Play and Learn 2

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POTOMAC PACIFIC ENGINEERING INC. EDUCATIONAL PACKAGE FLASH CARDS TYPING TEACHER 7,500 WORD VOCABULARY BUILDER MATH TEACHER SPELLING TEACHER Copyright 1985, by Potomac Pacific Engineering Inc. Licensed FREE to all users with some restrictions. Read and agree to the license conditions and our disclaimer of warranties prior to using this program. Table of Contents Introduction 2 Flash Cards 3 Multiple Choice 5 Spelling Checker 6 Printing Cards on paper 6 Entering your own Flash Cards 6 Resetting the numbers missed to zero 7 Vocabulary Words Provided 7 Disclaimer of Warranties 8 License Agreement 9 List of Files 9 Database 9 Other products and services of Potomac Pacific Engineering Inc. 10 Inner workings of the program 10 Error Report Form 11 Typing Teacher 11 Math Program 14 Introduction The educational package consists of the program "FLASH" in its basic form "FLASH.BAS", its compiled form "FLASH.EXE", the card files "CARD" on each disk. There is a small version of the data base on disk 4 which will enable you to change the card files if you wish to do so. The basic program is provided as the source code. It is easier and faster to use the compiled form "FLASH.EXE". After briefly looking over this manual you should jump right in and try using the program. You can run the program using the following steps. 1. Turn your computer on and insert your disk operating system disk into your default disk drive. 2. Insert disk one into the default disk drive. 3. Type in FLASH then press return A> flash 4. The program should load and run. 5. The first screen should read: F L A S H C A R D P R O G R A M 1.0 Copyright 1985 by Potomac Pacific Engineering Inc. This program is licensed FREE to all users with some restrictions See the manual for more information on the license ****************** PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE ***************** (end of the first screen) The first screen just contains the name of the program and our copyright notice. Assuming you wanted to run this program press any key to continue. The second screen should look like: Put the disk with the files (cards) that you want to use in the default disk drive ***** THEN PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE ***** The flash card program only uses the Default disk drive Keep it in the default disk drive at all times during this program. (end of second screen) The second screen reminds you to put the disk in the default disk drive which contains the cards you want to use. If this is your first time using the program, leave disk 1 in the default disk drive. The default disk drive is usually disk drive A unless you have changed it. The card files contain the cards that the program uses to teach you. You may review the cards on disk one, two, three, four or cards that you have made up yourself. Leave the disk in the default disk drive at all times during the program. You may switch disks only when the program starts or when you are at the main menu. The third screen you will see is the flash card menu : ********************** FLASH CARD MENU *********************** 0 - EXIT THE OPERATING SYSTEM 1 - FLASH CARDS 2 - MULTIPLE CHOICE 3 - SPELLING REVIEW 4 - PRINT CARDS ON PAPER 5 - CONVERT FILES 6 - RESET MISSED WORDS TO 0 ************* ENTER THE NUMBER THEN PRESS RETURN ************ (end of screen) Each of the above options is explained below: 0 - Exit to Operating System Use this option when you are finished using the programs. You should always exit the program through this option. If you turn off the computer in the middle of the program the computer may lose track of the cards you know vs. the cards you don't know. 1 - Flash Cards This option is a computerized version of flash cards. Each flash card may be visualized as a front containing the prompt and the back which contains the description. If you choose this option the next screen should look like : TOTAL CARDS MISSED 0 TIMES IS 2000 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 1 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 2 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 3 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 4 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 5 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 6 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 7 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED>7 TIMES IS 0 YOU MAY REVIEW CARDS THAT WERE MISSED X NUMBER OF TIMES OR MORE ENTER 0 IF YOU WANT TO REVIEW ALL CARDS >__< (end of screen) Since this is your first time through the system you have not missed any of the cards. (you haven't done any right either) The computer shows that you have missed 2000 words 0 times. You should enter zero if it is your fist time through the cards because you want to review all the cards. If you are studying paper flash card or even just notes you probably go through the cards and when you know the card you put it off to the side in a different pile and don't study