The most recent release of my Bare Bones interpreter made identifiers case-insensitive, and added an optional peephole optimizer that recognizes a common idiom:

while N not 0 do;
  decr N;
  incr X;
end;

Such a loop adds N to X, clearing N in the process. Without the optimizer, this is has time complexity [...]

Over the weekend I finished the homework assignment for the “Theory of Computation” chapter of Computer Science: An Overview, Ninth Edition, by J. Glenn Brookshear. Brookshear defines a very minimal programming language called Bare Bones, in which variables may contain arbitrarily large non-negative integers. The only operations available are:

clear var; — set a [...]

I just received the prizes for the wining Core War entry Luke and I submitted in CSC 387 class.  There is a nice University of Illinois at Springfield pen and a UIS logo key fob.

In CSC 387 class, we were offered extra credit points for participating in a Core War style challenge, with entries were required to run on the machine defined in Appendix C of Computer Science: An Overview by J. Glenn Brookshear.  Luke and I developed several programs, including a self-relocating program, but ultimately submitted a very [...]

In CSC 387 Foundations of Computer Science, we were offered an extra-credit assignment to form teams of two students, and develop programs for a game called FF Bombs, which is similar to Core Wars.  The programs need to run on a simulator for the sample architecture defined in Appendix C of Brookshear’s Computer Science: An [...]

Today I received the book for my CSC 376 Computer Organization class, Computer Systems Organization & Architecture by John D. Carpinelli (Addison Wesley Longman, 2001).
It has a full-page sidebar on page 32: “PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE: Why LEDs Are Usually Active Low”. They get points for the attempt, but they fall short:
This is one reason [...]

My classes at the University of Illinois at Springfield just started this week.  I’m taking three CS classes.  They’re online, so I don’t have to travel to Springfield.  That’s fortunate, because it would be a terrible commute from California!
In each class the instructor has had us introduce ourselves in an online forum.   Unsurprisingly the [...]

My Academic Advisor indicates that I am not required to take the CSC 410A Java Programming class, so in the Spring I’ll take two other CS classes and one of the three Liberal Studies Colloquia or Public Affairs Colloquia courses that I need for the General Education requirement.
I notice that the online UIS tuition and [...]

Woo-hoo!
I’ve been unbelievably anxious about this over the last three weeks, but I just received email notification of my acceptance.  The official notification will be in the mail.
I can hardly wait to get started!  The Spring semester begins on January 16.
The CS department recommends that students in the first semester of the program take:

CSC 305 [...]

The Computer Science deparment at UIS requests of applicants a sample of Java code they have written. They don’t give any particular guidance as to the desired size or complexity of the code. I am submitting a Black Box game applet, which I think should be sufficient to show that I’m reasonably proficient [...]