Welcome to Dr. Bill's Software!
All of the programs that will appear on this page are written
by me (copyright © William T. Verts), but are free for unlimited
distribution. In other words: don't send me any money, use the
programs on as many machines as you like, make as many copies
as you want, and give them to anybody who asks for them or who
you think might enjoy them. Of course, I would like to know
what you think of them, so I would really appreciate it if you
could send me mail at
verts@cs.umass.edu
to tell me how you are using the programs. Please, if you make
copies of the software for distribution, I ask that you keep all
related files together in the same archive. Thanks.
I have scanned the files for viruses before posting them, and
believe them to be clean. As with anything you pull off of the
'Net, please scan them before you run them.
| Links to Individual Program Sections |
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A utility for showing the days
remaining until January 1, 2000
WINDOWS 3.1, OBSOLETE |
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Computes the number of days between two dates,
from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 2099
WINDOWS 3.1 |
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Converts very large decimal integers
into very large hexadecimal integers
WINDOWS 3.1 |
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Generates HTML color numbers
from Red-Green-Blue scroll bars
WINDOWS 3.1, OBSOLETE (see below) |
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A way to create very simple
quizzes in HTML (not forms based) |
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A replacement for Windows Notepad
with many enhancements. |
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A utility for helping students of
Excel create IF formulas |
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A program to quickly generate a
basic web page from fill-in slots |
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Generates graphical bitmaps of
whole year calendars |
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Generates a 256x256 bitmap image
that blends four selected corner colors |
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Helps generate HTML client-side image
maps, converts between .BMP and .JPG |
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Helps pick browser-safe HTML colors
for entering into a web page |
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Helps convert .GIF images into Transparent .GIF,
and allows users to modify the color maps. |
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Helps design HTML colors, both true RGB
and Browser Safe, simultaneously. |
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Helps generate sculptured push-buttons for
HTML web pages, in .BMP and .JPG format |
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Simple interface to view lists of .BMP, .JPG,
and .ICO files, save as .BMP or .JPG files. |
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Generates a color cube at any resolution
from primary colors to 24 bit RGB |
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Filters text files to make line-breaks
compatible with PC, Mac, UNIX systems |
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Generates Von Koch snowflake images
at levels 0-15 |
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MS-DOS driver for Connectix QuickCam,
gray-scale parallel port version |
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Tool to explore Bezier Curves
and design bitmaps using them |
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Mazes Generator, up to 100x75
Save to .BMP file, trace solution |
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View text files as color spots,
for folks with synesthesia. |
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Display speed of CPU in MHz,
Pentium or better. |
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A Programmer's Spreadsheet,
16 bit integers and bit operations. |
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Single-Precision Floating-
Point Number Converter |
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Educator's Demo for showing differences
between linear and binary searches |
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Program to fetch files from the Web
without a traditional Web browser |
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Simple Stay-on-Top
Binary Clock |
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Program to watch multiple webcams
simulataneously |
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Grapher of Polynomials
up to Cubics |
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Made Public April 10, 1997
These two programs were written in Borland Delphi 1.0 and will run
under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. DATE2000 continuously displays
the number of days remaining until January 1, 2000, checking the
system clock once per minute (and changing the color of the
window between cyan and yellow).
DATE_DIF allows people to compute the difference in days between
two dates (ranging between January 1, 1900 and December 31, 2099
-- the same range of dates as used by Lotus 1-2-3 v2.3).
,
DATES.ZIP
(180K .ZIP archive, expands to two .EXE programs of about 200K
apiece).
Made Public May 3, 1997
This program was written in Borland Delphi 1.0 and will run
under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. It uses an extended precision
technique to convert hexadecimal (base 16) numbers into decimal,
where the numbers may contain up to 255 characters. Either the
input number (hexadecimal) or the output number (decimal) may be
copied to the clipboard, and the decimal number may be shown with
or without commas every three places.
BIG_HEX.ZIP
(103K .ZIP archive, expands to one .EXE program of about 254K).
Made Public September 14, 1997
This program was written in Borland Delphi 1.0 and will run
under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. It contains three scroll
bars, one for each primary color (Red, Green, Blue), which
you can use to create any desired color by mixing three
color values between 0 and 255.