it anymore. It is the same thing with notes. You probably study the notes spending most of your time on the ones you don't know. You may want to review all the cards or notes for reinforcement right before a test. Once you have gone through the cards one time the the first screen of the flash cards may look like: TOTAL CARDS MISSED 0 TIMES IS 1130 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 1 TIMES IS 870 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 2 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 3 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 4 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 5 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 6 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 7 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED>7 TIMES IS 0 YOU MAY REVIEW CARDS THAT WERE MISSED X NUMBER OF TIMES OR MORE ENTER 0 IF YOU WANT TO REVIEW ALL CARDS >__< (END OF SCREEN) If you entered 0 you would see all 2000 cards over again which you don't want. If you enter 1 you will see only the 870 cards that you missed the first time. If you go through the 870 cards and miss 430 of them the next time you want the flash cards the cards the number missed should look like : TOTAL CARDS MISSED 0 TIMES IS 1130 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 1 TIMES IS 440 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 2 TIMES IS 430 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 3 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 4 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 5 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 6 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED 7 TIMES IS 0 TOTAL CARDS MISSED>7 TIMES IS 0 YOU MAY REVIEW CARDS THAT WERE MISSED X NUMBER OF TIMES OR MORE ENTER 0 IF YOU WANT TO REVIEW ALL CARDS >__< (END OF SCREEN) You could enter 2 just to review the 430 cards you don't know. You can continue with the cards until you know every card. You could enter 0 or 1 if you wanted to review more of the cards. The computer will ask you what record you want to start at. If you quit in the middle of the cards the computer will tell you what record number you previously quit at. The computer will then ask you : ******** DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE CARDS ******** 1 - PROMPT FIRST 2 - DESCRIPTION FIRST ***** ENTER THE NUMBER THEN PRESS RETURN ***** (END OF SCREEN) When you use paper flash cards you usually look at the front side of the card then try to guess what is on the back side. This is equivalent to seeing the prompt first. Once in a while you may want to see the back side of the card first and then try to remember what is on the front side. This is equivalent to seeing the backside of the card. Once you are finally in the flash card subroutine the computer will display the prompt. You have three options : K - press the K for Know the computer will go to the next word without showing you the answer E - Exit the subroutine Space Bar or any other key - show you the description If you hit the space bar the computer will show you the description and then give you the following options : D - don't know K - Know E - Exit As with flash cards you are the judge of if you know the cards of not. You can always say you know the cards but you are not going to learn them unless you study them. If you enter D for don't know the computer is only going to mark that word for future study. 2 - MULTIPLE CHOICE OPTION This option take the information of the flash cards, shows you the prompt for one then gives you a choice of descriptions to choose from. You may also run the multiple choice backwards seeing a description and given a choice of prompts. The easiest way to understand this option is to go ahead and try it out. The multiple choice option runs through the cards in order. The incorrect answers are chosen at random which means that sometimes the incorrect answers are obviously incorrect. With the definitions supplied it is not a bad problem. However if you enter your own cards in a different subject you could have problems. For example if you have a history flash card file and a question asks for JFK's birthday and the other incorrect answers chosen at random by the computer are names of people, towns, battles and events the answer is obvious. Using the Flash card option is the most efficient for learning if the student is motivated to learn. The multiple choice format may be better for primary education students who would not do any studying unless forced to. With the multiple choice format the students at least have to read the questions and answers while with the flash cards they could day dream all day. 3 - SPELLING TEACHER The best way to understand the spelling option is try it out. The spelling teacher keeps track of the words you understand and the words missed in the same way that the flash card program does. You have to enter the words in small letters. If you enter a word in capital letters the computer will think that you spelled the word wrong. The spelling teacher gives you the description of the word and the first letter. To use the spelling teacher you obviously need to know the meaning of the words. 