Peter Wayne is a gastroenterologist and recovering Alphaholic from the Bronx, New York. Peter says:

"I started experimenting innocently enough in 1980 with a secondhand Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. From that machine, with only 4K memory, a casette recorder for storage, and no lower-case letters, it seemed harmless enough to move to diskette drives, a full 16K of storage, and a lower-case keyboard. Before I or my family knew it, I was into the serious stuff: an early IBM PC, MSDOS, Basic, Pascal. My real descent occurred around 1994 when Alpha Five version 1 came out. The immedidate rush of power was incredible, and I abandoned wife, children, and career in the endless pursuit of ever more intense unfettered capability. Selwyn Rabins, the mastermind of the Medellin-Alpha Software cartel, has continued to nurture my habit and destroy my life with versions 3, 4, and now 5 of Alpha Software, each one escalatingly addictive. My warning to you: stay away from Alpha Five version 5, or the seductive combination of ease of use and freedom from constraint will ruin your taste for competing database offerings FOREVER."

For a cautionary tale of one man's struggle with the demon Alpha Five, read my gripping account in "Application Programming in Alpha Five Version Five", published by Alpha Software Press. Buy copies for your friends and neighbors and for their children as well--they're never too young to be warned against the decadent pull of elegant programming. Remember, it's easier to resist Alpha Five if you've never tried using it. DrPWayne@juno.com