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In last month's installment in the continuing saga of data compression, we created an LZSS compressor (a variant of LZ77), which was capable of achieving respectable compression ratios while also […]

Compression Continued This month, we continue our look at data compression. Last time, we examined RLE compression, Huffman coding, LZ78 compression, and its close relative, LZW compression. We even wrote […]

This month, we're going to explore one of my favorite subjects and a much-requested topic: data compression. In essence, the whole basis behind the theory of data compression is to […]

Leader of the Pack There's an interesting story behind this month's program. When I began working for Borland, my job was to write and maintain the Turbo C runtime library. […]

In the last few months, we've examined both LZW and LZSS data compressors; this month, we're going to take a long look backward. While LZW and LZSS represent the state […]

This month's program was inspired by an old brainteaser. The objective is to find a 10-digit number wherein each digit represents the number of times that digit appears in the […]

Computer Game Programming Do you remember the teenage chess fanatic from your high-school days? He was that awkward fellow who packed a chess set with him wherever he went and […]

Legend has it that the term 'bug' came from a particularly amusing incident involving the Harvard Mark 1 computer. In the 1940s, relays were used as switching devices for the […]

This month, we're popping the cork on the champagne to celebrate the first anniversary of the 'What's the Code?' column. The old adage goes 'Time files when you're having fun,' […]

What's the Code? Last month we talked about the BIOS data area and video-memory organization in the PC. This month, we are going to build on that knowledge to tackle […]

Many readers have commented on the code listing formatting, and we're working on it. Last month, we began a new method of formatting, which should help beginners read the program. […]

If you sit around a table with a few programmers talking shop, sooner or later the topic of conservation turns to binary trees. Possibly the most elegant data structure I've […]

SORTING IT ALL OUT ... When it was a green programmer, still wet behind the ears, my approach to adding a sorting function to a program was simple: I would […]

Have you seen Epic Pinball or any of the other excellent pinball games for the PC or Mac? They generate a real-time 2-D top-down display of a pinball table complete […]

This month, we will try another ambitious animation project. Using what we've learned so far, we will take the first steps toward building a real arcade game. Remember the classic […]

In the past few months, we've explored programming techniques useful for writing your own entertainment software. We've discussed random maze generation and even created a walk-through program so you could […]

We've talked a lot about graphics in this column, but never gotten into the nuts and bolts of animation. This month, we'll create an animation engine of the same type […]

Last month, we took a breather from some of the more mind-bending topics in computer science (encryption and compression) and looked at random maze generation. Since that was so much […]

This Month: The Amazing Puzzle In the last few months, we have delved deep into some heavy subjects: compression and encryption. While it's been enlightening, it's also been a lot […]

This month, I'm taking a break from my series on data compression to revisit the Break the Code encryption challenge. We've covered a lot of ground with the compression series […]

What's on your mind? Mail your (written) gripes, gratitude, or general questions to Feedback Forum, Computer Shopper, One Park Ave., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Online Polls Each month, […]

This month marks my 25th 'What's the Code?' column and the beginning of my third year with Computer Shopper. I have to confess that three years ago, I was genuinely […]

Last issue, we looked at random number generators and examined some of their many interesting and unusual uses. We even put one to work estimating the value of pi! What […]

It may seem strange, but I was genuinely bewildered the first time I encountered the idea of a random number generator. I was just beginning to learn about programming, and […]

Build Your Own Starfield Simulation 'To a child with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' It's an old saying, but it reveals something important about the way we approach […]

Some of the best programmers I have ever met are fundamentally lazy at heart. I know it sounds strange, but I would dare to say this is one of the […]

It's good to be back. I have just returned after living and working in Japan for more than two year. It was an exciting and wonderful experience from which I […]

Pointers give beginning programmers a lot of trouble. A scant few learn to use them quickly--probably the same ones who relish recursion--but most struggle before becoming comfortable with the concept […]

For thousands of years, people have endeavored to create techniques ranging from simple to ingenious to conceal the true meaning behind a message. Caesar used a substitution cipher for his […]

WRITING A FILE FINDER Everyone is familiar with the three major steps involved in creating a program. Even if you are not a programmer, these steps should be familiar because […]

My friend Roger--someone I would call a 'serious' mathematician--proposed this puzzle: Fast Eddie offers to play a game of chance with you using his favorite 'fair' coin. Is there any […]

We all have our pet peeves with ill-designed software, and some of the most popular peeves seem to be directed at the typical installation program. Not so long ago, installation […]

Royal Conundrums Revisited My column on the Queens' Problem (June 1992) generated a lot of mail, and a number of responses on ZiffNet. Many of you thought about the problem […]