4 - PRINT CARDS ON PAPER This option is used to print the cards on paper. You can print either the cards on which you are having spelling problems or the cards on which you are having vocabulary problems. You may print out cards that you missed 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or more times. You can either print out the entire list by printing out cards that you missed 0 times or you could print out only the cards that you are having problems by printing out cards that you missed a number of times. 6 - CONVERT FILES This option is used to convert sequential files into random access card files. You only need to use this option if you are going to enter you own card file. You can either enter a card file by using a word processor or by using the database management system that we supply. Using the word processor is slightly faster and easier. Use a word processor that does not have any special control characters and which uses a sequential ASCII file. If you are using Wordstar use the "N" or non document mode. Type in each card as three lines. The first line is the prompt. The prompt may take up to 28 characters. The second and third lines are the descriptions which may be up to 50 characters each. For example a small file might look like: dog n. a small furry animal cat n. a small furry animal does not like dogs ant n. a small insect a house hold pest (end of file) Notice that the "dog" card has a blank third line. All cards must have three lines even if the third line is blank. Also remember the 28 and 50 character limit. For some applications you might need long questions and short answers. You can always put the question in the description field and the answer in the prompt field since you can run the flash cards prompt first or description first. 6 - RESET MISSES TO NONE If you are a new student and have just copied the disks from someone else you don't want to waste your time studying the cards that person doesn't know. You want to spend your time studying the cards that you don't know. To wipe out all the previous misses you should use this option. Make sure you are using your own disk. You don't want to erase your friends work. After using this option all the cards should be set to missed 0 times. VOCABULARY WORDS The flash cards supplied with the program are 7500 of the most common words. These words were chosen on their frequency of use and frequency of misspelling. The four thousand most common words are not included in our list because almost everyone knows them. It would be a waste of your time to study the four thousand most common words. There are some English Professors who study word frequency. Here is a short explanation of word usage. You may have read somewhere in the popular press that the average college graduate knows 40,000 to 50,000 words. Forty thousand words is a very impressive figure and I am sure it makes you feel brilliant. However once you subtract the 10,000 names you know (John, Abe don't forget last names or cities or rivers, states, countries, company names product names etc. you are down to 30,000 words. Once you subtract plural, past tenses, verb forms of nouns (e.g. play, player, players, played, playing) you are down to 12,000 separate words. Still out of these 12,000 words one thousand may be local, slang or regional words. Two thousand of the words may be words that are specialized for your area of work such as computer terminology Another thousand of the words you know may be related to your hobbies or other specialized interests. So, in effect, the average college graduate only knows 8 or 9 thousand words that are not specialized or proper nouns. The average person's speaking vocabulary is even less. Assuming that you know the 4000 most common words and you learn the 7500 words that we provided you will have a command of 11500 words which is an excellent vocabulary. Due to the computerized flash card format of the words you are only drilled on the words you don't know. For example if you are a English major who already knows 5500 of the 7500 words the computer will only drill you on the words that you don't know. On the other hand, if you are a high school student you may only know 2500 of the 7500 words. In this case you will have to study 5000 words. The most commonly misspelled words were also included in the same list. The list of words was cross checked with past SAT tests and the vast majority of the words on the SAT were on our list. The people who write the verbal part of the SAT, GRE, or any other standard test are limited in their choice of words to the most common words. There are over a 500,000 words in the English language. You might think that there is no way to study 500,000 words. How long would it take you to memorize all the words in Websters International Dictionary? But the vast majority of the words are words for specialized