R. Nigel Horspool

Research Interests

• Compilers and programming language implementation, especially Java implementation.
• Document conversion software, especially involving Adobe FrameMaker. (Visit www.laimport.ca for downloads of the LaImport LaTeX import filter for FrameMaker on Windows.)
• Data compression.
• XML.
• HTML and internet software in general.
• An older research interest was string searching algorithms. There is an on-line animation of the Horspool string searching algorithm. (A simplification to the Boyer-Moore algorithm.)

Research Publications

Books

• Judith Bishop and Nigel Horspool, C# Concisely. Pearson Education, 2004.
  442 pages, paperbound. ISBN 0 321 15418 5.
• Nigel Horspool, The Berkeley UNIX Environment. Prentice-Hall Canada Inc., 1992.
  379 pages, paperbound. ISBN 0 13 089368 4.

Current Graduate Students

• Rhodes Brown
• Jonathan Mason
• David Pereira
• Xiao Rong Wang

Current teaching

• CSC 330, Programming Languages; Fall 2004
• CSC 435 / CSC 583A, Compiler Construction; Fall 2004

Other Teaching in Recent Past

• CSC 486, Data Compression
• SENG 265, Software Engineering I
• CSC 586, Advanced Topics in Compiler Construction

Recent Industry Collaborations

• NewHeights Software Corp., Victoria, BC. Optimized and developed image compression/decompression software in Java and C++.
• Mekon Ltd., Wallington, Surrey, UK. Developed document conversion software to import LaTeX files and HTML files into Adobe FrameMaker desktop publishing system.
• AVT Audio Visual Telecommunications Corp., Victoria, BC. Technical advisor on video compression software.
• CardioComm Solutions Inc. (formerly Harley Street Software Ltd.), Victoria, BC. Developed data compression algorithm for ECG recordings which was subsequently patented.

Some Activities

• Member of Program Committee for the ACM SIGPLAN/SIGBED Conference on Languages, Compilers, and Tools for Embedded Systems (LCTES 2005)
• Member of Program Committee for the .NET Technologies 2005 workshop
• Member of Program Committee for the First International Conference on Embedded Software and Systems (ICESS '04), Hangzhou, China.
• Member of Program Committee for Software and Compilers for Embedded Systems Conference (SCOPES 2004).
• Member of Program Committee for the 28th Australasian Computer Science Conference, ACSC2005.
• Member of Program Committee for the 27th Australasian Computer Science Conference, ACSC2004.
• Member of Program Committee for Compiler Construction conference (CC'2004).
• Ex-Chair (1998-2003) of Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria.
• Member (and former secretary) of IFIP Working Group 2.4, Software Implementation Technology.