VOL5 | 7.0 │
│ TARIFF | 2.3 │
│ TOTAL | │
│ POSITION | │
└─────────────────────────────────┘
This was the format for the database. The program was able to then do
a report on any of the fields, and print all the contents of the
database out in columns, across the page, each printed out one line
per record. The report facility in PC-FILE is pretty powerful,
enabling arithematic functions on any field. The idea was to fill in
each of the fields as the information formation was handed to us.
SET1 and SET5, must contain the highest and the lowest score (it
didn't matter in which order, as the report function was told to
ignore those two fields anyway). So as each competitor was judged on
their ability we would call up their record number, and using the F2
function for updating the database we would enter each of the fields
for updating, with the figures we were handed. After the set routine,
each of the records would look like the one above. When all the
records were complete lete with all the set points, voluntary points
and tariff, then we needed the report facility to send the data to the
printer for hard copy, which we would then have a total for. The F6
function did this by enabling you to make a listing of the fields you
want a report on. The format also allows for calculations. By
entering this command:
(SET2+SET3+SET4+VOL2+VOL3+VOL4+TARIFF)TOTAL:5.1
The calculation formula was entered within the brackets. The name
`TOTAL' was given to the heading for the column that would be the
total points for each competitor. The `5' told the report that we
wanted 5 spaces allocated for our calculation, and the `.1' was the
number of digits to appear to the right of the decimal point. For the
purpose of the report we would need, we wanted to add the data held on
these fields, but equally, if we'd wanted to, we could have done any
of the usual calculations, by using the usual *, /, or -, symbols.
(For multiply, divide or minus). Along with the data in our
calculation then, we also needed the name of each contestant, and the
event that they were competing in. And because we thought it would be
nice for the contestants to see the total points scored for each of
the routines too, we also wanted to total the three scores that
counted in both the routines. (The three middle ones.) PC-FILE then
gives you the option to save this format, or not. (If it was to be
used again, or not - if it was just a one off report.) We also have an
option to have the report printed out with a heading, so finally our
report looked like this:
LONDON AND SOUTH EAST ENGLAND END OF SEASON COMPETITION 22-6-86 11:31
NAME EVENT SET POINTS VOL POINTS TOTAL POSITION
==========================================================================
JANINE SCOTT OVER 15 22.3 25.0 47.3
As there was no way for the program to total those points and then
enter them into the TOTAL field on the record, we had to update the
file again by calling up each record and updating the TOTAL field with
the data that was printed out on the report. After that, we then
asked the program to SORT the file on the field titled TOTAL, and
print the records out in descending order, for the positions. It
sounds complicated as I write this, but it was fairly simple in
practice. (It'll probably make more sense if you read this bit
again.)
THE TERMINAL HICCUP
Alright, I'll tell you what happened. I got to the 36th record, and
drive `B' failed to write the data to disk, and proceeded to corrupt
all the data on all the records that followed. The score recorder
continued to supply competitors scores, as I desparately tried to
salvage the program. Twice I got back into it, and twice more it
failed. I raised the back-up copy of the database, and started from
record 36, trying to catch up with the flow of information coming at
me. It failed again. I gave up. The rest of the competition was
recorded on the remaining Hitachi PC still function. But we got way
behind, and spent half the lunch time feeding the PC with data from
the lost files. Terry and I got indigestion rushing up to the dining
room, and gulping down our salads, and getting back to feeding the
computer again. It was easier with two on the job, and data was
entered much faster with someone working out the scores for each
field, giving the one feeding in the data time to get the data into
the right fields.
CONCLUSION
We learned quite a bit by the experience. We now know what kind of a
program is needed for these events. We also know that you can't
take too much equipment for back-up. (I also discovered how hard it
is, to work under sustained, extreme pressure.) I managed to salvage
one of the classes, my computer having almost destroyed two of them.
(The under elevens and the over fifteens.) And at the end of the day,
we were able to complete the process on three classes, and print a
report showing the overall positions of the contestants for them. By
which time, the people who were doing the scoring had finished their
calculations by hand, and had presented the final positions for the
presentation of the medals and such.
In conclusion, I will say that it was an unusual way to spend the day.
It took years off my life, but I enjoyed the challenge. For Terry it
was an experiment that showed that with the right program, and with
reliable gear it would be an advantage to use computers at such
events. So he was quite pleased. (Particularly as his daughter came
ninth in her event.) Len, who had to get away mid morning to take his
partying guests back to Heathrow airport, (he managed to get back to
us later in the afternoon), enjoyed the occassion also. He was very
impressed with the proceedings, as I think he wasn't expecting the
occassion to be quite as big as it was. But, I cannot help thinking
of the Hitachi drive failure, and the consequences if it had been
the only means of keeping scores.
Computers are great, sometimes indespensible. But where would we have
been without people with a sheet of paper and a pencil?