needs. Unless you are a doctor or nurse are you going to know the name of every bone in the human body? Unless you are a geologist are you going to know the name of all the rocks, soil or formations in the world? The people who write the test have to come up with words that are not in specialized areas. For a test question to be valid at least 20 % of the people should know the answer. The words that at least 20% of the people know are on our list. In fact on the SAT and most other standard tests if not enough people get the answer correct the question is declared invalid and it is not figured in the results. If you are studying for the SAT or other standardized test I strongly suggest that you purchase BARONS or some other study guide to the test. The computer SAT study aids do not seem to be much better than the books so look before you buy. In order to keep the definitions short to increase the speed they can be learned we only used the most common definition of each word. We did not use specialized meanings of words and did not elaborate on different usage. If you have any questions about the words you can always look them up in a dictionary. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES Potomac Pacific Engineering Inc. licenses this program solely on an "as is" basis. Potomac Pacific Engineering shall have no liability or responsibility to Licensee to any other person or entity with respect to any liability, loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this product, including but not limited to interruption of services, loss of business or anticipatory profits or consequential damages resulting from the use or operation of this program. LICENSE INFORMATION Each program and the manual is Copyrighted 1985 by Potomac Pacific Engineering Inc. The program is not sold. It is licensed free to all users with the following restrictions: 1. You may NOT SELL the program. You may give copies away free. 2. You may NOT give away modified versions of the program. Since we give away the source code people like to make changes to the program. If everyone adds their own "improvements" pretty soon there are hundreds of versions floating around and people blame us when their programs do not run. 3. If you design your own flash cards for a subject other then vacabulary you may then sell the "FLASH" program with your flash cards as long as you do not market the program as a vocabulary or design your own flash card or spelling program. No royalties are required. You may modify the flash program and distribute the modified program with your cards. The following statement is required : Portions Copyright 1985 Potomac Pacific Engineering Inc. All rights reserved (end of required statement) DATABASE PROGRAM You may make changes to the card file using our database program. The database program is the program "MAIN.BAS" on disk 4. It is probably easier to use a word processor as explained in the section of the manual "CONVERTING FILE". If you do not have a word processor or just want to make changes to one or two records you can use the Database program. This program is one of the 15 programs that is part of the database package. The database manual is 40 pages. Here is a quick and dirty guide to using the database. TAKE A BLANK FORMATTED FIFTH DISK. COPY THEN MAIN.BAS PROGRAM AND ALL THE FILES FORM DISK 3 EXCEPT CARDS TO DISK 5. 1. Turn you computer on with the operating system disk in the default disk drive. 2. After you enter the date and time. Type in BASIC or BASICA if you have an IBM. A> BASIC (return) KEY OFF (return) 3. Put Disk 5 in drive A 4. Put The Disk with the cards you want to change in drive B 5. Load the Main Program load "main" (return) 6. run the program 7. The program is menu driven so hopefully you can learn from running the program how to use it. All the files are on drive A except for the card file on drive B that you want to change. LIST OF FILES Disk 1 FLASH.EXE - the compiled program CARD - the first 2000 vocabulary words Disk 2 FLASH.BAS - the basic program REMARKS.BAS- supplied as documentation does not run CARD - the second 2000 words Disk 3 MASTER.TXT - The manual PRINTMAN.BAS - Basic program that prints the files CARD - the third 2000 words Other files used by the data base program Disk 4 MAIN.BAS - the database program CARD - more vocabulary words Disk 5 TT.EXE - typing teacher compiled TT.BAS - typing teacher basic source MATH.BAS - math program ALL DISKS FLAG - Holds the number of cards you missed SFLAG - Holds the spelling mistakes you make Inner Workings of the Program The program is a rather simple program. The program REMARKS.BAS contains remarks on almost every line which should enable you to see how the program works. You should list out the REMARKS program on paper if you want to see how it works. There is only one main variable FLGV(1) which the number of times the student make a mistake on the word. The main subroutines are 500 clear screen 60000 input integer less then 100 60060 input integer 62030 input string If you are using IBM Basic not MS