Workshop is an attempt to produce a creative, open-ended educational program which will appeal to children. The scenario is, as the name implies, a workshop, where the child can manufacture different objects of its own design. Just like a real workshop the program begins by offering the child raw materials from which to work. There is a disc shape, a triangular shape, both with the usual unavoidable ragged edges, and a square, each in a different colour.

Any one of these shapes can be chosen and placed in the working area in the centre of the screen, Escape is pressed and the planning page is revealed with the chosen shape remaining in the working area. This is a very well-designed page which is easy to use. With the 'tools' provided the shape can be, drilled, painted, 'NOTed', moved about, rotated, squashed, cut, glued to other pieces which you may have already shaped, and scaled. You may also choose to look at the sequence of work you have carried out so far.

Every workshop has its problems and this is no exception. It is questionable whether children will want to struggle with the limitations and idiosyncracies of this one. An example of these limitations is the scaling function. It doesn't enlarge and reduce smoothly in small increments, but tears off, or adds on, great chunks of material. If one is even slightly over enthusiastic with the reducing facility, the nice shape you have been using is reduced to a small rectangle or disappears altogether. A quick press on the enlarging key to remedy matters reveals that the original shape has gone. There is a somewhat similar effect if the enlarging key is overused.

The most serious limitation is the 'LOOK' option which shows you what you have done. At the beginning, this displays, rather nicely I thought, a set of icons showing the sequence of operations carried out so far. When the Return key is pressed the computer works through all the operations in turn. This is a cacophony of visual noise, the computer printing every screen which has been used in full detail, as fast as it can. There is no step through, or slow down facility, so it is virtually impossible to analyse the manufacturing process. Even if it was, it is impossible to edit it. There is only one solution to an unsatisfactory 'Workshop' product, scrap the whole assembly line and begin again.

It seems to me that this is a good idea wasted. It is like a very limited design program with a few crumbs of LOGO philosophy thrown in for good measure.

I would rather buy a good design package for my children. This would be easier to use and show them that creative design, using the computer, is a joy.