The Museum
How it all began * The
first calculation program * Getting serious
SuperBeam 1 * More on
SuperBeam 1 * ProSteel 1
Getting serious
As the volume of design work expanded, my beam design program was progressively improved so as to meet the needs of the user base (me!) As with the PET version, I can't remember what the BBC version looked like, but a few calculation sheets survive. Not that much has changed since!
The key thing, of course, is that I was now producing calculation sheets for Building Control approval rather than as an academic exercise, and this shaped the content. I decided to replicate what one would put on a handwritten calculation, so that any BCO seeing one of these sheets for the first time would have no problems understanding it. To this day most people like the simple clear presentation, though the Structural Engineer's Verulam column did print a dismissive comment about a program that fits an entire calculation onto one sheet of paper!