Basic change line 70 to CH = 29 if you are using the basic source code. OTHER PRODUCTS BY POTOMAC PACIFIC ENGINEERING INC DATABASE, SPREADSHEET AND EXPERT SYSTEM all 3 for $20.00 on 4 double sided double density disks The database management system includes accounting, payroll, inventory and accounts receivable applications. The database management has the following features : 40 page manual on disk, customizable screens, ASCII output option, Tax Tables, Subfiles, Sort on 3 fields, Relational, Over 15,000 lines of Source Code, Recalculate fields, 3 files open simultaneously, Global field changes, Key strings to numbers, Realtime transfers between files, Retrieve on conditions for each field, Form Generator, Subrecords, Numeric Ranges, Subtotals, 14 ways to calculate fields, Transfer data between files, Much More. The Spreadsheet program is a simple very user friendly spreadsheet. The Spreadsheet features 21 ways to calculate numbers or write your own subroutine, Automatic recalculation, full cursor control and sample applications. Numbers and text may be placed anywhere on the screen. The expert system is technically an inference engine. Its features are the ability to diagnoses multiple problems, determine multiple solutions, assign probability with rules, intelligent search pattern with manual override, logic path through subcategories displayed, detects contradictory evidence, explanation of reasoning, accepts unknown input. These programs are written in Basic. You get the source code. These programs are excellent as program development tools. All the programs are menu driven which makes them user friendly. POTOMAC PACIFIC ENGINEERING INC. P.O. BOX 2027 GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND 20879 (301) 977-1489 ERROR REPORT FORM We are interested is learning of any problems you may have with this program. Since there are dozens of different MS-DOS computers each with different operating systems and configurations, there is bound to be some problems somewhere. We are also interested with any of the definitions that you feel could be better explained. If you decide to write us please include your name and address, you computer, computers memory and operating system. You can also call us if you want too. If you received a bad disk ( one with read errors or one that was destroyed in the mail) we will replace it at no charge. The disks are distributed on 8 sector disks. A few computers have problems reading 8 sector disks. It may be helpful to copy the files to a 9 sector disk. The program flash.exe runs on most MS or PC-DOS computers with 128k. However it is a close fit at 128K on some computers. If your computer stops without an error message you probably ran out of memory. You should be able to run the basic version flash.bas with 128K. TYPING TEACHER PROGRAM The typing teacher program comes in the basic form TT.BAS and the compiled form TT.EXE. You can run the compiled program by just entering TT then pressing return. A> tt (return) To run the basic program you need to load your basic language, load the program, then run the program. A> BASIC(A) LOAD "TT" RUN The first screen will look like : Put the TYPING TEACHER DISK in the default disk drive. Then press any key to continue. The program needs to read files off of the typing disk. (end of screen) This screen tells you that the typing teacher disk has to be in the default disk drive. You will get a file not found error, if you do not have the typing teacher disk in the default disk drive. The second screen is our copyright notice. The third screen is the initial menu which looks like : *************** INITIAL MENU **************** 0 - EXIT 1 - INDIVIDUAL LETTER PRACTICE 2 - WORD PRACTICE 3 - LETTER GAME 4 - CHANGE TIMING ***** ENTER THE NUMBER THEN PRESS RETURN ***** (end of screen) Each of the options is explained below. 0 - Exit Use this option to exit the program. 1 - INDIVIDUAL LETTER PRACTICE This option lets you practice individual letters. If you chose this option the computer will ask you. WHAT LEVEL DO YOU WANT TO PRACTICE AT 1 - BEGINNER, KEYS a,s,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,; 2 - Above keys plus q,w,e,r,t,y,u,i,o,p 3 - Above keys plus z,x,c,v,b,n,m,,,. 4 - Above keys plus numbers 5 - Above keys plus Capital letters 6 - Above keys plus special characters Enter the number then press return (end of screen) You have six levels of difficulties to chose from. If you are just beginning and do not know how to type you should start with level one. The level one keys are the keys on the middle row just below your fingers. As you progress you can move to the more difficult levels. The computer will print a character on the screen. You have about one half a second to enter the character. You cannot take the time to look at the keys and type the key within the half second. If you take longer then one half a second the computer will print "time" on the screen and mark your answer as incorrect. You still have to type in the correct character to continue. If you type in the wrong character