The Debugger Spring 96
Table of Contents
EDITOR'S NOTES
One prominent event that you will find recurring in this
issue is the computer thefts that occurred between 29 February
and 16 March. These two incidents, one directed at the
Tompkins Lab and the other at the department office, have
resulted in a lot of head shaking around the department. Some
kind of psychic shock has taken over in trying to deal with
the facts that we were robbed, that several of our students
are the accused, and that it is going to take a while before
any sort of normalcy is regained.
Meanwhile, we will struggle along. Bill Oblitey, Acting
Chair, brings you up to date on a collection of topics: the
Honors College, Scholarships, and Faculty activities. Carol
Miller has reconstructed her lost article on the alumni.
Nadine Tatarko describes the happenings in Tompkins Lab. And
Bill Creighton provides some thoughts on Steve Murphy's
departure.
The non-standard features of the issue cover a wide
range. Charley Shubra writes about getting used to Visual
Basic for his 4GL course - if you read between the lines, it
may even seem like he is referring to Cobol in the past tense.
Matt Schnierle describes a student initiative that he has been
part of. Sloan Seaman and Mike Hritz (both back from recent
internships) describe some of what they have been doing -
Sloan as an apparent advocate of Lotus Notes and Mike with a
tutorial on Cobol conversions.
I have to apologize for something that is not in this
issue. I had hoped to include articles on our current
curriculum and on what the department does with gift money
from various sources. However, I ran out of time and space
before I could get them in. So, I'll make a promise to
include both articles in the Summer issue. I will certainly
have more time then; and, if the past is any indicator, I will
need to write something because there will be few voluntary
contributions.
Jim Wolfe, Editor
Back to the Contents
From the Acting Chair
Bill Oblitey
I don't think you are as surprised to read from an acting
chair as you were in Fall 1994. This time our long-time chair
Dr. Gary Buterbaugh is really out on sabbatical and I have
been called upon to act in his place one more time and then,
because I am also the chair elect, I will be the chairperson
for the coming three academic years. I hope you will continue
to support your department under my leadership. So, with this
hope, let me tell you what has transpired this semester and
some of the plans that we have laid out for the future.
Honors College:
The University has instituted a new college, the Robert E.
Cook Honors College with Dr. Janet Goebel as its director. An
IUP alumnus from Altoona, Pennsylvania, who once owned a
software development company, Mr. Robert E. Cook, helped found
the Honors College with a generous donation of $3.25 million.
So, it's no wonder that the college is named after him. The
honors experience is designed to give students a deeper
exploration, with more discovery, and to make the subject
matter come to life in class. Outstanding high school
students have been applying to the Robert E. Cook Honors
College from all over the world. Applications have been
received from Alaska, California, Vermont, Germany, Nigeria
and Sweden. All areas of Pennsylvania also are well
represented. About one hundred students are expected for the
inaugural freshman class in the fall.
The Computer Science Department is preparing to accommodate
our honors students by creating four new two-credit seminars.
The plan for the Department for Computer Science honors
students is to have them schedule both CO 105 and CO 110 in
their first semester and then augment this with the first
Honors Seminar. In the second semester, they schedule CO 220
and CO 310 and take the second Honors Seminar. In the third
semester, the students schedule CO 300 and CO 315 and take the
third Honors seminar. The fourth Honors seminar is scheduled
for the fourth semester and is to be taken in combination with
CO 319 and CO 441. The seminars are open to all computer
science students but are required for honors students. They
discuss the key topics in the respective computer science
classes being taken during the same the semester, with
supporting materials coming from texts, journals, popular
magazines, and selected sites on the Internet. The seminars
will consist of instructor guided discussions but students
will also be given topics in class, be required to take sides
on the proposed topic and to develop written accounts to
support their positions on the topic.
Other changes in our curriculum include the long awaited
changes to C++. Starting from Fall 1996, CO 110 will no
longer be taught in Fortran and CO 310 will no longer be
taught in Pascal, they will both be taught in C++.
Scholarships:
This year we have awarded four scholarships. The Howard E.
Tompkins scholarship went to Ms. Kari A. Robson and the three
PPG scholarships went to Ms. Jennifer L. Monoskey, Mr. Anthony
F. Popp and Mr. Jason Smith. Our congratulations go to the
recipients. I encourage all of our students to continue to
apply themselves in their studies so that they may also be the
recipients of future awards. I also want to encourage our
alumni to continue with your generous contributions to help
keep our program a very viable one that everyone of us will
continue to be proud to be associated with.
Faculty achievements this year:
Dr. Mary Micco and Ms. Tess O'Neil who have coauthored a book
entitled Using the Internet. The book is published by
Houghton Mifflin Company. Congratulations to the authors.
Dr. Charles Shubra obtained financial grant from PPG
Industries to support technological educational experience in
his Productivity Tools and Fourth Generation Language course.
We appreciate Dr. Shubra's efforts in keeping his courses
current and, on behalf of the faculty, I thank PPG and all the
other industries and companies that continue to support our
program.
Dr. John Cross will serve as a panelist at the SIGSCE/SIGCUE
Joint Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer
Science Education in Barcelona, Spain from June 2 through June
6. SIGSCE and SIGCUE are special interest groups on computer
science education and computer uses in education respectively
of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The panel
is on Using Groupware to Teach Groupware.
Ms. Tia Watts took a team of student programmers to the PACISE
(Pennsylvania Coalition of Computer and Information Science
Educators) Conference in California, PA for a programming
contest. Our team placed second in the contest. The team
consisted of Dennis Hall, Zach Howe and Tim Jamison. We
appreciate the efforts of the team and we urge them to attain
first place next time. We also appreciate the time and effort
that Ms. Watts put into training and getting the team to the
contest.
