Conservative governments are like the mumps: they're something you have to endure once in your lifetime, but when it's over, you don't want it again. Jack Pickersgill.
Teaching: Winter 2012
Course Notes
You can download course notes for these and previous courses that I have taught.
Research
Programming Languages
I have designed several simple programming languages. None has made the daily news, but a couple have attracted a small but dedicated fan club. While working at EMS, I developed a macro-based language for electronic music synthesis. Later, in 1979, I revised it for general purpose use, renamed it Mouse, and published a description in the now defunct BYTE magazine. Thanks to a small band of devotees, Mouse lives on!
In the early 80s, I designed BIAS, an acronym for Bias Is Almost Scheme, for teaching functional programming. No documents survive.
Around 1990, curious about the object-oriented paradigm, I designed an OOOP called Dee.
I am currently designing yet another programming language with my old friend, Brian Shearing.
Artificial Life
I'm interested in Artificial Life and have several students working on various aspects of it. Visit the Concordia Computational Intelligence Laboratory.
Graphics
I'm interested graphics, too, and have designed and taught several graphics courses in the past. Several of my students are working on projects related to graphics or with a graphics component. I've written some simple example programs to help beginners and also a small graphics library. Both are intended for use with OpenGL.
Documentation
I enjoy writing manuals for software, provided that I enjoy using the software. Here are a couple of manuals that I have developed over the years. You can find more on my Writings page.
- A Latex2E Gallimaufry: Techniques, Tips, and Traps. I started this in 1996 and it's had some updating but needs more. It's still accurate enough to get started. PDF. LaTeX.
- MetaPost: a Reference Manual. John Hobby built MetaPost, an excellent diagramming tool, from Knuth's MetaFont. His manual is comprehensive but it's hard to find the information you need quickly. There are many MetaPost tutorials, but my manual is intended for quick reference rather than for slow learning. PDF. LaTeX. MP.
- Dynamic Systems. This is an elementary introduction to the ideas of dynamic systems. It describes discrete and continuous systems, provides some examples, and dips its toes into Lyapunov exponents. PDF. LaTeX.
Interests
My first visual interests developed in cinephotography, but later I found that plain old photography was more feasible, starting with film and progressing to digital.
A 1950s radio program by Tristram Cary (1925-2008) triggered my interest in electronic music. I worked for Peter Zinovieff at Electronic Music Studios during 1969-73. Nowadays, I listen mostly to older instruments that rely on wood, felt, catgut, horsehair, and similar materials.
I enjoy a few frames of snooker from time to time, but I do not play very well (highest break: 40).
Background
People sometimes ask me how I got my family name. Unlike some people, I cannot trace my name back very far but, for the curious, I have put together a family page and an illustrated biography.
How to get an A
A good start would be to write something like this:
| Dr. Peter Grogono is our very lovable professor at Concordia University. Everybody in computer science and software engineering loves him (even those who have never actually taken one of his classes) because he is like the icon of how real geeks should be: humorous, practical, knowledgeable in the geek issues, smart, and being able to make fun of your own kind. SwordAngel, 2006.01.26. |
Naturally, you would also have to endure one of my tedious courses (SwordAngel hasn't, as far as I know) and get very good marks.
Prospective Graduate Students
Don't bother — I am too old to consider taking on any more graduate students.
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