Andrew Davison's Home Page at PSU

Current Research Interests

• Useful Third-Party Java Libraries: examples using many different add-on libraries
   
  
• Simple3D: a library for making Java 3D easy to use
   
  
• The MAA's Basic Library List for the General Reader
   
  
• jFAT: A Fairly Accurate Tiling Library
   
  
• My online history of computing: A Year of 379 Computer Days.
   
  
• My online book on programming using the Java version of the LibreOffice API.
   
  
• My Kindle e-book, Vision-based User Interface Programming in Java
   
  
• My McGraw Hill book, Kinect Open Source Programming Secrets (KOPS).
   
  
• A book on BlackBerry gaming, written by Carol Hamer and myself,
  Learn BlackBerry Games Development
   
  
• Windows Programming Using Java
   
  
• My Apress book, Pro Java 6 3D Game Development
   
  
• My O'Reilly book, Killer Game Programming in Java
   
  
• Searching semi-structured data using landmarks;
• Logic Programming and the Internet
  e.g. LogicWeb, LP and browsers, Web page pattern matching, Web pages as concurrent LP streams, secure Prolog based mobile code paper (152K), a survey of LP languages for the internet (120K);
• VRML
  enhancing VRML97 scripting paper (17K zipped Word file);
• Visualization
  e.g. timelines, perspective walls, browser summaries, database interfaces. "Sort of" related is my experiments with client-side image maps, hot-spots in panoramic photos and VRML to create a Virtual Tour of AIT;
• Teaching Methodologies
  e.g. teaching using English in Thailand (92K), cultural aspects, distributed programming (a Java-Logo Framework paper (88K)).
  

Teaching

A list of the courses, with links to lots of downloadable slides, exercises, code, etc., is available here.

Coding

• Random Dot Autostereograms coded in Java.:
• Using the Advanced Search API to search the Internet Archive for texts.
• Using Gutendex to search Project Gutenberg
• Using the MediaWiki Action API to search Wikipedia
• A self-generating, learning Tixy
• Digraphs for Euclid
• Whitening a PDF Document with Java
• Picket-Fence Animation in Java
• Java Audio Tools
• Propositional Logic Cards: one of Martin Gardner's card-based logic machines from his book "Logic Machines and Diagrams".
• WordleHelp: a Java tool for making Wordle doable for the rest of us.
• Myrioramas: the drawing-room craze of the 1820s, now implemented in Java.
• A Prolog compiler and runtime system coded in Java, derived from work by Stefan Buettcher.
• A Prolog interpreter coded in Java, closely based on the interpreter written in C++ by Alan Mycroft, but made a little bit simpler.
• CallGraph is a small Java class for creating call graphs. It's a useful tool for understanding more complex functions, especially those using recursion. It utilizes the GraphViz system to build its graphs.
• The Cabbage compiler for a simple BASIC-like language that generates instructions for a slightly extended version of John Walker's emulator of Charles Babbage's Analytical engine.
• JLEB, a Java API for programming the Dream Cheeky LED Message Board.
• DC Comics Foldees coded in Java.
• Jau: a library for facilitating Java - Windows application communication via their GUI.
• SaferExec: a class that simplifies the creation of Java/OS processes.
• NestedSwinger: a Java GUI prototyping tool
• A Simple Regular Expression Interface for Prolog
• ComicSearch 1.0, a Java application for searching for comic information.
• A Marvel Silver Age comic search engine.
• Java code for reading a Web page through a proxy and optional authorization input.
• CGI Script test.
• Various (some quite old) Web programming examples.
• curl, a tool for automatically generating the links between a large collection of HTML pages that make up a single Web document. [Note: this is from 1996, and put back online after a few requests.]

