Alan Creak's publications

This list includes all my "real" publications in computing - journal articles, technical reports, and a thing which resembled a book closely enough to sell - in roughly chronological order by type of publication. That leaves out most of my computing life. It is quite probable that you are not concerned by this omission - indeed, you might even welcome it, particularly if you know my life - but this is my web site, not yours.

My view is that I've done quite a number of at least equally interesting things which haven't reached anything approximating formal publication. To keep us all happy, therefore, I have another publications page which includes all this and more, in a rather more classified way. Please yourself which, if any, version you inspect.

Chemistry :

There were one or two, and some day I might get round to recording them here, but it isn't at the top of my list of priorities. If you really want to know, ask me.

Computer Centre Technical Reports :

#2 1978 The Stubol system An error-correcting Cobol compiler for student use.
#8 1977 Alans dictionary programs Software used to construct a Maori dictionary.
#9 1977 LSI/ASM A cross-assembler for a minicomputer.
#11 1978 Matching routines Analysis of archaeological data.
#15 1979 Thinking Small Analyses the discussions of a group engaged on language design.
#16 1979 On compilers and Steam A simple compiler for a string-processing language.
#18 1980 CROAK An information storage and retrieval system.
#19 1980 ASPARAGUS A "compiler compiler".
#22 1984 The Zeno system A group project on an operating system interface.
#23 1984 Analysing voting records Analysis of voting patterns in local body elections.

Other publications from the Computer Centre :

PAPERS -

R.K. Nichol and G.A. Creak :
"Matching paired elements among archaeological bone remains : a complete procedure and some practical limitations", Newsletter of Computer Archaeology 14, 6 ( 1979 ).

G.A. Creak, G.W. Blanchard, P.A. Sergent :
"A new computer language for process control applications", Proceedings of Control '81 conference ( Auckland ), p 267.

G.A. Creak :
"You too can write a compiler ....", Newsletter of the Auckland Branch of the NZCS ( August, 1975 - January, 1976 ).

A series of articles describing how to write a very simple compiler in Cobol. In the unlikely event of your wanting to read these, you can find them reproduced, more or less, in my technical report "on compilers and Steam".

MANUAL -

G.A. Creak :
Cobol using the Stubol compiler ( 1975 ).

This is an introduction to Cobol, presented as a tutorial to be used with the Stubol implementation. It was used for several years as the text for the Accountancy department's Cobol course.

Computer Science Department Technical Reports :

#42 : G.A. Creak : The Stream utilities manual. January, 1990
#43 : R. Chew and G.A. Creak : The Resource techniques : tools for intelligent systems. January, 1990
#46 : G.A. Creak : A view of rehabilitation computing. August, 1990
#47 : G.A. Creak : The adaptive peripheral : a teachable interface based on a neural network. August, 1990
#52 : G.A. Creak : Information structures in manufacturing processes. February, 1991
#54 : G.A. Creak and Robert Sheehan : The representation of information in rehabilitation computing. July, 1991
#55 : G.A. Creak and Roy Davies : A discussion moderator. August, 1991
#60 : G.A. Creak and H.-W. Gellersen : An adaptive machine access system for the handicapped based on neural networks. May, 1992
#93 : G.A. Creak : Essay on a multichannel computer interface for people with physical disabilities. June, 1994
#104 : G.A. Creak and R. Kay : PFL and PDL : two languages for process control December, 1994
#162 : G.A. Creak and R. Sheehan : A new structure for an operating systems course December, 1999
#169 : G.A. Creak : Artificial intelligence - or not ? December, 1999

UNREFEREED PAPERS :

G. Alan Creak :
"When GOTO goes to, how does it get there ?", Sigplan Notices 22#2, 36 ( February, 1987 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Word games and search spaces", Sigart Newsletter #103, 41 ( January, 1988 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Garbage - further investigations", Sigplan Notices 26#10, 9 ( October, 1991 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Playing the organ", Sigcaph Newsletter #46, 3 ( November, 1992 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Morse - the code with a bit of almost everything", Morsels 2#1, 2 ( "Spring/Summer", 1996 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Notes for a seminar : Insights from a System Specification Aid", Sigcaph Newsletter #58, 8-13 ( June, 1997 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Saying something important", Closing the Gap 17#1, 9 and 26 ( April/May, 1998 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Garbage : two new structures", Sigplan Notices 33#4, 28-29 ( April, 1998 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Novel approaches to using keyboards", Communication Outlook 18#2/3, 28-40 ( "Spring", 1998 ).