Dr. Ralph Grove presented the paper, "Parallel Algorithms for
Fault Diagnosis" at the International Conference on Parallel
and Distributed Systems in Orlando Florida. This paper
resulted from research related to Dr. Grove's dissertation.
A New Problem:
There has been some unfortunate incidents in the Department
this semester. Some of our computers have been stolen while
others have been dismantled and parts (mostly memory and disk
drives) removed from them. The list of items is rather long
and comes to a value of about $8,500.
Perhaps, the most unfortunate part of the story is that
police now have filed charges against two students who are
very close to us. The department has also filed academic
grievances against them and requested their expulsion from the
University. I am at the moment looking at several ways to
tighten security in the Tompkins lab and in our offices
without taking anything away from the experiences that our
students gain by working in our lab.
Back to the Contents
Carol's Corner
Carol Miller
Hi to Everyone!!!
I'm going to apologize in advance for missing anyone who
wrote, called or stopped in. I had most of this written
during Spring break and, therefore, threw away some of my
notes. Then, the nightmare happened - someone stole my new
computer!! Not only did they steal my new computer, they
stole my old computer which was being used as the print server
and had my backup files on it. Actually, it's been recovered,
but I can't have it back for a couple months because it's
being used for evidence. Anyway, I had made a back-up tape
of my files; but between the time my pentium was ordered and
the time the other pentiums in the department were ordered,
they changed the tape reader and we don't have a pentium that
can read my tape, so right now I'm on hold and using a loaner
computer from the lab. Now, hopefully, I can remember some
things. Doesn't this sound like a "my dog ate my homework"
thing?
IUP is buzzing right along. Gary Buterbaugh is on his
sabbatical this semester (the one he didn't get when he was
mugged). We haven't seen much of him, but he didn't take the
long trip that he had planned for the previous sabbatical.
Bill Oblitey is Acting Chair in Gary's absence and will begin
a reign as chair in his own right this summer.
Ralph Grove (hired last Fall) is in his second semester and
the word is we're going to keep him. Now, he hasn't said he
wants to stay (who wouldn't); but we're going to let him stay.
The Maples are still "doing" the South in the winter and I
think just headed back last weekend. Just in time to watch
the birds mate.
I've been hearing from quite a few of those who have made it
to the outside - either by escape or by parole. In fact,
several of you have stopped in. Most recently, Brian Bevan
(5/83) was here interviewing for HRB Systems out of State
College. Brian has been with HRB Systems since he graduated.
(Now, this is one of the notes I threw away, Brian, so you'll
have to call and correct me if I get this wrong). He is
married, his wife's name is Lisa. They have two little girls
(Amanda & Briana who are 2 & 5? (or 2 & 7) He has been
married since 1987. Brian, it was really great seeing you.
Please stop in again!
Jeff Michna (12/93) stopped in over Spring Break when he was
in town for the weekend. Jeff is still with AMS and still in
Mississippi. He loves AMS, but isn't too thrilled with
Mississippi. He did just get a new Mazda MX6 (gold in color)
so he's at least tooling around in style. Jeff has also been
using some of his frequent flyer miles to hit various areas in
South America that feature good scuba diving, not to mention
some of the islands - like the Bahamas. Hopefully, we'll soon
be hearing that Jeff is off working on a tropical island (let
me know if that happens, Jeff, I know a few of us here at IUP
who would gladly do housekeeping duties for a week in exchange
for a place to sleep). Please keep in touch, Jeff!! Also,
don't go too far away, it's nice to see you drop in.
Dan Emig (5/84) stopped in as he always does when he's on
campus. Dan was recruiting for Shared Medical Systems. It's
always great to see you Dan! Thanks for stopping in when
you're here.
And, speaking of Shared Medical, two of our December grads,
Lynn Styers and Derek Ochs started there in January. Lynn
then decided life was too easy and was in an auto accident
while visiting in Punxsutawney one weekend when a lady skidded
on the ice and hit them from behind. Lynn had whiplash and
back injuries and was working half days at SMS and half days
at home for awhile and maybe still is. Hope all goes well
Lynn. Let me know how you're doing. Derek, I have just one
word for you and you know what it is - cheesecake!
And, Chad Dionis (5/93) also stopped in on his way back from
Pittsburgh. Chad is still with E Systems in Va and his big
news is that he is now a married man. Chad doesn't mess
around, either. He met her, proposed and was married all
within a matter of a few months. What a man! Thanks for
stopping Chad and drop by anytime.
Unbelievable as it may sound, I finally got pictures of
Monica Elder daughter of Mike (5/94) and Lori. She is
adorable! One is a picture of her in her Halloween Costume
dressed like a pumpkin with a pumpkin stem as her hat. THANK
YOU, MIKE. Also talked with Mike one day. He got a big
promotion at Prudential and really enjoys his work. I hope
you three do make it to IUP one day. Please keep in touch,
Mike!
I also got a picture of Cameron Louttit, son of Mike (5/86)
and Anita (Costa) Louttit (5/88). And, let me tell you,
Cameron doesn't have a chance of going anywhere except IUP.
He is wearing his IUP outfit and is just as cute as he can be.
Thank you so much for the picture! I know I'll be seeing
Cameron in about 15 years.
Oh, I heard an interesting piece of gossip about Marty
Speranza (12/92). Apparently Marty went vacationing in some
faraway place like Alaska or Iceland and no one has heard from
him since. Now the way I hear it is there is some speculation
that he married an Eskimo and decided to stay. So if anyone
has heard something, please let me know so I can set the
records straight.
Another piece of gossip I heard is George Soares (12/94) is
getting married. I don't have any details, so, George, I need
to hear from you.