Assorted

• A list of Encyclopedia Brown Books
• The First Appearance of a Real Computer in a Comic Book
• What words can you generate from Chris Sims' Periodic Table of Superheroes?
• What comic was Paul McCartney reading in the Help! movie?
• A beautiful piece of original art by Rick Veitch concerning Marvelman, Spawn, and Morpheus.
• A trip report on my attendance at the Sun Tech Days event in Bangkok, January 24-25, 2006.
• Almost in Praise of Microsoft (11K), in which I send a message to Microsoft: it's time for Redmond to do a Borland and a Red Hat. A slightly modified version appeared on the Dr. Dobb's Journal Web site in June 2001, as an op. ed. piece.
• Computer Humour, and "Humour The Computer"
• A probing in-depth analysis of The Amazing Spider-man.
• My comments on Reinventing Comics, originally sent as an e-mail to Scott McCloud.
• Is Alan Moore trying to send me mad?
• Why Star Wars is a terrible movie.
• Thai Watchmen Poster.
• An experimental socks cam. I use this to check if I have socks on before I leave the office.
• A humorous short essay about my time as an undergraduate at UMIST.

Brief History

• My wife, Supatra.
• Some pictures of our son, John
   
  
• I work in the Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkla University (PSU) in Hat Yai, Thailand.
  Here's a PDF file of slides about my department from July 2008. (53 pages; lots of pics; 10 MB)
• Here's a map of Thailand showing Hat Yai's location, a large map of Hat Yai showing points of interest, including PSU (in the middle of the right hand side), a 3D-like map of PSU with my department and faculty labelled in English, and a great picture of PSU and city by Khun RoyLee Suriyaworakul (I added the arrows pointing at my department and faculty).
   
  
• I am from England; born near Manchester (Wilmslow to be a little more exact). This streetmap includes an arrow pointing to the street where I lived as a boy. Want to see an aerial photo? Or the Google version? And the current weather? Local news?
• PhD from DOC, Imperial College, London (1989)
• Lecturer in Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Melbourne (1991-1996)
• Have taught at AIT and Rangsit in Bangkok, and in Vietnam.

