Contents

Practical Innovation
How It Works
Communication Benefits
Working With Programmers
Do It Yourself
Working With Databases
Going Farther
Technical Features
Not "One Size Fits All"

Practical Innovation    Top of Page

The Basic Moves package combines a practical, innovative hands-on learning app with tailored, follow-up programming labs.

The learning app is the easiest, most efficient, most stress-free way available to start learning the fundamentals of programming. The follow-up labs guide you smoothly into programming in two of the planet's most widely used workplace apps, Excel and Powerpoint in Microsoft Office.

The package is designed for adults and young adults. The learning app is not a game, instead using a unique interactive documentary format. The innovative design provides the exceptionally efficient, frustration-free initial experience with programming. The labs are designed to extend the learning app, quickly giving the learner practical, widely applicable coding experience.

The package is designed for people who would like to start programming, or communicate better with programmers, or simply be more comfortable in the world of computers.

In a few easy hours, such as over a weekend, you can go from knowing nothing about how software works, through a hands-on mini course, and end by writing code in two of the planet's most widely used office applications.

How It Works    Top of Page

The Basic Moves learning app achieves its efficiency and ease by eliminating major time-consuming tasks normally involved in beginning to program. These tasks are deferred to a follow-up phase, if you want to go further. For many people in work situations this will not be essential for their purposes.

First, debugging is eliminated. Basic Moves blocks you from creating bugs, so you spend no time hunting and fixing mistakes in your beginning phase. Beginners often experience debugging as a time-consuming and frustrating part of learning to program. The beginner does not know what correct code looks like, and therefore has a hard time spotting bugs, research has confirmed. With Basic moves all those delays and frustrations are gone. And after completing Basic Moves you will be better prepared to spot bugs, because you will have seen and written many examples of correct code.

Communication Benefits    Top of Page

Many people in work situations will not want to actually write any software themselves, but will want to enhance their communications with other people who do the programming. For these people, going through the Basic Moves learning app may be enough. This will give you an understanding of the basic components and strategies of software, which will help you work with software developers to plan new software, or add features to existing software.

If you are a business manager overseeing the development of customized software, you will benefit from understanding the basic building blocks of software and the terminology your developers are using. Inadequate communication between management and developers is one of the major sources of problems in software development.

Clear communications will help you avoid the project going off in wrong directions. While such mistakes can be corrected, since software is inherently flexible, they can nevertheless be costly in time spent and opportunities missed. With a better understanding of software, you'll be able to ask more intelligent questions about the options developers present. You'll be able to better understand and assess the trade-offs between features and costs.

If you are a user of new customized software, your input will be important to ensure the software is fitted to your work procedures and easy to use. Here also, clear communication with the software developers will help ensure these goals are met effectively and efficiently.

Working With Programmers    Top of Page

On a practical note, the role of managers and users in these collaborations is primarily to give the developers a clear picture of what the custom software needs to do. The software developers handle how the software does this. Managers and users with some knowledge of software can use this as part of explaining their goals. But it's best to keep the specification of what the software will do cleared of any specific software designs.

You may want to discuss alternate design approaches if a design trade-off raises a question to the developers. For example, a design choice may affect which features would be easier or harder to add later. Which way to go? In these cases it's often helpful for managers (or users) to specify an additional priority, and that clarifies the design decision.

Do It Yourself    Top of Page

In some work situations you may want to create modest amounts of software to automate a routine task or enrich a software tool. For example, your "what-if" models in a spreadsheet can make a quantum leap in features and complexity by adding a bit of custom code.

For instance, in a business case the growth rate of your sales could change in mid-scenario, perhaps reflecting a price change. In a science case, the growth rate of a fish population could change to reflect a change in their food supply. These specific types of cases, and others, are included in the free Excel programming exercises.

Writing your own software in Excel lets you always display whatever data you want, computed however you want, and arranged however you want.

Writing your own software in PowerPoint lets you add events to your slides, making your slides more informative and eye-catching. Objects can be made to appear, disappear, move, and interact using your own custom code.

The included exercises ease you into coding your own additions in Excel and PowerPoint. Since these are among the most widely used Microsoft Office applications in the world, this is a widely applicable programming skill.

Working With Databases    Top of Page

Many work situations involve collecting a large amount of data, from sales data in a business to wildlife migration data in a research project. This data is typically saved and analyzed using a "database" application. Often there are unique aspects of the situation that warrent customized data "tables" to hold the data, and customized software to work with it.

Typically, custom code is written to collect and save the data, retrieve the data for analysis, and to do some of the analysis. Small such projects might be handled as a side task by a non-developer. But database situations can easily become complex enough to warrant involvement of a dedicated software developer. Here again, an understanding of software basics by managers and users can smooth the process of developing and using the software.

Going Farther    Top of Page

You may start by writing small amounts of software, and then find you want to go farther. Perhaps you'll want to do small programming tasks on a website. Or perhaps you're using one of the many applications with a built-in programming language (like Excel), and you'll want to add some custom features. Or perhaps you'll see the possibility of a brand new application in some area, perhaps involving high performance software, such as used in games, and large-scale scientific modeling. With all such next steps, you can directly apply the basic moves and strategies you learn in Basic Moves in Software.

Technical Features    Top of Page

Since Basic Moves runs on your local personal computer rather than on a distant website machine, it uses none of your workplace or home's internet bandwidth.

And it has none of the internet's waits, giving you seamless, smooth interactions with a more realistic learning experience. A website machine that is hundreds of miles away, and that you are sharing with other people, cannot match the physical responsiveness of a machine that is dedicated to you and only a few inches away.

The Basic Moves learning app does not make any changes to the hard drive once it is installed. So there is no risk of accidental data deletion by the learner.

The free programming exercises in Excel and PowerPoint make changes only in the Exel and PowerPoint files that come in the package.

Not "One Size Fits All"    Top of Page

We're not in a "one size fits all" world. But if you're looking for the learning app that is the easiest, most efficient, most stress-free, with solid coverage of the basics, and key advanced perspectives to open further doors, then Basic Moves is designed for you.

Plus our labs quickly and easily give you useful real-world programming experience in major office applications.

We invite your comparison with the alternatives. You'll likely be delighted with how much you learn in a short time.

If you think knowledge of the basic moves in software could be useful to you, make a big move with a $9.95 investment in yourself. With our 30-day money-back guarantee you can't lose.

If you'd like to experience the ease of our unique design first, try our demo free, and compare your experience with the alternatives.

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