It also contains 8 speed buttons to quickly set the scroll
bars to any combination of the primary colors. Whichever
mix is selected, you view the composite color in a small
window (clicking on this window brings up the "about box").
As you blend colors, you see a text representation of the
current color in the form required by the
<BODY> section of an HTML web page.
Clicking on the "Copy to Clipboard" button copies the
text representation into the clipboard, which can then
be copied into a text editor where an HTML web page
is being written.
HTML_RGB.ZIP
(100K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 250K).
Made Public February 19, 1998
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It allows
a user to create the HTML page for a quiz, the answers to be emailed
to a central site for grading. The person running the Quiz Writer
program can set the number of questions, the recipient email address,
the quiz number, the number of points, and a header and trailer region
for text. Once the number of questions has been established, the
equivalent number of editing pages are provided,
wherein the text of the questions are composed. The equivalent HTML
code may be viewed or saved at any time through the menu.
Since I wrote this program I have gone on to working with HTML forms
and CGI scripts for automating the process of a student answering a
quiz. This program DOES NOT DO THAT. It is a simple tool for creating
HTML web page quizzes. The students must then manually compose and
email their replies to the central site.
QuizWriter.zip
(186K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 417K).
Version 1.0 Made Public March 17, 1998
Version 1.5 Made Public July 31, 1998
Version 1.75 Made Public February 7, 1999
Version 1.9 Made Public July 5, 1999
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
a variation on the Microsoft Windows Notepad accessory, except
that this version allows the text size, text color, and background
colors to be changed, includes a tool bar and status line (both
of which may be turned on or off), and includes a simple "Replace"
function along with the normal "Find" function.
Version 1.5 improves the string search and replace facility
(internal clean-up, as well as adding the option to control
case sensitivity in searching), and adds a "Go To Bottom"
function (in addition to the already existing "Go To Top").
Version 1.75 contains a number of additions and corrections.
UNDO is implemented, a Save As HTML function and a foreign language
character entry key pad are now available, and a bunch of
text tools dealing with case, tabs, blanks, diacritical marks,
line breaks, etc. have been added.
Version 1.9 adds several more tools (including sorting selected
lines and removing blank lines), and fixes a couple of nagging
bugs (including removing some odd behavior involving the clipboard
and empty text selections), and finally implements printing
in some coherent (working) form.
BigNotepad.zip
(218K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 427K).
Made Public July 31, 1998
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
a small program to help students (who are learning Microsoft Excel)
figure out the IF(_,_,_) function. It is intended
that students will use the program for a little while, then will
quickly outgrow it as they become more comfortable with writing
conditionals in Excel.
IF_Writer.zip
(141K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 331K).
Made Public July 31, 1998
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to guide beginning students through the process of
creating a working web page. It is not intended that this
program compete with any of the very fine web page editing
programs from Claris, Microsoft, or Adobe (or others). Instead,
this is a way to quickly boilerplate an "acceptable" web page
with colors, links, comments, titles, and a picture. Once
people have filled in the forms, they can view or save the
resulting HTML code, which is automatically generated.
Quick_HTML.zip
(180K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 409K).
Years (version 1.0)
Made Public July 5, 1999
NewYears (version 1.0)
Made Public September 18, 2001
The original program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allow people to create graphics images of yearly
calendars. Users may select the year, colors, and font sizes
(the image adjusts its size and repaints itself appropriately),
and the resulting image may be copied to the clipboard for
further processing or saving (with ImageMap, for example, linked
below).
The updated program NewYears is a complete rewrite of the program
from the ground up, and is not simply a revision of the earlier code.
This version was written in Delphi 4.0, and contains many features
and enhancements over the original program. The original program
could not save the image to a bitmap; this version can. Also, the user
has detailed control over the fonts (typeface, size, color, etc., used
in the Year label, Month names, Sunday numbers, and Day-Of-Week numbers),
the color of the background, and the spacing of the bits of geometry
on the screen. The resulting image, which may be either 24-bit color
(for odd colored backgrounds) or 4-bit color (to reduce image size) may
be copied to the clipboard or saved to a .BMP file.
Years.zip
(150K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 337K).
Still functional, but incomplete and somewhat out-of-date.
NewYears.zip
(215K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 427K).