the computer will beep. You will still have to type in the correct character to continue. The computer randomly repeats all the character until you have entered each one 3 times within the half second time limit. If you want to leave this part of the program you may press the ESCAPE key to return to the initial menu. 2 - WORD PRACTICE This program contains the five hundred most common words. The most common five hundred words are over 50% of the words used in frequency. If you can touch type the 500 most common words you can touch type over half of the words you use. The 500 most common words also contain the most common letter pairs. I feel that your time is better spent practicing the 500 most common words rather than typing words that are rarely used. If you choose this option the computer will give you the following choice : How many words do you want to practice 1 - the first 50 words 2 - the first 100 words 3 - the first 200 words 4 - the first 300 words 5 - the first 400 words 6 - the first 500 words 7 - all the words Enter the number then press return (end of screen) If you are a beginner you may want to start with the first 50 words. The first 50 words are the most frequently used words such as the,I,a, and it. The computer will go through the first 50 words. If you take to long the computer will print an asterisk where you ran out of time. For example the computer displays : than th* If you type in "th" than pause to look at the keyboard you will run out of time and the computer will print "*" to tell you that you ran out of time. You still have to type in the rest of the word "an" to continue. The computer will go through each word until you get it right 3 times without any mistakes or taking to much time. 3 - LETTER GAME The letter game is a simple game that lets you practice typing individual letters. If you have some imagination you can view the letters as alien monster space ships attacking your planet. You will have the same choice of levels that you have in the individual letter practice. The screen will look like : agk [ 0 The letters on the left are the monsters attacking you. The [ is your space ship. You have to type in each letter, in any order to destroy the monsters. The number on the right is your score. You get 250 points for each monster you hit. You lose 1000 points if you miss. The speed increases as the game progresses. 4 - CHANGE TIMING This option is used to change the amount of time you have to enter the characters correctly. Different computers run at different speeds. An IBM AT is twice as fast as a PC Jr. If you are running the program on a AT you might not have enough time to enter a character before the computer marks your answers wrong for being too late. You may also want to adjust the timing to make the exercises harder or easier for you. ENTERING YOUR OWN WORDS OR CHARACTERS The characters this program uses are contained in the file "letters". If you want to practice greek letters or special characters you can change the file "letters" with a word processor. The five hundred most common words are in the file "wordtype". If you want to practice a different set of words you can change the file "wordtype" with a word processor or text editor. Both the files "letters" and "wordtype" are sequential access ASCII files. MATH PROGRAM The math program contains about 90 of the most common questions chosen from the SAT and GRE tests. The program uses random numbers to repeat each problem. The math program is rather simple to use. The program is provided only in the basic code. Start the program by 1. turning on your computer 2. put your disk operating system disk in your default disk drive 3. load basic A> basic (return) or A> basica (return) 4. put the disk with the math program in the default disk drive 5. load the MATH program load "math" (return) 6. run the program run (return) The program will then start. The program is menu driven and is very simple to use. Just jump right in and start using the program. To study for the SAT or GRE you should try all of the problems once. You should repeat the problems you missed until you know how to calculate each type of problem. The math program will not remember which problems you are having trouble with. You will have to remember the problems you are having difficulties with if you want to repeat them in future practice sessions. This math program was written by a college intern so some of the programming techniques are a bit amateurish. However, the program does run and the selection of problems from past standardized test should be quite useful to anyone practicing for a standardized test. Even though the program uses random numbers to repeat each problem the correct option is not changed. For example on problem number 30 the correct option is always the first choice. You could easily beat the system by remembering which option is the correct one. However, just remembering that the first choice on problem 30 is correct is not going to teach you anything. Calculate each problem on paper or in your head.