Vol. XLIX No.

8 April 2009

UPCOMING EVENTS
IN THIS ISSUE
Monday, April 6, 2009 ¾ Upcoming DC ACM Events (Page 1)
7:30 pm ¾ Quick Updates (Page 2)
¾ Review: Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup's new book
Software Development: Programming: Principles and Practice Using
C++ (Page 2-3)
More Than Just Programming ¾ Complete List of DC ACM Regional Science
Fair Winners (Page 3-4)
Donald Gotterbarn ¾ DC ACM Calendar At A Glance (Page 5)
Courtesy of ACM's Distinguished Speaker Program

Location: software for vote counting machines and missile

American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS) 2nd Floor Conference Room
1200 New York Avenue NW
(entrance is on 12th Street)
Washington, D.C.
Nearest Metro Station: Metro Center,
Orange and Blue Lines
We are often surprised by the number of non-
programming related issues that affect the
professional’s efforts to develop quality software and
web interfaces. Development efforts are constrained
in a number of positive and negative ways. This talk
will address some of those current issues including
software standards, licensing of software developers,
issues of malpractice and liability for unanticipated
software errors, and professional and ethical issues.
defense systems.
He has published over 100 articles, contributed to
more than a dozen books and written several
encyclopedia articles. He chaired the committee that
wrote the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
Professional Practice. His technical work includes
funded research on performance prediction, object-
oriented testing, and software engineering education
and computer ethics.
Active in Professional Computer ethics for over 20
years, he was awarded both the Computers and
Society "Making a Difference” award and the ACM
“Outstanding Contribution” award for his work in
promoting professionalism in the teaching and
practice of software development. He chairs the ACM
Committee on Professional Ethics.

Speaker Bio: Coming Soon....

Don is the director of the
Software Engineering Ethics
Research Institute at East
Tennessee State University.
He also holds academic
appointments in software
engineering and ethics at
universities in England and
New Zealand.
Don worked as a computer consultant on software
systems for the U.S. Navy and for the Saudi Arabian
Navy. He has also worked on the certification of
Details will be announced on the website and in the next
CompuTopics.
May 2009
"The M-Lab: An Open Research Platform for Testing
Internet Performance"
Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation Open
Technology Institute
June 2009
"Lifegraphs for Mobile Mirror Worlds: Linking
Supply, Value, and Customer Chains"
William Glascoe, Computer Sciences Corporation
Co-Sponsors: DC SIGGRAPH and DC/Baltimore SIGAda

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QUICK UPDATES Nominations: Reminder

Finances The Nominations Committee is seeking candidates for

the following officer positions:
Balance Sheet as of March 24, 2009
• Chair
Checking Account $12,918.25 • Vice Chair
Money Market (Savings) $4,663.33 • Secretary
Certificates of Deposit $41,223.42 • Treasurer
Other Assets $688.99 • Member-At-Large
Total Liabilities $0
NET WORTH $59,491.10 If you have any interest in being considered for the
above positions, please contact Dr. Rhys Price Jones
by no later than April 28.

Membership Please refer to the March 2009 CompuTopics for

complete details on the elections process.
As of April 1, 2009, the DC ACM had a total of 124
members. Due to nonpayment of dues, several
registered members were downgraded to Associate
Member and the number of Members declined to 64. BOOK REVIEW
By William Fielder

Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++

Professional Development
Unfortunately the enrollment in the Spring 2009
Professional Development Seminars fell victim to the
gloomy economic outlook that is gripping the nation.
Although twelve seminars were offered, four classes
had to be cancelled for insufficient enrollment. Two
other seminars were cancelled due to unforeseen
circumstances of the instructor.
Held at George Washington University, the remaining
six seminars had small class sizes. However, the
registrants who took them generally gave enthusiastic
feedback.
A preliminary report was presented at the Executive
Council meeting:
Total expenses ($12,413.41)
Net income $8,850.00
transaction fees
$0.20 ($2.60)
2.00% ($177.00)
gain (loss) ($3,743.01)
The Professional Development Committee will hold a
meeting to wrap up and evaluate the Spring 2009
seminars.
Time/Date: 7pm on Tuesday, April 14th
Location: Tompkins Hall 1st floor Conference Room,
George Washington University School of Engineering
and Applied Science, 725 23rd St. NW (Between G &
H Streets), Washington, DC. The building is 1½
blocks south of the Foggy Bottom-GWU metro
(orange and blue lines). Street parking and GWU
garage parking is also available.
Author:
Bjarne Stroustrup
Dr. Stroustrup has
released a hefty new
volume on the craft of
programming
computers. The book
is not about learning
C++, though. It's
about How To Program, and C++ just happens to be
the tool that you're using. It's not really for absolute
beginners either, but for anyone who has the drive to
learn (and already has a bit of experience), this is a
great book. I'm willing to bet veteran programmers
will get something out of it as well.
I've never enrolled in a computer class in my life.
Instead, I've beaten my head against the wall of
Computer Science through a combination of reading
books and man pages, poking at systems to see how
they tick, and listening to the wisdom of veteran
greybeards. I affectionately refer to my disturbingly
large collection of computer books as "The Wall of
Pain". I usually add at least two volumes to The Wall
each month.
Back in November DC ACM had the great pleasure of
hosting Dr. Stroustrup, inventor of the C++
programming language, as our keynote speaker at
the 50th Anniversary Gala. At the talk he mentioned
that he had a new book coming out in December and
I flagged it in my brain to be added to The Wall.
cont'd on next page

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book review cont'd from previous page

I should first admit that I have never programmed in C++, or any other Object-Oriented language for that matter.
I've been using C, Perl, and the UNIX shell for over a decade, however, and am not new to programming in general.

It's claimed at the outset that the book is for someone who has never programmed before but is willing to work hard
to learn. Yes, it is a demanding book that will reward the student who reads carefully and does all of the work. But
I believe that someone who's never programmed before would be lost, even though it's clear and well-written. It's
not an easy book, which I applaud.

Dr. Stroustrup also says that he will limit his attempts at humor. However, the book is full of subtle wit that you
probably won't notice if you're not already a seasoned programmer. Those of us who heard his speech at the Gala
will remember that he tends towards deadpanning and ironic understatement. He takes the same tone in this book.
The reader will quickly learn that when he says "you might find this useful" you'd better pay close attention to the
next paragraph. You can tell that he's energetic and enthusiastic about both the science and the art of
programming.

The book is meant to be read from beginning to end in order. It's not a reference manual and never claims to be.
Each chapter builds on the one before and examples are thorough. And it's not a book about learning mere syntax --
you're taught to think like a programmer, to break down problems. Error handling and input validation are discussed
early and in depth, and great emphasis is put on correct, robust code and why it's important. If you read every
chapter and dutifully work on every exercise, you will have gone through a rigrorous, broad, and deep introduction to
programming. The fact that you will also have learned a good deal about C++ is both useful and a side-effect.

This is, simply put, one of the best books on programming that I've had the pleasure to read. I think that a serious
student or practitioner of Computer Science would be well served by adding this to their collection and studying it
thoroughly.

2009 DC ACM Regional Science Fair Special Award Winners

A big thank you to this year’s volunteer judges:

Ron Boisvert
Washington, D.C. Mathematics,
Daniel Chen Science, and Engineering Fair
Terry Longstreth
Kent Miller Abari Jordan, Banneker Senior High
Mackenzie Morgan School, "Performance Degradation
Annette Reilly Caused by Antivirus Programs"
George Romas
Ben Schultz
Sean Stickle

Prince George’s Area Science Fair
Karen Guzman, Eleanor Roosevelt High
School, "Calculate It!"
Vighnesh Sachidananda, Eleanor Roosevelt
High School, "A Study of Carbon
Dioxide"
Alexander Rilee, Eleanor Roosevelt High
School, "High Performance Computing
on Graphical Processing Units"
Fairfax County Regional Science and
Engineering Fair
Joseph Jachowski, Thomas Jefferson
High School for Science and Technology,
"Recognizing Spoken Vowels by
Automated Lip Reading"
Aditya Palepu, Thomas Jefferson High
School for Science and Technology, "A
Heterogeneous Mixture Model for
Classification"

