Introduction

Not all that many years ago, the only places where one would be able to see a computer would have been the central offices of large organisations. The computer, costing at least £500000, would have been housed in a large, temperature controlled room. The computer would have been run by a team of people, called operators, working on a shift system which provided 24-hour operation. Users of the computer would have a terminal, consisting of a TV screen and a keyboard, on their desk and they would use the facilities of the computer by means of on-screen forms and menus. These computers were called main frame computers and in fact there are still many of these in operation today. Today, almost every home has a computer either in the form of a Personal Computer (PC) or games console and the cost is well under £1000.