Jack Sheldon & Schoolhouse Rock – Software lyrics

To have some fun or pass a quiz,
Just follow this computer whiz.
Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips,
They've got the answers at their fingertips.

[Scooter:]
Here I am and there you stand, such distance in between,
'Cause I am a human and you are a machine.
How can I communicate exactly what I mean,
When I am a human and you are a machine.

Parlez-vous Francis?
Habla espanol?

[Mr. Chips:]
I am a computer with so much in store,
If you could learn my language or I could speak in yours,
Then I'd do more work for you than you could ever dream.

Though you are a human and I am a machine.

[Scooter:]
Ok, I'll give it a try.

[Mr. Chips:]
First I hope you'll clear your mind and listen closely, Scooter.
Forget the words you thought you knew and start to think computer -
Computers change the letters and the numerals humans type
To a number code made up of things that we call bits and bytes.

[Scooter:]
Bits and bytes?

[Mr. Chips:]
Think computer Scooter.
A byte is several digits all standing in a row,
They help present a letter or a number that you know.
For instance when you write an "A",
This byte is what I see,
And 00110011 is my way of saying "3".

This bit is one little bit of a byte.

[Scooter:]
I get it - bits and bytes are sort of a computer's alphabet.

[Mr. Chips:]
That's right, but ABC and 123 isn't talking.
Hey let's face it
That's why one language that we use is called computer BASIC.

[Scooter:]
Computer BASIC?

[Mr. Chips:]
"Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code."
BASIC is a language that most computers know, and once you start to speak it, communications flow. You use words and phrases - I use bits and bytes instead, and BASIC lets us understand what the other one just said.

[Scooter:]
So BASIC is a language that I can talk in human and you can talk in machine and we can understand each other.

[Mr. Chips:]
Yes, BASIC is the language you'll be using to feed in my data. Its also the language all my programs or software are written in.

[Scooter:]
Data, programs, software?

[Mr. Chips:]
Data is information.
Data means the facts.
It's everything you store in me
For solving problems back.
A program means directions
That tell me what to do,
How to analyze my data
And find answers just for you.
And Software is just another name for all the instructions of programs that you feed me.

[Scooter:]
Here I am and there you stand, we're closer than we seem.
Though I am a human and you are a machine.
I'll get a book on BASIC and as quickly as I can,
I will talk computer, and you will understand.

We didn't do too badly, did we Mr. Chips?

[Mr. Chips:]
It was pretty amazing, Scooter.