Mad Hatter Pagel10
NEW MICROCOMPUTER SOFTWARE IN THE LIBRARY

The Library has available 2 APPLE II Plus computers ona
2-hour bookable basis. Provided for student, faculty and
employee use they are located next to the Library's classroom.

Basically Yours from Prestige Design Corporation is a self-
teaching program on a 2-sided disc for learning Applesoft
Basic programming language. It has 12 chapters (320 screens)
of content. The program focuses on specific aspects of
programming ranging from variables, loops, lo-res graphics,
arrays, strings, information storage, and more. The program's
flexible options allow you to vary the- display speed, to

load, and to review the chapters in any order. A manual
accompanies the program.

Another programming language is PASCAL and the Library
owns PASCAL for the APPLE, a useful interactive self-
teaching program, with a manual, available. (QA76.8/A662/
M3/1983) by Iain MacCallum.

 

Useful for some instructors will be a readability program

the Library has acquired from Micro Power & Light Co.

(Dallas, Texas). The program determines reading difficulty
levels of written material and can be used to evaluate

textu al material being considered for inclusion in training
programs. It can similarly be used to verify that correspond-
ence and manuals are written at a level appropriate for

the intended reader. The Readability Program measures

the difficulty level of written material according to nine
recognized formulas:

Dale-Chall Fog Holmquist
Fry ARI Flesch
Flesh-Kincaid Coleman Powers

The Readability program frees the user from rote counting
and mathematical calculations and allows educators to con-
centrate on interest and motivation factors. Text is input
one line at a time at screen prompts. The data is then
tabulated and raw scores and results of the nine formulas
are given. The program then presents two graphics screens:
the first depicts a Fry graph plotting syllables per 100
words against sentences per 100 words; the second is a
composite of all nine formulas, allowing ready comparison.
The program is easy to use, and comes with a user manual.
It incorporates a number of “user friendly" features such
as:
displaying self-explanatory, menu-driven screens.
presenting results graphically as well as numerically.
- supporting the comparative analysis of formula results.
allowing the entry of lengthy passages over several
sittings.
5. handling either keyboard or text file input of readability
data.

& Wh