I'm getting worried about those guys that party on the
weekends together. There must be something in the water. I
talked with Dewey Miller (12/94) the other day. Dewey was in
training in Vienna VA and was on a break, so he called me.
That was really nice of you, Dewey (so nice, I'm not even
going to mention the real reason you called). Anyway, Dewey
is still at Corning in New York, and the news is that Ellen
(Dewey's long term lady friend) has just gotten a job with
Corning and they rented a townhouse for the two of them and
the cats. So, Dewey, keep in touch!
More gossip - I don't feel guilty about telling this, cause
I sent him e-mail and told him if he didn't spill his guts I'd
make something up. This is about Robert (Bo) Gohn (12/94).
Bo told me he was moving into an apartment soon, but he didn't
tell me the whole story. Now, what I heard would just about
curl your hair, so I'll wait and hear the rest of it from Bo.
Meanwhile, Bo is now the IS manager for Sheridan Press, so
he's doing ok. He can handle this.
Warren Hilton (5/95) is still at DuPont. I talked with him
a couple weeks ago and was really surprised to hear he had
surgery on his eye in January and is still not totally healed.
I hope everything is all right by now, Warren. He and Brent
Cramer were to come to IUP in December and give a colloquium,
but DuPont had the same problem we all have - their budget was
cut back. We're hoping they can make it later on. Warren and
Brent are both applying for graduate school, too. Busy life!!
Brent Cramer (5/95) has been extremely busy at DuPont but it
keeps him out of trouble, right, Brent? It looks like maybe
he's losing some of the weekend warriors (like Bo and Dewey),
but don't despair, there are still a few left. I really hope
you guys make it up here for the colloquium. Keep in touch!!
Chris Clair (12/94) (no e this time, Chris) is still with
Keane but is working at Lockheed Martin in King of Prussia, so
his traveling time was cut by about 75%. Chris also moved
into a new apartment and I heard Brent and the guys helped him
move.
Janie (Pike) Kustaborder (5/92) is still with HRB Systems
and Janie and Ron are enjoying being aunt and uncle to all the
new (and old) babies that their siblings are having. I want
to know when they are going to be mom and dad, but Janie keeps
telling me it won't happen for some time yet. So, okay, I
guess I'll just have to wait.
Brian Lawton (5/93) is going fishing the weekend of the
13th. What a way to get out of doing your taxes, Brian.
Mindi is hopefully coming for a visit with Briana and Kevin.
I hope so. Thanks for keeping in such close touch, Brian.
I also heard that Danielle Mashaw (5/93) is back in the area
(the area being PA). Dani was in Georgia. Let me know what
you're doing now, Dani.
I ran into Ed Moore (5/95) at WalMart the other day. He's
still with DeGol in Altoona and liking it. He also told me
his daughter has been accepted into the School of Veterinary
Medicine at the University of PA. WOW!! Nice to see you, Ed.
Good luck to your daughter.
A couple of our alumni who are still in the area have new
babies. Keep in mind, I had to read this in the paper - they
didn't call me, they didn't send e-mail, they didn't send
pictures - I had to read it in the paper. They are Greg
Foster (8/87) and Jeff Fleming (5/91). I think Jeff's was a
while ago, but Greg's was in December or January.
I also got a birth announcement from Mark (5/85) and Bev
(Green) Landry (5/85). They had a little boy named Justin
Tyler on November 14 at 8:48 a.m. Justin weighed 7 lbs and
was 21 inches long. Congratulations, Mark and Bev. I'll be
expecting pictures from you, too.
Sean Sell (5/94) is still with NIST in DC (actually
Gaithersburg MD). Sean really likes it there and was sent
to the Middle East to the Economic Summit to help with the
Internet connectivity. Sean is now working on his Master's at
Johns Hopkins thanks to NIST - they even pay mileage to and
from class. Do come up and bring your pictures! Nice to hear
from you, Sean.
Dave Murphy (12/92) is still at Marriott in Virginia with
Perspective Technology Corporation. Dave's been there a
little too long, though, cause now he's "David". Is that
professional or what? Nice hearing from you, David, please
keep in touch.
Had e-mail from Joe Poerschke (12/90) and he gave me some
nice background information on what he's been up to since
graduation. Originally, Joe went to DC but didn't like it
(where have I heard that before) so he came back to good old
PA and is living in Butler and working at a manufacturing
facility called Penn United Technology in Saxonburg. The
company has 400 people and 4 in systems services. Joe writes
custom add-ons for a CAD system called Cadkey. He writes in
C and uses Cadkey provided functions to interface with the CAD
program. He's married to the former Jennifer Hartman who got
her degree in guidance counseling here at IUP and is now
attending IUP to become a school psychologist (I think that
sounds really interesting). And, Joe is another of those
people who appreciates the effort that's put into The
Debugger. Glad you like it Joe. Thanks for the update. Keep
in touch.
Also heard from Tom Scott (12/93). Tom has big happenings
in his life already this year. In January, he became engaged
to Lisa Peters who was an IUP Marketing grad. Tom was dating
Lisa while they were students. In March, he decided to leave
PPG in Pittsburgh for the Thompson Technology Consulting Group
in Rockville MD. His last day in Pittsburgh was March 22.
Best of luck to you, Tom. I hope you like your new job!
Congratulations on your engagement. Let me know when you have
wedding plans. I have to let everyone know.
Bill Smith (12/93) has a very hectic work schedule at
Westinghouse right now since they are reorganizing. He and
Ruth were planning on a move in the middle of February to Ross
Township to get a little further out of the city and also to
help Ruth get a little closer to the school district where she
has had temporary positions and would like to make it
permanent. I hope everything went well with the move, Bill.
Keep in touch. It's always nice to hear from you.