Made Public July 5, 1999
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allow people to create graphics images by blending
colors from color-pickers established at the four corners of the
256x256 pixel image. Results may be saved as 24 bit bitmaps,
256-color, 16-color, or 2-color bitmaps, and copied to the
clipboard for use in other graphics programs. This program
works best on systems with more than 256 colors (32K colors
will work OK, with some losses in quality, but 24-bit color
systems work the best).
ColorBlend.zip
(150K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 281K).
Made Public July 5, 1999
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allow people without other means to convert images
between .BMP and .JPG formats,
perform some basic image processing tasks (such as flipping
or rotating the image, changing number of colors, etc.), but
also to create client side image maps in HTML. After an image
is loaded, you may create a map of links on the image as either
circles, rectangles, or points (polygons not yet supported),
and you may save the figures along with your image or not as
you choose, and the generated HTML may be either a complete
working web page or just the section where the links are defined,
as you choose.
Image results may be saved as 24 bit bitmaps,
256-color, 16-color, or 2-color bitmaps, and copied to the
clipboard for use in other graphics programs. This program
works best on systems with more than 256 colors (32K colors
will work OK, with some losses in quality, but 24-bit color
systems work the best).
ImageMap.zip
(275K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 495K).
Made Public November 5, 1999
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to help select colors for HTML web page documents that
are "browser safe", or able to be displayed perfectly on computer
systems with a limited color palette (no more than 256 colors).
The user selects the amount of
Red,
Green, or
Blue from a set of
radio buttons, each of which has only six entries (with values:
0, 51, 102, 153, 204, and 255). They may also select one of six
gray levels (which sets the equivalent RGB values simultaneously),
or may pick one of eight primary colors by clicking on the appropriate
color button. Whichever method is used, the browser safe color appears
in a color panel, with the HTML hexadecimal color text in the center
of the panel. Clicking the COPY button copies that text to the clipboard,
ready to be pasted into an HTML web page document.
BrowserSafe.zip
(142K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 288K).
Made Public November 8, 1999
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allows users to read in a standard .GIF image and
select the color from the color map to be treated as transparent
(which is used by web browsers). Transparency may also be disabled
in an image where it is already established. The user may also modify
any of the colors in the existing color map to correct problems with hues
(or to create really weird color effects). The image is never actually
decoded and shown on screen, but the color maps are.
TransparentGIF.zip
(156K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 304K).
Made Public January 25, 2000
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allows users to design colors for HTML web pages.
Not only does the program present the true RGB color that is
being designed, it also shows the closest browser safe color.
It is expected that this program be run on a computer capable
of displaying more than 256 colors (I haven't figured out how
to force Windows to use my palette yet!).
Twin_Color.zip
(139K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 279K).
Made Public March 3, 2000
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allows users to design push buttons for HTML web pages.
It save the created push button in both .BMP and .JPG format (but
not .GIF, due to the Unisys patent rules on use of .GIF). It also
creates a sample web page, using Javascript, that tests the push buttons.
This program is ; it cannot yet save the
definition file for your button design (even though it will save all
of the individual graphics and .html files), and it only supports
the Arial typeface on the buttons themselves. This program was
made public early to be used as a demonstration in a classroom setting,
and will be updated over the course of the next few weeks/months.
Push_Buttons.zip
(219K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 438K).
Version 1.0 made Public March 8, 2000
Version 2.0 made public June 26, 2000
Version 2.1 made public June 29, 2000
Version 2.2 made public December 30, 2000
Version 2.32 made public January 28, 2002 (versions 2.3 and 2.31 omitted)
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allows users to view .BMP, .JPG, and .ICO files, and
save images as either .JPG or .BMP files. Upon loading, .JPG
files may be scaled to 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, or 1:8 size, and may be
loaded with colors turned on or turned off. All .BMP, .JPG, and
.ICO files in a folder will appear in a drop-down list, which
may be used to select an image directly, or arrow buttons may
be used to scroll through the list one image at a time.
Version 2.0 contains the ability to arbitrarily scale the image
from the entries in a drop-down list, and has had some bugs fixed
and the interface tuned up a bit. The Page Setup dialog (for printing)
now computes an estimate of the printed image size at 300, 600, and 1200 dpi.
Version 2.1 now has an option to rename and delete image files.
This option must be turned on from the menu, so by default it
is impossible to delete files by accident.
