Two's Complement Practice Tool

This is a command-line tool for practicing and reviewing two's complement representation of signed integers.

Developed for CS2210 (Computer Organization) at the University of Vermont by Clayton Cafiero.

Installation

pip install twos-complement-practice

Usage

After installing:

$ twos-practice

You will be prompted to choose a bit width (e.g., 4, 8, etc.). The program will then randomly select from three activity types:

• Additive inverse: Given a bitstring, provide the additive inverse in two's complement form.
• Decimal to bitstring: Convert a signed decimal integer to two's complement binary.
• Bitstring to decimal: Convert a two's complement binary string to a decimal integer.

You can exit at any prompt by typing q.

At the end, you'll get a summary of your performance and a list of any incorrect responses.

Running in Python or your IDE

You can also import and run the tool interactively:

import twos_complement_practice as tcp
tcp.run()

Utility functions

The module also exposes two utility functions, bin2dec and dec2bin.

• bin2dec converts a bitstring to an integer representation (a Python int).
• int2dec converts a Python integer to a binary bitstring (this requires a second argument, an int representing the number of bits to use).

Educational goals

This tool is designed to:

• reinforce understanding of signed binary number representation,
• develop fluency with two's complement conversions, and
• provide low-stakes, interactive feedback for learners.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0.

You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software under the conditions specified in the license.

© 2025 Clayton Cafiero
For inquiries, contact cbcafier@uvm.edu

Dependencies

• colorama: for cross-platform colored terminal output.