University Daily Kansan, July 24, 1985
Page 12
New computers to ease load, users' frustrations
Bv Sherry Gerina
Staff Reporter
Students in Introduction to Computing, CS 200, will no longer meet with frustration because they have trouble completing their work on an overloaded computer system, the acting chairman for the department of computer science said Monday.
William Bulgrel, the acting chairman, said that the department of computer science had ordered 80 new Apple Macintosh computers and expected them to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday, he said.
"Our students have been very frustrated by using a system that was so utilized." Bulgren said.
Students in CS 200 have been completing their assignments on a Honeywell computer, he said. The computer also is used by several academic departments at the university and for construction and research. Bulgaren said.
Rich Bireta, associate director of the office of information systems, said that more than 5,000 people used the Honeywell computer.
Bulgen said the cost of the new computers was $200,000, which included the computers, discs, and a laser printer and software.
Tim Thurman, CS 200 supervisor,
said that the department hoped to
have the computers installed before
the fall semester began.
Bulgen said that in the future, the department plans to connect the new computers to the campus network, enabling the department to communicate with other departments through the computer.
He said that the current computer system was overloaded, and this caused response time to be slow. Response time is the time it takes for the programs to appear on the screen after data is entered.
Response time has sometimes taken more than five minutes for CS 200 programs, he said. It should take seconds, not minutes.
The poor response time causes projects to be late, students to be frustrated, and faculty research to be slowed down. Bulgen said.
Thurman said, "The problem was more with other users who were doing much bigger projects, and they felt the burden because when there were several users, performance was degraded and it took longer."
Bulgen said that the response time now would be faster for students because they were working with personal computers. It also will be faster for people who use the Honeywell wireless keyboard, so the laptop will be lessened, be said
Thirty percent of the Honeywell usage was from CS 200 students, he
Another advantage of using personal computers is that many students have personal computers at home. The Apple system will allow them to take their programs home and spend more time on them, he
Bulgren said, "Economically it is better to work on personal computers than the host computer."
It would cost more than $200,000 to upgrade the Honeywell computer, he said.
He said that although the University had ordered a Digital Equipment Corporation VAX 8600, which will be used for academic services, it would not arrive until January or February. We were also more accustomed to computers in the computer science department was urgent.
"Something had to give and I don't want the students to give." he said.
A committee comprising faculty and graduate students selected the Apple Macintosh system based on the software used to how to use, and the system's language.
Bulgren said the committee listened to presentations from about 10 manufacturers including International Business Machines Corp. Zenith, and American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
Thurman, who was a member of the committee, said that another selling point of the Apple was some of its features.
One feature on the Apple that Thurman likes is called the "mouse." The mouse is a box, which has a ball on the bottom, that is attached to the computer. When a user wants to select a program, he moves the box this causes a cursor on the screen to select the program the user wants.
He said that this was better than the Honeywell system in which a user had to remember the commands and type them in.
"The Apple is more fun, and it is easier to learn," he said.
He said it gave directions and printed pictures on the screen — something the honeywell did not do.
The computer also uses Pascal and Fortran languages, which are languages that several computers use.
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