Computer Science | Grinnell College

Every computer science major should read at least a little bit of Knuth before he or she graduates. This Friday for CS Table, we consider one of Knuth's lighter pieces, "The Complexity of Songs".

Knuth, D. E. 1984. The complexity of songs. Commun. ACM 27, 4 (Apr. 1984), 344-346. DOI=https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=358027.358042

At Mr. Stone's recommendation, we will also consider a song that accompanied that article.

Quux, The Great. 1984. THE TELNET SONG: ("Control-Uparrow Q."). Commun. ACM 27, 4 (Apr. 1984), 347-348. DOI=https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=358027.1035691

Grinnell College's CS Table is a weekly gathering of folks on campus (students, faculty, staff, alums, etc.) to talk about issues relating to computer science. CS Table meets each Friday at noon in JRC 224A, the Day Public Dining Room (PDR) in the Joe Rosenfeld '25 Center (JRC). All are welcome, although computer science students and faculty are particularly encouraged to attend.

It's the day before break. We know that people won't be up for a deep discussion. Hence, CS Table this coming Friday, we are going to consider a classic bit of language humor: "How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot" (in your favorite programming language). Because it's a classic bit of CS humor, it has spawned many extensions and variants since its original publication in 1991. We'll work with a fairly nice extension (described below), but you can also search for other versions.

Stepney, Susan (ed). (n.d.). How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot. Web resource at http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/foot.htm. One of the more extensive of the many variants of an article from the December 1991 issue of Developer's Insight.

Grinnell College's CS Table is a weekly gathering of folks on campus (students, faculty, staff, alums, etc.) to talk about issues relating to computer science. CS Table meets each Friday at noon in JRC 224A, the Day Public Dining Room (PDR) in the Joe Rosenfeld '25 Center (JRC). All are welcome, although computer science students and faculty are particularly encouraged to attend.