G. Alan Creak and Robert Sheehan :
"A Top-Down Operating Systems Course", Operating Systems Review 34#3, 69-80 ( July 2000 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind", Sigplan Notices 37#2, 23-26 ( February, 2002 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Multimedia in 1938 : Utterly fantastic plans ?", Interactions IX.3, 56,53-55 ( May+June, 2002 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Cobol, stewed for students", Sigplan Notices 37#4, 21-26 ( April, 2002 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Edsger W. Dijkstra", Sigplan Notices 37#12, 14-16 ( December, 2002 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Everything is Fortran, in its own way", Sigplan Notices 38#4, 7-12 ( April, 2003 ).

G. Alan Creak and Anthony J. Elder :
"Pizza the hard and fast way", Sigcaph Newsletter #72, 9-16 ( January, 2002 ).
( actually published 2003 May; it would take too long to explain ... )

G. Alan Creak :
"Extreme design", Sigplan Notices 38#12, 11-16 ( December, 2003 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Parsing by numbers and asparagus", Sigplan Notices 39#8, 12-19 ( August, 2004 ).

G. Alan Creak :
"Does 'Affordance' afford affordance ?", Interfaces #63, 17-18 ( Summer, 2005 ).

CONFERENCE PAPERS :

M. Brodsky and G.A. Creak :
"The design of an expert system environment for factory control", NZES 90 : Proceedings of the Fourth New Zealand Expert Systems Conference ( Massey University, November 1990 ), 31-47.

G.A. Creak and R. Sheehan :
"Representation of information in rehabilitation computing", Conference on computer technology for people with special needs ( Auckland University, January 1991 ).

T.J. Stucke, G.A. Creak, G.G. Coghill :
"The Mind's Eye : extraction of structure from images of objects with natural variability", Fourth Australian Conference on Neural Networks, ACNN'93 ( February, 1993 ).

Roy Davies and Alan Creak :
"A technique for building low-cost, high-tech rehabilitation aids", ECART-2 - European Conference on the Advancement of Rehabilitation Technology ( Stockholm May 1993 ), 35.1

T.J. Stucke, G.A. Creak, G.G. Coghill :
"The Mind's Eye : reconstructing noise-corrupted objects, extracting secondary structure, and figure-ground separation", First New Zealand International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks and Expert Systems, ANNES'93 ( Dunedin, New Zealand, Nov. 24-26, 1993 ).

T.J. Stucke, G.A. Creak, G.G. Coghill :
"The Global Mind's Eye : a hierarchical, massively parallel neural network seeking abstraction and structure in images", First Australian and New Zealand Conference on Intelligent Information Systems, ANZIIS-93 ( Perth, December, 1993 ).

Natalie R. Spooner and G. Alan Creak :
"Process description language : an experiment in robust programming for manufacturing systems", Intelligent Systems in Design and Manufacturing, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics East Conference, SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3517 ( Boston, MA, USA, November, 1998 ), 227-238.

REFEREED PAPERS :

T.J. Stucke, G.G. Coghill, G.A. Creak :
"The mind's eye: extracting structure from naturally variable objects", Neural, Parallel and Scientific Computations 2#1, 93-103 ( March, 1994 ).

G.A. Creak :
"Comments on some statistical techniques observed in AAC papers", Augmentative and Alternative Communication 12, 189-192 ( 1996 ).

G.A. Creak :
"When HCI Should be HHI", Information Technology and Disabilities 6#3-4, article 1 ( November, 1999 ).

LETTERS :

Sigplan Notices 21#4, 20 ( April, 1986 ) : ( a comment on an article on garbage collection ).

Sigplan Notices 24#8, 7 ( August 1989 ) : ( on the result statement in Small ).

Computer Bulletin Series 4 3#1, 27 ( February 1991 ) : "To see or not to see ?" ( my sole contribution to computer graphics ).

Communicating Together 17#1, 23 ( "Spring" 2000 ) : ( on the possibility of acquiring language from sentences ).

IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine 19#5, 8 ( September/October 2000 ) : "Alphabet Soup" ( "Hieroglyphics" - in fact, "smileys" - as a spontaneous extension of English ).

Communications of the ACM 44#11, 13-15 ( November 2001 ) : "Special needs and sound scholarship" ( The importance of rehabilitation computing as an extreme case in developing a "science" of computing ).

ET CETERA :

Editorials in Sigcaph Newsletters #72 ( 2002 January - really 2003 May ), #75 ( 2003 January - really 2004 March ), #76 ( 2003 June - really 2004 September ) - and Accessibility and Computing #79 ( 2004 June - really 2004 November ).

Of possible interest to my future biographers, though probably not to anyone else, is the series of unpublished working notes in which I occasionally write down work I haven't finished. It is listed here purely in the interests of completeness.

Go to me ( Alan Creak, in case you've forgotten );
Go to Computer Science.