Just a few reasons why computers are better than tables:
- They are easier to use. No more error-prone, flippity-floppity, back and forthy like the tables. At the most, a few button pushes is all it takes, most of the time all you have to do to get them started is get wet.
- They are more reliable. GIGO applies to tables as much as computers and tables rotting in a dive bag constitute a system failure every bit as much as a flooded battery compartment.
- They are more precise. Both during planning and dive phases, computers can handle more data and calculations than the tables. By far.
- They are more efficient. Instead of requiring divers to carry multiple sets of tables, a depth gauge, a timing device and a log, (and backups for each) everything is rolled up into one item.
- They are easier to teach. People, especially younger people, grok computers. NOBODY groks the tables without effort.
- People actually use them. Anything that results in fewer trust me/follow me dives is a good thing.
- They are electronic nannies. Even if you forget or screw up, as long as you have one they have your back.
There is nothing wrong with learning and understanding the tables but it's important to remember that the tables are NOT an end in and of themselves. They are a tool, nothing more, and computers are better tools. Students don't need a table to wrap their noodles around the relationship between time/depth/nitrogen loading. Or, better stated, if they do, diving is probably more of an intellectual challenge than they are able to handle and they should consider taking up golf, instead.
Progress always discomfits the established.