Even today, computers are useful to average people only because there is software that is available that solves a wide range or problems, combined with the fact that there is really only a handful of problems that people want computers to solve for them most of the time. Catagories like communications, document and media creation/editing, data storage and calculation.
But still, let's say there is a problem someone wants to solve, and it really doesn't take much programming to solve it? How do regular people that don't have access to a programmer use a computer to handle a novel problem?
To give an example -- There is a table game that is popular at Cracker Barrel restaurants that consists of a triangle shape with 15 holes, and 14 golf tees. The object is to jump over pegs and remove them, and go till no more moves are available. The goal is to get down to 1 peg remaining. Now how would you use a computer to solve that without writing a program? (This was back in my college days, however I recall doing a brute force program that tried all combinations, and spit out the winning ones -- turns out there was something like 15,000 winning strategies).
Edit -- a quick search shows that this has become a popular computer programming challenge, so there does exist choices that people can download, but there are other similar variations that someone may want to solve.
But still, let's say there is a problem someone wants to solve, and it really doesn't take much programming to solve it? How do regular people that don't have access to a programmer use a computer to handle a novel problem?
To give an example -- There is a table game that is popular at Cracker Barrel restaurants that consists of a triangle shape with 15 holes, and 14 golf tees. The object is to jump over pegs and remove them, and go till no more moves are available. The goal is to get down to 1 peg remaining. Now how would you use a computer to solve that without writing a program? (This was back in my college days, however I recall doing a brute force program that tried all combinations, and spit out the winning ones -- turns out there was something like 15,000 winning strategies).
Edit -- a quick search shows that this has become a popular computer programming challenge, so there does exist choices that people can download, but there are other similar variations that someone may want to solve.
Edit2 -- apparently the generalized version of this concept is called Peg Solitaire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peg_solitaire