And, congratulations are in order to Mike (5/87) and Mary
Gutzat. They are going to have a new baby. Mike didn't tell
me when it's due, but his son, Ryan, wants to name it Choo
Choo. Let me know, Mike. The Gutzats still have an attic
dweller, but I don't know for how long because .
Peggy Mogush (5/87) got a job. She's working for a
consulting firm called PSCI out of Wilmington, DE. Right now
she's working at Nycomed in Wayne PA and is doing VMS system
management. She's going to stay with Mike and Mary for a bit
longer until she finds a place and the weather gets a little
better. I'm glad you found something Peg. Let me know how it
goes.
I've mentioned from time to time the alumni who are now
working at IUP. Well, another one came on board. Sean Van
Scoyoc (12/90) started in February. He's a Technology Systems
Manager It's a position within Continuing Education, but
Sean is working with Highway Safety at the R&P building. Sean
has been living in Indiana for a while and commuting to JCCEOA
in Punxsutawney. Sean's e-mail address is
vanscoy@grove.iup.edu if anyone wants to say hi and he's
looking for Rita Sarodia. So, Rita, get in touch). This was
a big weekend for Sean. He got engaged to Julie Amundson in
Toronto. Congratulations, Sean. Nice to have you on board.
Sean was also the internship contact at JCCEOA so we were in
touch with him quite a bit.
Congratulations are also in order for Jason Livingston
(12/95). Jennifer Toward is the lucky lady. She is still at
IUP and came in and showed me her gorgeous ring a couple weeks
ago. Jason is working at Computer Aid, a consulting firm in
Harrisburg PA. Congratulations Jason and Jen and to you,
Jason, on the new job.!
And, Mark Rogaski (12/95) (aka Doc) got a job with Global
Telecom an ISP based in Norristown NJ. So far, he likes it
real well. Keep in touch, Doc.
I heard from Steve Bassler (12/87). Steve is still with
Allegheny Power Systems where he started right after
graduation (as well as interning there) as a
Programmer/Analyst with Operations Supports and then moved up
to Systems Programming about five years ago. Steve's work is
interesting and is a combination of IBM mainframe and
network/PC/workstation. Thanks, Steve.
And speaking of Allegheny Power, I also heard from Toni
(Taylor) Weston (5/84). Toni is now working for Thrift Drug
in the RIDC Industrial Park off Rt. 28. Unfortunately, Toni's
is another of those updates that's on my hard drive with the
campus police and I forget if Toni was at PPG or Mellon after
graduation, then moved on to Allegheny Power. I do remember
that Toni is still living in the area (in Five Points/Willet
PA). Thanks for the update, Toni. I used to see Toni every
once in awhile shopping on the weekends.
Ray Becker (5/85) is now living in Ebensburg. He was
working for the Department of Defense as a systems integrator
in VA. In February 94 he got a job with Concurrent
Technologies, Inc in Johnstown where he is the manager of the
software applications department. He is married to the former
Sharon Schmal (since 1987) and they have two wonderful
children, Nick, age 7, and And (Andrea), age 5. If I'm not
mistaken, Ray, doesn't your mother work at IUP. You need to
visit sometime. Thanks for the update.
Kirk Anderson (5/87) and Mark McBride (5/80) are still HRB
Systems in St. College. I didn't hear from them - just
thought I'd put that in to keep them on their toes. They
might want to send me e-mail or something and let me know how
things are going.
I got a really nice update from Linda (Kielarowski) Zatlin
(5/88). Linda is also with Shared Medical. After graduation,
Linda went to Mellon Bank's Datacenter in Pittsburgh. She
married her boyfriend of 6 years (if I remember correctly,
Linda, you got engaged while you were a student here), Dennis
Zatlin in May 1989, bought a house and settled in Pleasant
Hills in Pittsburgh. Then, in 1993, Dennis who is in
engineering sales accepted a company transfer to Philadelphia.
They built a house in Exton, PA and Linda took a job with SMS
to work on the INVISION Patient Management Systems. Then,
after 6 years of marriage, they got a wonderful surprise.
Linda was pregnant. At the time of her letter (October), the
baby was due December 21. I haven't heard what it is, but
don't you all think I should? That's a wonderful story,
Linda. I wish the very best to you and Dennis and baby.
Please don't wait so long to tell the rest of the story.
I got a phone call from Becky Salter (12/94) one day. Becky
is now working in a bank in St. Marys and also part time at
Thrift Drug. You're a busy lady, Becky. She also has
recently moved into a new apartment. And, is planning on
going back to school. Thanks for the call Becky. It's always
great to hear from you.
Todd Livermore (12/94) is still with Commonwealth National's
subsidiary called Commonwealth Systems Corporation. He does
R-oriented networking on an IBM-OS2. He's doing a lot of
traveling along with it. Thanks for calling, Todd.
Cathy (Ferguson) Reints (5/88) is now working for Maryland
Dimensions International doing Cobol Programming for the Navy.
Nice hearing from you, Cathy.
Lance Tost (12/95) is working for Systems Automation in
Maryland where he did his internship. Most of their work is
being done on Legacy systems. Lance is living in Washington
DC in the Northwest section just above the zoo (hmmm, why
doesn't that surprise me?) and near the National Cathedral and
American University. Lance is living in a high rise. WOW,
Lance, sounds like you're really doing well. We won't worry
about you for a while yet. Take care and keep in touch.
Rick Joslin (5/85) called one day. Rick is no longer with
Cutler Hammer. He is now with a company called Serviceware
that deal with products for the Help Desk industry. The
company is located in Oakmont PA. Rick is really happy there,
although a bit overworked. Best of luck to you, Rick.
Please keep in touch.
