Wizard was designed by two of the truly great minds of the PICK world: Ken Simms, author of PICK BASIC and Dick Pick himself.
Most of the development of Wizard was done by Ken Simms. Today the Wizard development team is a dedicated group with broad experience as users as well as in computer science.
You will be using Wizard for many years to come. As technology advances we want to make sure that we continue to bring you the very best product and keep you informed on how to use it.
We also need your help. Some of the best improvement ideas and techniques come from Wizard users such as yourself. If you have any suggestions, "tech tips", or complaints, please contact us. I personally guarantee that we will respond to every matter raised.
Bob Guthrie.
If you already know about computers and the PICK operating system, you may go straight to the section on "What Will Wizard Do For Me?"
The main idea of business data processing is to put information into the computer and get information out of the computer. A computer needs lists of instructions to tell it exactly how to process the information. These lists of instructions are called "programs."
Wizard asks you questions about the program that you want to create. Wizard then uses the answers to these questions to automatically create the program for you. You do not have to know a thing about programming.
With Wizard, you can create three kinds of programs: screens, reports, and menus.
Information is typically entered into the computer by typing the information on a keyboard and viewing the information on a television screen. This keyboard and screen combination may be part of the computer or may be in a separate unit called a terminal. A program that allows you to enter information (or data) is called a DATA ENTRY SCREEN PROGRAM. We shorten this to the term SCREEN.
With a Wizard SCREEN you can enter many different types of information. For example, you could enter names, numbers, dates and amounts of money. Once you have told Wizard what types of information you want to enter, Wizard will automatically check the information that you enter to make sure it is the right type.
With Wizard you can add to or change a SCREEN even after you have used it to enter information into the computer.
Information from the computer is typically sorted into a particular order and displayed on a terminal screen or printed by a computer printer. This information is usually called a report. The program that displays or prints the information is also called a REPORT. A typical report could contain customer information sorted by the customers' names.
Wizard REPORTS offer tremendous flexibility in formatting. For example, Wizard can produce traditional columnar reports as well as forms such as invoices and checks.
A Wizard REPORT can be up to 250 columns wide. When viewing a REPORT on your terminal, you may browse (scan) forward, backward, left, or right through the REPORT.
A MENU is like a table of contents. It allows you to select a particular SCREEN or REPORT from a list of SCREEN names and REPORT names.
A Wizard MENU displays a numbered list of SCREEN names and REPORT names. You can select a particular SCREEN or REPORT simply by typing its number.
You can use a Wizard MENU to group together several SCREENS and REPORTS which perform a particular task (such as inventory control or customer tracking). Such a group of programs is referred to as an "APPLICATION." Because Wizard makes it so easy to develop applications, we call it an APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT.
Data in a computer is organised into electronic FILES. Every file has a unique name. Every file is divided into RECORDS. Every record is divided into FIELDS. In some kinds of computer files, every record has a name. We refer to these names as KEYS.
Wizard provides you with an Application Development Environment within which you can create an entire system. You can develop data entry screens, build report screens, and construct a menu system which allows you access to those screens and reports.
In providing all these features, Wizard can save you a tremendous amount of time while giving you an entire system with a uniform look and feel. Throughout the system pressing [F1] (function key 1) will access help, [F10] or [Esc] will get you out, and ENTER will select an option. Your documentation is easily generated, updated, and printed. You can do almost anything you want securely and quickly, without having to learn many different or new commands.
If you can't find the answer to your questions in this manual, contact Pick Products or email Wizard support at wizard@pickproducts.com.au.