Version 2.2 adds more drive letters and a status bar showing the
currently selected path to the Open Folder dialog, adds 360 dpi and
a custom dpi display to the Page Setup dialog, and tunes up some
of the behavior for selecting the current image when saving
and renaming files.
Version 2.3 added "Print to Fit", and version 2.31 made the drop down
list box of file names track the width of the window. Neither of
these versions was made public, as a bug in the Print to Fit section
was found before they could be released. That bug has now been
fixed, and the corresponding executable is now version 2.32.
View.zip (version 1.0)
(245K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 478K).
View_V2_0.zip (version 2.0)
(248K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 483K).
View_V2_1.zip (version 2.1)
(250K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 492K).
View_V2_2.zip (version 2.2)
(252K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 497K).
View_V2_32.zip (version 2.32)
(252K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 499K).
Version 1.0 Made Public June 26, 2000
Version 1.5 Made Public September 28, 2000
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allows users to view the outside faces of a color cube,
where the primary colors are at the corners of the cube. The cube
may be rotated, and the number of color divisions along each edge
can be set between 2 and 256. The cube appears in an orthographic
display model (no perspective).
Version 1.5 adds the ability to switch the cube between "left-handed"
and "right-handed" views. (I.e., this changes the parity
of the cube from R-G-B to R-B-G, for example.)
ColorCube.zip (version 1.0)
(160K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 313K).
ColorCube.zip (version 1.5)
(161K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 315K).
Made Public June 26, 2000
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allow users to preconfigure text files for transmittal
to various types of computer systems that use different styles for
line-breaks. (PC's use CR-LF, Macs use CR only, and UNIX uses LF only).
This program can also be used to repair a file sent to a PC with the incorrect
line-break style, or to make files use line breaks consistently (the output
of some programs incorrectly use a mixture of styles). The actions of this
program are similar to those of FTP clients on text files, and this program
could be used to fix a text file accidentally brought to a PC in FTP in binary
mode.
LF_After.zip
(143K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 276K).
Made Public December 1, 2000
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It is
designed to allow users to generate a particular type of fractal
curve called a von Koch snowflake. Level 0 is a triangle, level 1
is a Start of David, and as the levels increase the snowflake gets
more and more "wiggly". At the same time, however, the
area inside the curve remains bounded by a circle; hence, we have
a figure where the perimeter approaches infinity as the level increases,
but the area remains finite! Generated images may be copied to the
clipboad or saved as bitmaps.
Snowflake.zip
(154K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 299K).
Made Public January 1, 2001
These programs demonstrate the operation of a parallel-port B&W (gray-scale) Connectix QuickCam
under MS-DOS. Most QuickCam drivers run under Windows or other platforms; I wrote
this stand-alone driver to run exclusively under MS-DOS. Required hardware: a B&W parallel
port version of the Connectix QuickCam (now mostly obsolete), a simple unidirectional
printer port and a VGA or MCGA video card capable of displaying 320x200 pixels at 256 colors.
Package includes Borland Pascal 7.0 source code for two programs (RESET_QC and DEMO_QC) along
with the corresponding compiled .EXE files (both for computers under 200 MHZ and patched to
run on faster machines).
NOTE: If you still own any of the old B&W Connectix QuickCams that you don't know what to do
with, I am interested in acquiring them for a reasonable fee or trade.
QuickCam.zip
(64K .ZIP archive, containing three sub-archives that expand to four .EXE programs,
two .PAS files, and documentation in .DOC and .RTF format,
totalling about 112K).
Bezier (version 1.0)
Made Public March 8, 2001
Version 1.1 Made Public August 11, 2001
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It was
written to allow users to explore Bezier curves, and design pretty
shapes (to be saved as .BMP files) using them. Curves may be entered,
edited, or deleted, and the resulting configuration saved to a file
for later modification.
Version 1.1 actually adds the save-to-.BMP option and cleans up some
program behaviour. Program now allows 1000 curves, instead of previous
limit of 100.
Version 2.0 is a major update which includes the ability to draw and manage
Quadratic Splines (two endpoints and ONE control point), simple Line Segments
(two endpoints), and Points (one endpoint), as well as normal Bezier Curves
(two endpoints and two control points). For each curve, program saves
corresponding number of points (one, two, three, or four) to the .BEZ file.