Colleen Brawdy (12/95) took a job with Lockheed Martin in
King of Prussia. She's working in Unix and C and C++ and Ada.
I've talked with her a couple times and she seems to like it
real well. You stay in touch, too, Colleen.
Now, I know it's taken me a while to get to this but I have
to make a big Lisa Dillon (12/93) announcement. She and
Michael got engaged. It took awhile, but, Lisa, I'm really
happy for you. I still want to know when I can buy my dress.
Michael moved to State College to be with Lisa in the fall.
Lisa is still with HRB Systems, is doing well and for
Valentine's Day Michael got her a cockatiel and he's just a
baby so she can train him anyway she wants (oh, oh). Take
care, Lisa, I'll be talking to you.
Valerie Bonito (12/93) called one day. I think I mentioned
in the last issue that Val and Roger Hughes (12/93) are
engaged and living in Marshall, MN. Val is working for a
consulting firm working on IBM DB2 and programming in Cobol.
Roger is working for the same firm working in Visual Basic.
Best of luck to the both of you.
Every once in awhile, I run into Michelle Hart (5/91) at
Giant Eagle on my lunch hour. I think I mentioned before that
Mickey is now working for BioControl here in Indiana and is no
longer with Latrobe Steel. It's always nice to see you
Mickey.
And, Bob Durbin (12/95) is also working at BioControl. Bob
was with them before graduation and has decided to stay on.
TJ Hall (5/88) called. TJ is very good at keeping in touch
(and so are a lot of the rest of you, I just don't feel that
I mention TJ enough) TJ is still with Weirton Steel as a
senior analyst and he and Patty still live in Pittsburgh.
Thanks for calling TJ. We love hearing from you.
Ruvi Wijesuriya (5/93) is still at the University of Arizona
working on his graduate degree and is teaching an intro to
computers course and is a teaching intern for a graduate level
authoring class using Macromedia Director to create CBI and
using Shockwave software to put the projects out of the Web.
They will also be doing some Java programming. Ruvi's biggest
problem is keeping up with the technology. Heard that before?
Thanks for keeping in touch, Ruvi. Also Pamm Gindlesperger is
was asking about you the other day.
Pamm Gindlesperger (12/94) called just the other day. Pamm
is still with RPS in Pittsburgh. I was sorry to learn the
Pamm's grandfather is not doing well. Hope everything is
turns out ok, Pamm. Thanks for calling. Talk to you later.
And, Vickie Pearce (12/94) is also still with RPS and doing
well.
Tim Graham (5/93) also called. Tim is back in the country
now and is working for Computer Aid, which is a subdivision of
New Century Communications. He's working in Scranton and
likes his work real well. Thanks for calling Tim. It was
really great hearing from you.
Doug O'Donnel, brother of Dan O'Donnell (12/87), called; so
how come Dan didn't call?. It was really nice to hear from
Doug; and he gave me some information about Dan. Dan has left
SMS and is working for Wilmington Trust in Wilmington. He's
the DB administrator on a DB2. He not only got a huge raise
and better benefits, but he's down to 35 hours a week. Can
you get me a job, Dan? I also found out that they are about
to have their third child.
Also, is it true that Julie (Paserba) Lampe (5/87) and Roy
(5/88) are expecting another baby?
Rob Cameron (5/94) is now working for the Redmon Group which
is a small multimedia company in Alexandria VA. Their
clients include The Discovery Channel, IBM, HP, Bell Atlantic,
United Nations, the White House and other branches of the
government. WOW, talk about impressive. That's wonderful,
Rob. I'm glad you found something and I hope you really like
it there. Please keep in touch!
I had a quick e-mail from Joe Karolchick (8/87). Joe's
still with HRB Systems in Maryland. Nice to hear from you,
Joe.
Believe it or not, I think that's about all for now. I hope
I didn't miss too many of you or get too many things wrong.
By next time, I should have my files back and can take a look
and see how badly botched this is and will make corrections.
Meanwhile, take care and please keep in touch. After all,
this is job security.
Back to the Contents
News From Tompkins Lab
Nadine Tatarko
Well, many things have happened in 1996 -- both good and
bad! Let's start with the good. First of all, we (the
department) were able to purchase several new computer systems
for both faculty and for use in Tompkins.
In January, we installed two (2) Dell Pentium Systems that
were equipped with 16 Megs of RAM and 1 Gigabyte Hard Drives.
We are currently running Microsoft's Windows NT Workstations
on each of these computers. We felt that this would give our
majors excellent exposure to this very popular operating
system.
Also in January, Dr. Charley Shubra secured some grant money
to purchase a Pentium System and Software that would allow him
to run Microsoft's Windows NT Server and SQL Server. Dr.
Shubra plans to incorporate this technology into one of his
courses. This will also greatly benefit our majors.
Several faculty member's computers and cart computers were
also upgraded to Pentiums. Tompkins received all of the 486
hand-me-down systems for use in the lab. We currently have
three (3) of these systems configured with Microsoft's Windows
95. The other systems were added to the Aquarium -- The Linux
Cluster that has been running also since January.
Dr. John Cross has planned and started up (with the help of
many talented Computer Science Students) a cluster of PC's
running the Linux Operating System. Dr. Cross has implemented
the use of these systems in the Unix and C course which he
presently teaches.
NetWare 4.1 finally arrived! I am currently in the process
of setting up the new version of Novell NetWare. I hope to
have the entire department switched over soon. Once this new
server is fully operational, the department will have many new
capabilities. More on this as time goes on.
Okay, I think that this is all the good stuff. I guess I
should move on to the bad. As some of you may know, Tompkins
Lab was broken in to on February 29. Over $5000.00 worth of
computers and parts were stolen. Also, over the weekend of
March 16, the Computer Science Department office was broken in
to. Carol's entire system was stolen, along with several
components from another unit. We were all very shocked and
saddened by these events.