Publications since 1998

• Loke, S.W., and Davison, A. 1998a. 'LogicWeb: Enhancing the Web with Logic Programming', Journal of Logic Programming, Vol. 36(3), September, pp.195-240.
• Loke, S.W., and Davison, A. 1998b.'Implementation of a System for Declarative Mobile Code and Web Querying', INAP'98: 11th Int. Conf. on Applications of Prolog, Tokyo, September 14th-16th.
• Davison, A. 1999. 'A Concurrent Logic Programming Model of the Web', PACLP'99: The 7th Int. Conf. and Exhibition on the Practical Application of Constraints and Logic Programming, London, UK, April.
• Davison, A., and Loke, S.W. 1999. 'LogicWeb: Enhancing the Web with Logic Programming ', Invited Talk at International Workshop on Information Integration and Web-based Applications and Services, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, November 15th-17th
• Jirachiefpattana, A., Santhititham, D., Davison, A., and Jirachiefpattana, W. 1999. 'Logic Agents for Deductive Diary Database on the Web', NCSEC'99: The 1999 National Computer Sci. and Eng. Conf., Bangkok, Thailand, December 16th-17th.
• Davison, A. 2001. "15th July 1972: A Significant Moment for Logic Programming" (116K), Logic Programming Newsletter, Vol 14/1, February. Previously appeared in SIGPLAN Notices, 1st April, 1993.
• Davison, A. 2001. 'Enhancing VRML97 Scripting' (17K zipped Word file), Euromedia'2001, Valencia, Spain, April 18-20, pp.72-77.
• Chochai, T. and Davison, A. 2001. "Teaching Distributed Programming Concepts using a Java and Logo-based Framework" (88K), IC'2001: Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Internet Computing, Las Vegas, USA, June 25th-28th, pp.311-316.
• Davison, A. 2001. 'Free Windows', Op. Ed. piece at the Dr. Dobb's Journal Web Site, June 26th. Unfortunately, it disappeared in 2010, but you can still read the original.
• Davison, A. 2001. 'Logic Programming Languages for the Internet' (120K), Chapter in Computational Logic: From Logic Programming into the Future, Antonis Kakas, Fariba Sadri (eds.), Springer Verlag.
• Loke, S.W. and Davison, A. 2001. "Secure Prolog Based Mobile Code" (152K), Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, Vol. 1, No. 3, May, pp.321-357.
• Rattana, A. and Davison, A. 2001. "N-Sums: A Framework for Web-based Search Engines" (144K), IIWAS 2001: The 3rd Int. Conf. on Info. Integration and Web-based Applications and Services, Linz, Austria, September 10th-12th, pp.175-184.
• Leemakul, B., Saeliw, P. and Davison, A. 2002. "Supporting the SBR Style of Web Usage" (148K), IC 2002: Int. Conf. on Internet Computing, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, June 24th-27th. A picture of the talk, as presented in the CoE department.
• Davison, A. 2004. Incremental Rules for Growing Plants" (164K), Euromedia 2004, Hasselt, Belgium, April 19th-21st.
• Davison, A. 2005a. Killer Game Programming in Java, O'Reilly Media, May.
• Davison, A. 2005b. "Playing Movies in a Java 3D World, Parts 1 and 2", Online at OnJava.com, June.
• Davison, A. 2006a. "Searching Semi-structured Data Using Landmarks" (170K), Euromedia 2006, Athens, Greece, April 17th-19th.
• Davison, A. 2006b. "The Myths (and Truths) of Java Games Programming" (Invited Paper) (57K), Game'On 2006, Braunschweig, Germany, November 29th - December 1st, and at AGDS, the Asian Game Developers Summit, Singapore, December 9th-10th.
• Davison, A. 2007a. Pro Java 6 3D Game Development, Apress, April.
• Davison, A. 2007b. "Notes on a JOGL Active Rendering Framework" (79K), CyberGames 2007, Manchester, UK, September 10th - 11th.
• Lonapalawong, P. and Davison, A. 2007. "Improving Response Time in a Client/Server 3D Mobile Game" (181K), CyberGames 2007, Manchester, UK, September 10th - 11th.
• Davison, A. and Radenahmud, S. 2008. "Comparing M3G and JSR-239 for 3D Games Programming" (208K), CGames 2008, Wolverhampton UK, November 3rd - 5th.
• Sui, Y. and Davison, A. 2009. "Rendering Water and Land Interaction using a Spring System" (498K), Game-On 2009: 10th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Games and Simulation, Dusseldorf, Germany, Nov. 26-28th, pp.25-29.
• Hamer, C. and Davison, A. 2010 Learning BlackBerry Game Development, Apress, April.
• Davison, A. 2012a. Kinect Open Source Programming Secrets (KOPS), McGraw Hill, April.
• Davison, A. 2012b. Kinect Open Source Programming Secrets: Hacking with OpenNI, NITE, and Java, JavaOne 2012, Session ID: CON3400, San Francisco, USA, October 3rd, slides (14.1 MB)
• Davison, A. 2013. Vision-based User Interface Programming in Java, Amazon Kindle ebook, November.
• Roonnapak, C. and Davison, A. 2015. "Animated 3D Virtual Worlds Using Java and SketchUp", ICET-2015: 7th Int. Conf. on Engineering and Technology, Phuket, Thailand, June 19-20.
• Davison A. 2017. Java LibreOffice Programming, Online text, March.
• Davison A. 2019a. "Learning to Program with Games and Puzzles" (4MB), Keynote Speech, ACTIS 2019: The 16th National Conf. and Int. Conf. on Applied Computer Technology and Information Systems, July 6th.
• Davison A. 2019b. "Live Plotting Data", Linux Format, Issue 253, Summer.
• Davison A. 2020a. "Libreoffice: text docs to rich docs", Linux Format, Issue 258, January.
• Davison A. 2020b. "Scripting text-based checklists in Bash", Linux Format, Issue 259, February, pp. 87-91.
• Davison A. 2020c. "Using, configuring, and extending GDB", Linux Format, Issue 262, May, pp. 76-80.

Dr. Andrew Davison
Dept. of Computer Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
Prince of Songkla University (PSU)
Hat Yai, Songkhla 90112, Thailand
Tel: +66 74 211 030 x2240 (then x316)
Fax/Tel: +66 74 212 895
E-mail: ad@coe.psu.ac.th