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However, in programming, he says,"we would attempt just about anything,unless it was too farfetched." He would not try, for instance, toemulate a program like the windowingdone in the Apple Lisa, he says. To talk about problems or limitationswith the TI or other computers is"not fair," says Larry Hughes of Quality99 Software in Washington, D.C."You do the best you can with the toolsat hand. Some things are harder thanothers. Even Atari-according to ConsumerReports, Atari has the worstBASIC language, but you can still dothings with Atari. It's harder, but youcan still write beautiful programs.''"  About the 99/4A, Hughes comments,"This is a very, very shocking thing tome-TI won't tell me how to use it. Youcan get a Commodore book for $6. 95which has every memory location andwhat the value is." With the TI, he says, "everymemory location is a big secret. We'reworking blindfolded in a dark cave." He cited his company's Quickcopyer,which reads a sector from adiskette and writes a sector to anotherdiskette. "TI won't tell you how to do it," hesays. "Nobody outside of TI and myassociate knows how to do it. It tookhim six months of hard work, and itshould be common knowledge. Thehardest part of working with TI is findingout what is common knowledgewith other computers.··" He continues, "The irony is, evenwith the Commodore you know. , allthese things but you can't do anythingbecause it's not a very powerfulcomputer." ==ADVICE TO PROGRAMMERS== If he were to advise someone whowanted to program for the TI, Vaughnsays, "I would have to tell them thebest resource they have for anything isthe manual they have from TI. I'd tellthem to read it from cover to coverabout 10 times." He also feels that' '"just experimenting''" is important. For those interested in programmingcommercially, he says, "theyshould start with BASIC and movevery quickly into machine languageprograms." 

 "Put that in all capital letters-READTHE MANUAL. I'm in a user groupand I get 10 calls a night.''"People will call and ask, 'What'sthat funny curlicue-looking thingdo?' " " 'You mean the ampersand?' " " 'I guess so. What's it do?' " " 'It's on page five of yourmanual.' ''" He continues, "You need to read themanual not once, not twice, not fivetimes, but 10 times. Then when youstart programming and you have aquestion, you'll know where to look."