However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Campus
Police have formally charged several IUP students in these
crimes. They also have recovered some of our Department's
belongings; but because they are 'evidence', we won't get them
back for approximately six (6) months or so.
There is one other comment that I would like to make
regarding security. I strongly feel that the Department
should take action to provide some type of security devices in
and around the Tompkins Lab. Dr. Oblitey and I attended a
meeting that was set up by Campus Police in conjunction with
members of ADT Security. They spoke of many different
security options that were available ranging from motion
sensors, to alarms, to video cameras. We plan to formally
meet with ADT and get some recommendations and pricing
information.
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The World She Is A-Changing or Is She???
Charles Shubra
A good deal of my free time (whatever that is) over the past
three years has been devoted to developing a course concerned
with programmer productivity tools and fourth generation
languages (4GL). While I had some familiarity with
programming tools from the Software Engineering course, the
topic of 4GL was new to me.
It appears that 4GLs mean different things to different
people (reminds me of structured programming). The first
order of business therefore was to determine what constituted
a 4GL. The definition apparently encompasses - high-productivity
languages, descriptive programming vs procedural
programming, end-user programming, graphical user interfaces,
object-oriented techniques, and reusability, to list some
components commonly mentioned in a definition of 4GLs.
With this understanding of a rough definition of the
problem, I undertook to learn a 4GL. Guided by the directions
taken at Alcoa (PowerBuilder) and PPG Industries Inc. (Visual
Basic) and the relative prices of the products at the time
(PowerBuilder $8,000 and Visual Basic $150), I quickly
selected Visual Basic. While Visual Basic is not a pure
object-oriented language, it does allow one to gain an
appreciation of the power of objects. Besides, it was fun to
be able to program graphically; at least that was what I did
initially as I built my first form.
Quickly, reality set in when my lovely form did very little
during execution. I learned about event procedures (methods
to you OO programmers). Now to me (product of the Cobol
epidemic as it were) these event procedures resembled
paragraphs or better yet subprograms (but every good Cobol
programmer knows that subprograms are not used that often).
So an event procedure resembled a subprogram, but where was
the MainLine paragraph which controlled the flow of execution
to the paragraphs? Why Visual Basic had taken over the chore
of invoking events in response to the user interacting with my
application's interface.
I began to feel even more at home when I realized that the
code inside of an event procedure resembled good old 3GL
statements and concepts - If, Loop, Case, assignment
statements with integer, real and character data types, but
there were variables there that I had not defined. Well it
turned out that a good number of the variables which my event
procedures manipulated were in fact properties of the objects
(controls in VB terms) which I had placed on my form. Some of
the verbs which appeared in my event procedures were not
traditional 3GL verbs, but were in fact intrinsic routines
meant to manipulate specific controls. These verbs were
called "methods". The language was rapidly growing in size
with all of the controls, the properties of each control and
the methods which operated on the controls. All of this added
to the complexity of a traditional 3GL meant that Visual Basic
was huge in terms of the concepts which needed to be learned
and taught.
With this imperfect understanding of the language, I decided
to build my first interface to a relational database. My user
would be able to maintain (add, change and delete), query and
obtain preplanned reports. Why that was the set of functions
which was needed back in the '60's for a good information
system. What made the 4GL more fun was the ability to develop
an interactive interface which could deliver these functions
in a more colorful, intuitive and user friendly manner.
To bring this tale to an end, much of what I had learned and
taught over the first 25 years of my career did not have to be
pitched (dragged to the wastebasket for you Mac folks).
Algorithm development, statement syntax, debugging techniques,
elements of programming style, good interface design were
still present. I guess the old dog was just learning a few
new tricks. Now what is this thing called a variant data
type???
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Initiatives and Responses
Matt Schnierle
Tompkins Lab Staff
Working in Tompkins Lab provides many interesting
opportunities not the least of which is to read the latest
issue of The Debugger, as the stack of pamphlets usually sits
next to the printer relatively untouched by student hands.
While reading the Fall '95 issue, Professor Wolfe's "Q&A" with
Karl Keller caught my eye, particularly Karl's question of:
Internet - I was browsing out on the Internet to find IUP
and I could not believe that the Comp Sci department was
not driving the Home Page? I think the Finance department
was driving it? I can't believe that the Comp Sci
department does not have some creative talent to get
hopping on creating a home page that is innovative as well
as informative.
While Professor Wolfe's answer was certainly appropriate and
accurate, I decided that I might try to expand on his answer
as well as provide, from a student's perspective, some
insights into why such things seem to take so long. I'll
share a related situation that I've been involved in that, in
a way answers Karl's question.
At the beginning of the Fall '95 semester, IUP finally began
operation of a USENET news server (we had previously had NNTP
read access via East Stroudsburg). The server (news.iup.edu)
receives the "Big 8" groups, in addition to alt.*, which
equates to several hundred megabytes per day of news spread
over more than 5000 newsgroups. Along with several other
students and a few professors, I suggested that we create
"local" newsgroups to discuss issues related to IUP. Several
of us felt that the newsgroup paradigm is more practical for
group communications than a mailing list, that they are less
resource intensive, they support threads of discussion in a
more orderly fashion, etc.. This is hardly an unusual
practice, as I'm sure that most of you who have USENET access
at home or work are aware. We made this suggestion in the VAX
"Hints" conference, a subset of the Notes utility on the Grove
VMS cluster.
