Then, the advent of inexpensive microprocessor-based work stations with color displays provided a new milieu filled with potential for creative efforts focused on all kinds of programs designed to enhance the educational process. Chemists quickly seized the moment, and instructional programs began appearing. Initially, the dissemination process for such programs was word of mouth, but it became quickly apparent that a more orderly process was required. About that same time the Journal of Chemical Education became involved with the dissemination of computer-related ideas as they apply to chemical education with the publication of the Computer Series feature, which started nearly a decade ago and now numbers more than 90 columns. The process of creating educational software to help teachers teach chemistry has reached the point where the products of that process need to be intellectually peer-tested in the same sense that other ideas are before they appear in print in the Journal of Chemical Education .
Software is designed to alleviate that problem.
Software a vehicle for the publication of creative work that is expressed as computer programs. Software will be expressed in mixed media. Unlike most journals, however, the disk medium must be for a specific kind of hardware. Thus, our initial offering was Series A, which incorporated software that will run on Apple computers. Software focused on MS-DOS machines.