Not every studen! coulg,si down and write a computer pmgram ina few hours, but when junior Mike Schaadt needed a new way to feed his hobby, that was just what he did. He originally intended to write a new game for his graphing calculator, a Texas Instruments 86. However, &madt researched the available games and utilities available and decided a multi-threading utility program would be the best option for him. After two and a half hours of programming, Schaadt completed the fust version of his program, which was comparable to a computer's operating system. "It runs multiple parts of a program at the same time," Schaadt said. "On a computer, you would use it to run multiple programs at the same time, but a calculator can't do that. ... If it' 5 used correctly, you don't even notice that it's working. Jrsmore like a programming tool for the writers to use," To write a program for a smaller, more basic system than he was accustomed to, the computer engineering major had to research basic computer language, but he attributed most of the work to creativity. "A lot of it was using different ideas that I had about how to do it and looking up some of the stuff that I needed to find out," Schaadt said. "It was just getting ideas and using them in weird ways." Many versions and tests later, Schaadt presented his program to the Computer Science club. Students who heard about&madrs accomplishment, but were not necessarily as computer savvy, held varying opinions. "I think it's impressive that he wrote it to specifically perform two functions simultaneously, and that he used such a basic code," freshman Jenn Grile said. "1couldn't have done it." However, a few met the news of Schaadt's feat with questions. Even Schaadt admitted the program was not the most helpful of inventions. "I don't really see it as something practical," Schaadtsaid. ''It's just kind of cool because it does work, as opposed to being useful." Schaadt said his future plans involved writing role-playing and strategic computer games, but for a while, he was just having fun. -BONNIE BOWLES -------computer science club------------ devita --------------- ComputerS<ience Club. Row 1:J. 51iMrelI,O. furxhi, Row 2: D. Sullivan, M. Alexandef, D.lod~, J. Holston. ORGANIZATIONS - 212 Devita. Row 1: D. WaIOO-Op. E. Ross.llet, C Casey, $, Ashraf, H,Valls. Row 2: S. Hobbs, A, fIeoooeridge, rVan, 11~, S, Boob-f, K Thompson, R, FISher. Row 3: B. Lam, W. flarnett, S. Salley, M, Jones, I. Cooper, R Fergu5OIl, A. Walker, H, Ellis. Row4: A, Cait, K. Faga la, A GfI.'eIlway, L.l.ovett,J. Gay,). Gc1y. Row 5:N. Wi ll i.ams, R, Doran, C. Kiihnl, S, Jones, G. Hobby, B, Steele, R Stork, $, Moore.
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