Andrew Herbig, Spring Ridge Middle School, Team: Jasdev Singh and Nikhil Tuteja,
"Is Your Computer Wasting Your South County Secondary School, "Hitting
Time?" the Right Keys"

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Northern Virginia Regional Science
& Engineering Fair
Nathan Hughes, Washington-Lee High
School, "The Impact of the Program
Language on CPU Performance"
Science Montgomery
Alexander Bliskovsky, Bethesda-Chevy Chase
High School, "A Combinatorial
Optimization of a Flood-fill Algorithm"

Samuel Levy, T.C. Williams High School,
"Rewriting Conway's Game of Life in Lua"
Yosyp Shvab, T.C. Williams High School,
"Identification by Text Analysis"
Team: Luke Faraone and Lucas Newman,
Yorktown High School, "On the
Programmability of Caution"
David Tao, Montgomery Blair High School,
"Analysis of Upstream Sequences for
Frequency of Motif Occurrences"
Avikar Periwal, Thomas W. Pyle Middle
School, "Quantum Simulation of an N-v
Center"

Team: Alexander Matta and Chris Edwards, Charles Yin, Thomas W. Pyle Middle School,
Yorktown High School, "An Investigation of "The Comparison Among the Algorithms to
Multi-Stage Coil Driven Electromagnetic Solve the Tower of Hanoi Problem"
Projectile Launchers"

Ian Elliott, Williamsburg Middle School, "The Jessica Shi, Thomas W. Pyle Middle School,
Effect of Length of Antenna on Strength of "Signature Encryption"
Radio Signal"

Danielle Harris, Swanson Middle School, Matthew Das Sarma, Thomas W. Pyle Middle
"Rock Steady...Ready...Hit It! (How Sand School, "Computational Complexity of
Affects the Compressive Strength of Algorithms in Java"
Concrete)"

Team: Sara Bauman and Lauren Armstrong,
Swanson Middle School, "Speed Racers"
Andrew Auchter, Swanson Middle School,
"The Shape of Wings to Come"
Perrin Falkner, Swanson Middle School,
"Reflection of Light by Paint"
Matthew Wade, Roberto Clemente Middle
School, "Traits and Their Effect on Natural
Selection"
Mohamed Keita, Roberto Clemente Middle
School, "The Effects of Terrain on the Speed
of a Robot"

Seeking Submissions to CompuTopics

Do you have something of interest to our readers?
Original material is always welcome!
Please contact the editor, Communications Chair Cora Dickson
(communications@dcacm.org). The deadline is usually
the fourth week of every month.

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 DC ACM CALENDAR AT A GLANCE

April 6 Guest Speaker Dr. Donald Gotterbarn, "Software

Development: More Than Just Programming"
April 14 Professional Development Committee Meeting
April 28 Executive Council Meeting (open to all members)

About DC ACM DC ACM Executive Council

Click on the name to email.
The Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Association
for Computing Machinery (DC ACM) was Chair William Fielder
formally established on November 1, 1958. We Vice Chair Isaac Christoffersen
are a local professional chapter of the Treasurer Teresa Hone
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Secretary Ben Schultz
which was founded in 1947. Currently there are Member at Large Rebecca Prather
more than 2,200 ACM members in the Communications Cora Dickson
Washington Metropolitan Area. Membership Kent Miller
PDC Eric Noriega
The DC ACM is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Programs (acting) William Fielder
association (EIN 526066536) that supports Awards (acting) Mackenzie Morgan
educational activities and career development
for the local IT professional community, as well Executive Council Meetings are held once a month.
as nurturing future generations of computer They are open to all interested parties, though only
scientists, network engineers, and tech policy EC Members have voting power on any motions
raised in the meeting.
specialists in the Washington, D.C. area. Among
other activities, we give awards to junior and Location:
senior high school students for exceptional
science fair projects in the computer science Radio Free Asia
field and we sponsor educational lectures for the 2025 M Street NW
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Our website:
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