Bezier.zip
(168K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 333K).
Bezier_V1_1.zip (version 1.1)
(171K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 341K).
Bezier_V2_0.zip (version 2.0)
(172K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 348K).
Mazes (version 1.0)
Version 1.0 Made Public October 14, 2001
Version 1.1 Made Public October 30, 2001
This program was written in Borland Delphi 4.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It allows
users to generate mazes as small as 3x3 and as large as 100x75,
or any size in between. The mazes are generated as graphics on
screen, which may be printed, copied to the clipboard, or saved
to .BMP files. The mazes may be scaled to any size, with any
desired margin, and with selectable line and background colors.
Solutions for each maze may also be shown; the solutions are
erased when colors or scales are changed, but may be redrawn at
any time. Mazes are continuous (no islands) so that the left-hand
rule or right-hand rules may be applied to always find the solutions.
Version 1.1 includes the default behavior of printing a maze automatically
scaled up to fit the printer paper. This may be turned off and the maze
printed at a user selected scale, as in the earlier version.
Mazes_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(208K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 407K).
Mazes_Distribution_V1_1.zip
(210K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 412K).
Made Public October 30, 2001
This program was written in Borland Delphi 4.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It allows
users to view text files (*.TXT) as distinct spots of color.
This is a file viewer only, not a text editor. Source files must
be prepared ahead of time in a program such as Windows Notepad.
This program was requested by a former student of mine studying synesthesia, or
a condition where individual characters appear to people as distinct colors.
In this program, the user may configure all of the uppercase and lowercase
letters individually to be any valid 24-bit color (16,777,216 possibilities),
and these settings are automatically saved upon exiting the program to the file
SPOTTEXT.INI, in the same directory as the program. Starting the
program again will reload these color settings from the .INI file.
The user may choose to view the text as
normal characters (black Courier text on a white background), or as colored
rectangles, with or without a 1-pixel black border. The user can select the
point size of the text, which controls the size of the colored rectangles.
Non-letter characters always appear on screen normally, as characters, so any arbitrary
text file will appear as a mixture of colored blocks and special characters.
The user may choose to see uppercase letters as large blocks and lowercase
letters as small blocks, or as all large blocks (all uppercase). These settings
are also saved to the .INI file.
The visible graphic image on screen may be copied to the clipboard or saved to
a .BMP file for later editing in Paint, or the entire file may be printed
(preferably to a color printer).
SpotText_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(215K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 420K and a 2K .INI file).
MHz (version 1.0)
Made Public March 12, 2002
This program was written in Borland Delphi 4.0, and runs under
Windows 95. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all. It displays
the operating speed of the computer's CPU in MHz (integer only). Clicking on the
result label recomputes the speed, which takes one full second to perform.
It may be necessary to compute the speed several times to get the correct
speed, as other running programs may influence the sampling here.
This process depends on a Pentium-specific instruction, which records
the number of clock-ticks since power-on. If this program is run
on a 486 (or earlier!) processor, the display will show "ERROR".
Clicking anywhere else on the form besides the label will bring
up the About box.
MHz_Distribution.zip
(176K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 333K).
Z99 (version 0.1)
Made Public February 21, 2003
This program was written entirely in 80x88 assembly language, and runs
under DOS. It also runs as a DOS process in every version of Windows
from Windows 3.1 up through and including Windows XP. It was developed
in Turbo Assembler version 2.0 on a Windows XP laptop, and has been tested
on 286, 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV, Pentium Pro,
and Athlon processors. It should also work OK on old 8088 processors, but I haven't
had a chance to test it yet. The minimum hardware requirement is an MCGA or
VGA video card, capable of "Mode-13" (320x200, 256 color) graphics.
The .EXE file is 139K, but most of that space consists of strings,
data structures, and video buffer space; there is only about 14K of executable
code.
The program is a "Programmer's Spreadsheet" with 26 columns (A through Z)
and 99 rows (1 through 99). Each cell is a 16-bit integer, and supports
normal arithmetic operations for signed integers (-32768..+32767) or for
unsigned integers (0..65535). It also supports bitwise operations, including
AND, OR, XOR, SHL (shift-left), SHR (shift-right), ROL (rotate-left) and ROR
(rotate-right). Extended operators include both signed and unsigned division,
and the result of a 16-bit by 16-bit multiplication can be the upper, lower,
or middle 16-bits of the 32-bit product. Formulae are created and entered
in a manner similar to that of Microsoft Excel.