We were initially told that IUP had no plans to implement
local newsgroups. Naturally, we asked why. Responses to our
suggestion were mixed. We were told that Notes was more than
adequate. We were told that there was a forthcoming
World-Wide-Web interface to Notes that could be used instead of
local newsgroups. At this point, one of my fellow students
pointed out that local newsgroups could be accessed and used
via a variety of newsreaders, as opposed to limiting ourselves
to notes or web browsers. We were told that due to the
complexity of the VMS newsserver that local newsgroups would
be difficult to implement--so we obtained the documentation
and posted the exact command line syntax necessary to create
the groups. Some of the ISCC staff indicated that "5 out of
about 15,000" users were hardly enough to justify the time and
effort to support local newsgroups. Finally, we were told (in
a firmer manner) that "IUP has no plans to go to local
newsgroups" and a mailing list was created (called
IT-dialogue--for the discussion of technology issues at IUP).
The bottom line is this: the professors and students in the
Department have submitted and shared many innovative ideas and
suggestions regarding computing at IUP. However, 99.9% of
these ideas must clear a committee, or be approved by the
"proper personnel", or must be in agreement with the
proverbial "approved plan of action," because if they stray
from "the plan" then they don't stand a chance of being
implemented. I can understand the need for planning and for
careful action; however, the issue of local newsgroups at IUP
is indicative of many computing issues. Efforts to produce a
standardized campus World-Wide-Web policy have been in
committees and task forces for over a year. Such things as
dial-up SLIP/PPP have been bogged down for almost a year, and
the effort to purchase TCP/IP software was only completed at
the beginning of the Spring '96 semester (see Bill Creighton's
article in the Fall '95 issue of The Debugger). The faculty
and students of the Department are trying our best to
implement ideas and lead IUP's computing effort into the next
century; unfortunately, we are seemingly unable to jump
through hoops and fill out paperwork fast enough to do so.
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Lotus Notes: The Groupware Standard
Sloan Seaman
Summer-Fall Intern
Information is useless if it is not available to those who
need it. Knowledge is a company's most valuable asset. As
companies grow in size, knowledge distribution becomes more
complicated. Also, as corporations expand throughout the
world, having personnel work on the same project while located
in different countries becomes difficult. To accommodate
this, a new class of application is emerging to address the
need of knowledge distribution. Lotus Notes is the current
market leader in this area, referred to as groupware.
Groupware (as defined by Dr. Cross) is a computer-based
system that supports a group of people and provides an
interface to a shared environment. Groupware is
distinguishable from other software by its reliance on a
shared environment between multiple computer systems and their
users.
In simpler terms groupware allows multiple users to view,
edit, or create documents in an environment which permits easy
distribution and sharing of documents.
Lotus Notes takes groupware to a whole new level. In Lotus
Notes terms, a document is not a simple ASCII file. Documents
can do mathematical calculations, store graphics, embed calls
to other programs, contain complex scripts to manipulate other
Lotus Notes documents, and the list goes on. These documents
are not just created and stored online. Information can be
edited and utilized by other documents.
One of its most powerful features is its mail routing
facility. Routing is the process of taking an object given by
a Sender and moving it to a Recipient's database. An example
would be if someone fills out a form and the resulting
document needs to be approved by five people located all over
the world. A Lotus Notes application developer could have the
system setup to E-mail those five people the document upon
saving. Those five people could click a YES or NO button and
then those results would be forwarded to the proper personnel.
So, Lotus Notes not only affects document distribution, it
also controls the actual workflow involved. Being able to
optimize the workflow involved in corporate actions is
essential.
Should computer science students learn Lotus Notes? Most
definitely. Lotus Notes is the leader in groupware technology
and is rapidly becoming the corporate standard. With
corporations leaning to more cost effective methods, Lotus
Notes almost eliminates the need for paper memos and business
letters. Since Lotus Notes is still relatively new the number
of application developers is few. This means a higher salary
can be demanded. An experienced Lotus Notes developer can
expect to earn over $50,000 a year.
Groupware is an idea whose time has come. It allows for
online storage and distribution of documents, better security,
and cost effectiveness. If you get a chance, I strongly
recommend that you learn Lotus Notes.
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Steve Murphy Moves On
Bill Creighton
Steve Murphy was a valuable member of the Academic Computing
Services (ACS) group for 7 years. Steve left the group in
December, left the University. Actually got out of the
computing field altogether.
Many of you dealt with Steve in one way or another during
his tenure with ACS. He was always cheerful, helpful, and
knowledgeable. Your contact with him may have been quite
incidental. But those of us who were in regular contact with
him can appreciate how important those 3 simple qualities are
in a person who provides computing support services.
Especially those of us who are working as computing service
providers need to realize that we "are" the organization to
those who we touch upon. I know that there are people and
businesses that I have nothing to do with because of some past
negative interaction or experience I had with them. They may
not miss my business, but then again, maybe they do. I hope
they would be concerned to know that I don't even bother to
read their advertising or see if their price is better than a
competitor's. Or that even when I have to drive past their
store to purchase from someone else I have no problem doing
that because in my mind their store doesn't even exist.
I think one of the things that allowed Steve to do his job
well was that he liked people and he liked being in a position
to help them. Some people get frustrated hearing the same
problem over and over again. But it's really only the same
problem if it's being presented by the same person. Service
providers need to realize that problems are unique to
individuals. Even when you hear the same question 50 times a
day, if it comes from 50 different people, it is unique to
each. It takes a special person to be cheerful under those
conditions.
Another thing that Steve did well was work with people to
define and solve problems. Some of the problems that come up
seem small but are really just the "tip of the iceberg." Some
problems seem, at first glance, to be overwhelming, but are
really quite manageable once you take the time to break them
down. It takes experience, tactfulness, and genuine caring to
help users determine how the actual problem might be quite
different from the perceived problem. Actually solving the
problem requires a totally different set of skills. Many
users expressed to me their appreciation for this kind of
helpfulness.
