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Current
Interest
During my sojourn in the
Computer
Science program I had the opportunity to develop some software
applications that are still in use around the world. Enhancement and
maintenance of the programs is now being handled by a colleague in
Australia but I continue to be interested in and an evangelist for
"free" software. Recently I worked on some Excel macros that might be of interest to some. The first involves auto deletion of pivot table drill down detail sheets. This is useful when browsing the details. If interested the code is here: Pivot Table Drill Down Delete Detail. I have found one nice feature of Excel 2007. A data validation drop down shape is added to a sheet when validation is first added to a cell. Subsequent validations use the same shape. If the shape is deleted validation is still in effect but the drop down lists do not appear. There does not appear to be a way to add the shape back to that sheet. However, if the sheet is saved in XML format from Excel 2007 the shape will be restored when the file is reopened. The same is true in Excel 2003. In Excel 2003 however, VBA macros are deleted when saving to XML format and any such macros will have to be manually copied. |
In
the
Beginning
The first computer at Sam Houston was
purchased in collaborative effort
between the
Mathematics and Physics programs. It arrived on campus in the
Summer of 1963 as did Mr. Bernard Poetker who was
recruited to direct the fledgling computer program that began that
year. I was a TA in the Physics department and because I had
some basics programming skills I was asked to be
his lab
assistant and
help with the cram course he taught for
faculty and
TAs that summer. The CS program began in earnest that fall
with
two computer courses taught by Mr. Poetker as part of the Mathematics
curriculum.In 1964 I was offered a research assistantship at The Ohio State University and accepted it to pursue doctoral studies. When I returned to campus in 1970 the University had purchased a large computing system and housed it in a full scale computing center complete with a programming staff. Dr. Harry Konen had joined the Mathematics faculty to help teach an expanded curriculum of computer courses and James Stevens was teaching introductory computing courses in the business college. Commencing in 1971, however, these courses were consolidated into and taught in a new Department of Computer Science which had Coordinating Board approval to offer a minor. |
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