"NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

COMPUTER SOFTWARE engineer lan Ashdown has developed an electronic catalogue for a Rich-
mond lighting manufacturer. The West Vancouver-based software engineer says the electronic
catalogue software, written in the C programming language, provides a solid base for developing
eijectronic catalogues for other applications.

WY software engineer
designs unique programs

A WEST Vancouver software engineer has designed and
developed a unique ‘‘electronic catalogue’’ program for a
Richmond fluorescent lighting company.

Ian Ashdown enhances the
three-ring binder and paper ap-
proach to cataloguing with a pro-
gram that offers the user a listing
of products available and the abil-
ity to design and specify projects
around those products.

Some 2,500 man-hours of soft-
ware engineering time have been
dedicated to development of the
catalojyue. Contained on a single
floppy diskette (IBM PC), the
prograis includes engineering pro-
grams useful as lighting design
and economic analysis tools.

Ashdow:1 says he came to the
project through a friendship with
some of the people at Ledalite.
The company became one of his
firs? cvstomers after ic Becided to
descate energies full-time to his
own software engineering con-
sultancy, byHeart Software.

“J proposed to them that they
had problems in keeping their
catalogues up to date,”’ he said.

Meanwhile, during his time with
Glenayre Electronics, Ashdown
developed an electronic voice mail
subsystem for the company.

“They manufacture and market
a radio paging and voice mail

Michael

HIGH TECH

system. Almost all pagers in
North America are run off their
systems — all the software that
controls it I was responsible for at
Glenayre,’’ he said.

In focusing on his own com-
pany, Ashdown finds he is better
able to pursue professional and
personal interests, including com-
puter language theory, computer

hardware design, computer graph-
ics, optics and holography and ar-
tificial intelligence.

As well as the various client
projects undertaken, byHeart
markets specialized systems devel-
opment software.

FGREP, a product in the form
of a public domain text search
utility, was listed last month by
CompuServe magazine among one
of 200 ‘‘most useful’? programs
taken from a selection of tens of
thousands.

**Primarily it’s used by
microcomputer users when they
have a technical file. They just
want to search on a key word;
you can specify all sorts of wild-
card characters,’’ said Ashdown.

Ashdown became a_ software
engineer through his experience as
an electrical engineer.

“Fifteen years ago when [| was
an electrical engineer, we had a
request for an irrigation system
controller for UBC. There was no
hardware built at that time. The
idea was to develop a
microprocessor control system to
do it. When I was doing the
design I realized I had more of an
interest in computers than elec-
trical engineering. It started as a
hobby and it’s just grown from
there,’’ he said.

Speech pathologist addresses meeting

PARENTS, EDUCATORS, and
community professionals recently
gathered at the Delbrook Com-
munity Centre to attend North
Shore Playcare’s annual general
meeting, and to listen to guest
speaker Judith Johnston discuss
the reasons why some children
have difficulty with speech devel-
opment, and how speech thcra-
pists and parents can help children
to improve their language skills.

“Children learn to speak by
listening to examples of lan-
guage,"’ said the director of the
Schoal of Audiology and Speech
Sciences at the University of Brit-
ish Columbia. ‘‘Some children
have language difficulties due to
attention problems. They miss

information so they

important
the patterns of lan-

don’t see
guage.’”

A way to help children expand
their language says Johnston ‘‘is
to reduce the attention demand by
following the child’s fead. Talk
about the child’s interests and
then expand on what they've said
by adding on a few words. This
way there is less need for the child
to switch attention, and the child
can discover new word meanings
and patterns.”*

North Shore Playcare Society
provides a special needs preschool
program for children with devel-
opmental delays, social,
behavioral or family related prob-
lems. ‘“‘Ninety per cent of the
children in our program experi-

ence moderate to severe language
difficuities,"" said Judi Langley,
the director of Playcare.
“Without language skills a child
cannot communicate effectively
and this often leads to the social
and behavioral problems we see
here.”*

Playcare has a speech and lan-
guage pathologist on staff who
sees each child once a week.

Playcare has been helping
children with special needs and
their families for the past 18
years. The overall goal is to in-
tegrate the children into com-
munity preschool or school set-
tings as quickly as possible. For
more information contact Judi
Langley at 988-7115.

REAL ESTATE CAREER FORUM
July 15, 1991

Real Estate is an exciting and rewarding profession It also requires
training, commitment and hard work. You need all the facts, before
deciding whether or not a Rea! Estate Career is for you.

You will find out how to get sta: ted. what qualifications are required.
how much you can expect to earn. You will also learn how Canada
Trust's Career Development Training Program wii help you every steo
of the way, Then, the decision is yours.

Forum to be held Monday, July 15, 7 p.m. at the Canada Trust Career
Development Centre, Suite 4125-6400 Roberts Street, Burnaby, BC.

We are excited about the Real Estate business, and would like to
tell you why. To reserve your place, call 988-6131.

Canada Trust Realty

The District Of
NORTH VANCOUVER

ya

af the vi a, M promse VW hosthain
t

Saturday. 7 sgasl 10, 19914 Saan. lo Span.

PROTECT YOUR

LUNGS

+ British Columbia Lung Association