Cliff, the postman who spent a lot of time with Norm at
Cheers, thought he had a lot of answers. To him having an
answer to any question was good enough. Steve didn't work
that way. Most people expect to get the right answer when
they present their question to a computing support provider.
Many times its more important to know how to get the right
answer, or where to look to get it, than it is to have it on
the tip of the tongue. Being able to give the answer or
provide enough direction so the user can find it personally
comes under the heading of being knowledgeable.
All in all it seems pretty simple. Just about anyone should
be able to do the job that Steve did. Of course, there are a
lot of details that have been left out; but there are always
those pesky details to be dealt with. It's really not as
simple as it seems though. Providing quality service is
demanding work. Sometimes it can be all consuming. Burnout
rates are high and frustration is an ever-present part of
providing services; technology support services are especially
difficult because of the speed at which things change. Steve
was good at it. I hope he has great success in his new
position.
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Converting OS/VS Cobol to VS Cobol II
Michael Hritz
Summer-Fall Intern
In the world of IBM mainframe computer programming, there
are two separate COBOL standards. The two standards are OS/VS
COBOL and VS COBOL II. If an organization chooses to stop
supporting OS/VS COBOL, those particular programs must be
revised in order to compile and run under VS COBOL II. This
article attempts to explain some of the more common changes
that must be made in order to proceed with this conversion.
One of the major differences between the two standards is
that VS COBOL II does not support the Report Writer module of
the ANSI COBOL 74 standard of OS/VS COBOL. The Report Writer
module is a system in which the format of the report is
defined in a Report Section external to the Procedure
Division. To proceed with a conversion to modern VS COBOL II
methods, the analyst must re-design the report using Procedure
Division statements.
Another major difference between the two versions is that VS
COBOL II doesn't support BDAM and ISAM file organizations.
Therefore the ACTUAL KEY clause and the NOMINAL KEY clause are
obsolete from a VS COBOL II perspective. The record key logic
must be implemented using the RECORD KEY and ALTERNATE RECORD
KEY clauses.
Another old OS/VS COBOL language element that didn't carry
over is the EXHIBIT statement. This was replaced by the
DISPLAY statement of VS COBOL II. The EXHIBIT statement is
often accompanied by the NAMED clause. This clause causes the
object of the EXHIBIT statement, the identifier, to be
displayed on the screen along with the identifier name. For
example, when this statement is executed, "EXHIBIT NAMED
<identifier>", the computer displays the value represented by
<identifier> directly after the computer displays the name
"identifier". The DISPLAY statement does not carry any clause
option such as the NAMED clause. In order to recreate this
effect, you must manually create a label for your output.
One way that comments were created on OS/VS COBOL programs
prior to the ANSI COBOL 74 standard was with the NOTE
statement. This, however, is not supported by VS COBOL II.
Replace this language element with an asterisk in column 7 of
the source program.
Another obsolete statement is the ON statement. This verb,
placed directly before a sentence, would allow the programmer
to specify the program iteration one which that the sentence
is to be executed. Replace this verb using IF/THEN logic.
There are a few special registers that are not supported by
VS COBOL II. Two of these are CURRENT-DATE and TIME-OF-DAY.
In OS/VS COBOL, if these registers were used anywhere in the
source code, they would automatically contain the system date
and time. A single MOVE statement moved the values to an
appropriate WORKING-STORAGE field for use within the program.
However, in VS COBOL II, you must use the ACCEPT statement
with the DATE and TIME special registers. The ACCEPT
statement accepts the value of a WORKING-STORAGE field from
the special register.
While performing OS/VS COBOL to VS COBOL II conversion,
always research unfamiliar compiler errors with an OS/VS COBOL
manual before you attempt any changes. If you follow that
instruction and always document conversion details, your
chances for a smooth conversion are greater.
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Responses to IUP Compsci Alumni Survey form as of 1 April 96
The number of responses to the Internet and C++ Survey in
the Fall issue was quite small. We were hoping for more
input. Nevertheless, here are the results, as promised.
Number of usable responses: 14
All 14 responses to the following questions were YES:
Do you have personal access to Internet email on the job?
Do you have personal access to Internet email outside of your
job?
Do you have access to the World-Wide Web on the job?
Do you have personal access to the WWW outside of your job?
Do you approve of our move to C++ in CO 110?
Do you approve delaying object oriented design until CO 310?
Responses for other questions were.
How often does the Internet add to your productivity as a
computing professional?
Not at all (1), Occasionally (4), Regularly (3), Reliably (2),
Wouldn't do without it (2)
How often does the Internet add to your enjoyment of
computing?
Not at all (1), Occasionally (3), Regularly (2), Reliably (3),
Wouldn't do without it (3)
Thanks to all who responded.
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December Graduates
Below is a picture of the December graduates who showed up
at the graduation ceremony at College Lodge. Shown left to
right are: Scott Long, Bob Durbin, Jeff Sharbaugh, Lynn
Styers, Jason Livingstone, Takako Nittoh, Colleen Brawdy,
Sherri Soltis, Lance Tost, Derek Ochs, and Mark Rogaski. Not
present at the ceremony were John Bopp and Atiq Ur Rehman.
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Century Club
You can become a member of the IUP Computer Science
Department's Century Club. Membership in the Century Club is
obtained by pledging at least $100 through the Foundation for
IUP for the Computer Science Department. Century Club members
will receive a gift (tee shirt, mug, glass, etc.) for their
membership each year.
A pledge of $100 is less than $10 per month. Please
consider this opportunity. To join cut off the form in the
next column, complete it and commit yourself to giving $100
for 1996.
[Editor's Note: We will try to set up an on-line form in the
future]
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