<HTML> <style> BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; }</style>Hi, Van. In my compiler design class last spring semester (which I'll also be teaching again this fall semester along with the history class), I gave extra credit to students who looked at the Autocoder source code of the 8K, 63-pass compiler (OK, they only read the comments) and figured out what happened during each pass. Of course, they first had to learn something about ancient FORTRAN. It made those students stop complaining that I was making them write a 3-pass compiler using Java on their 4 GB laptops. One history project idea which I'm working out with the Computer History Museum: A small group of my students learn all they can about the 1401 (how to program and operate the machine, the punched-card culture, etc.) and at the end of the semester, they teach a one-day hands-on class on the 1401 to local high school students. -- Ron On Fri 15/07/11 5:22 PM , Van Snyder Van.Snyder@jpl.nasa.gov sent: <blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #F5F5F5 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px"> > Thank you very much, all of you who responded with project ideas and > offers to be advisors to my students and especially volunteers to give > guest lectures! How about this for a project: Reverse engineer the 1401 Fortran IV compiler? Van </blockquote></HTML>