A small library of predefined functions is also part of this package, including
functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, RANDOM, GCD, TIME, DATE, etc.
This program was designed to be used in an introductory computer science
class on assembly language or data representation, but can also be used
by people to test algorithms destined for microcontrollers (or modules such
as the BASIC Stamp from Parallax).
The current version is a pre-release alpha version, which does not yet
support printing functions (although you can capture the screen to a .BMP
file) or proper handling of relative vs. absolute addressing in copy-paste
operations.
Z99_Distribution_V0_1.zip
(17K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 139K).
Full documentation in .PDF format to follow shortly.
Made Public February 28, 2003
This program was written in Borland Delphi 3.0, and runs under
Windows 95 or later. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all.
The program allows users to enter arbitrary decimal numbers with
fractions, such as 17.1875, then converts that number to the closest possible
Single-Precision (32-bit) Floating-Point approximation. The result is shown
in hexadecimal, as a binary floating point number (sign bit / biased exponent / mantissa),
and in decimal. The decimal value displayed may not be the same as the desired
number entered by the user, illustrating the inherent problems of representing
arbitrary real numbers in a fixed number of bits.
SinglePrecision_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(133K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 255K).
Made Public April 16, 2003
This program was written in Borland Delphi 4.0, and runs under
Windows 95 or later. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all.
The program is a visual demonstration of the differences between an O(N) Linear Search,
an O(Log2(N)) Binary Search, and a Binary Search with an Index. Sample text
files are included with the distribution package. Educators will find this program useful for
driving home the qualitative as well as the quantitative differences between the three
searching techniques.
SearchAndSort_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(203K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 392K, plus two tiny data files).
Made Public February 22, 2006
Bug Fix February 26, 2006
This program was written in Borland Delphi 5.0, and runs under
Windows 95 or later. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all.
This program allows users to fetch files from the World Wide Web
without needing a traditional Web browser. The user types
in a complete address from the http:// up to the name of the file
(usually an .htm, .html, .jpg, or .gif
file), and the program will
fetch it from the Web, placing the file into a folder called
C:\CLIPBOARDS\WEB (created if not already present; this folder
is used by some of my other software). The status of the retrieval
is shown in a memo box on the main screen. All that is needed for
the program to run is a live connection to the Internet, and for
the TCP/IP protocol to be installed on the user's computer.
WebFileFetcher_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(201K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 388K).
Made Public November 6, 2006
This program was written in Borland Delphi 5.0, and runs under
Windows 95 or later. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all.
It is a simple, non-resizeable window that represents a 12-hour clock
in binary-coded-decimal (BCD). The window always stays on top of other windows.
Clicking on any on the binary digits brings up the About dialog box.
BinaryClock_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(208K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 353K).
Version 1.0 Made Public January 10, 2008
Version 1.1 Made Public January 26, 2008
This program was written in Borland Delphi 5.0, and runs under
Windows 95 or later. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all.
It is a program that allows a user to watch multiple Web Cams
(or other regularly updated .GIF, .JPG, or .BMP files on the
Web) simultaneously. Install package contains a list of my
favorite cams in Oregon, Wyoming, and Massachusetts, as well
as a couple of on-line weather maps.
CamWatcher_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(387K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 821K).
CamWatcher_Distribution_V1_1.zip
(388K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 822K).
Version 1.1 adds a couple of functions, and fixes some minor timing bugs, but has not
been tested on a wide variety of platforms.
Version 1.0 Made Public April 2, 2008
This program was written in Borland Delphi 5.0, and runs under
Windows 95 or later. It does NOT run under Windows 3.1 at all.
It is a program that allows a user to explore the creation and
graphing of any polynomial up to cubics. The graphs may be
scaled up or down in size, saved to .BMP or .GIF files, printed,
or configured to show major or minor grid lines, component curves,
the equation itself drawn on screen, etc. The precision of the
coefficients may range between 0 and 10 decimal places.
GraphPolynomials_Distribution_V1_0.zip
(336K .ZIP archive, expands to an .EXE program of about 715K).
See Also:
Dr. Bill's Favorite Space Filling Curves