Publisher's Synopsis
The computer industry is currently undergoing a revolutionary period of change, with a major shift from a mainframe-based culture to a workstation culture. Computing in even the largest companies is now beginning to be dominated by ordinary computer users and not by technologists.;An appropriate analogy is that of cars in the 1920s - people started dispensing with chaffeurs and took over the driving themselves.;As mainframes are rapidly being replaced by high powered workstations, a new approach to computer programming called "object oriented programming" is sweeping through the industry. This approach promises to enable users to take advantage of the workstation culture to gain complete control over their environment and applications.;In jargon free language, Phil Manchester explains what the new systems and the thinking behind them are all about, and discusses how all of us will be affected by this new wave of change. He highlights the questions and the areas which users will need to address and explores the management implications of the new culture.;This book is targeted at all who are interested in how computer systems will be put together during the next decade, particularly all those in the software industry; all those involved in the technical side of computing and business managers in user companies.;Phil Manchester was editor of the Financial Times Fintech Software Newsletter.