1/14    Why is NULL defined to be "0" in C++ instead of "((void *) 0)" like in
        C?  I have some overloaded functtions where one takes an integer
        parameter and the other a pointer parameter.  When I call it with
        "NULL", the compiler matches it with the integer version instead of
        the pointer version which is a problem.  Other funny effect is that
        sizeof(NULL) is different from sizeof(myPtr).  Thanks.
	...

4/04    Is there a good way to diff 2 files that consist of columns of
        floating point numbers, such that it only tells me if there's a
        difference if the numbers on a given line differ by at least a given
        ratio?  Say, 1%?
        \_ Use Excel.
           1. Open foo.txt in Excel.  It should convert all numbers to cells in
	...

4/29    Why were C and Java designed to require "break;" statements for a
        "case" section to terminate rather than falling-through to the next
        section?  99% of the time poeple want a "case" section to terminate.
        In fact some compilers issue warning if there is no "break;" statement
        in a "case" section.  Why not just design the languages to have
        termination as the default behavior, and provide a "fallthru;"
	...

7/19    In C or C++, how do I write the code of a function with variable
        number of parameters in order to pass the variable parameters to
        another function that also has variable number of parameters?  Thanks.
        \_ The usual way (works on gcc 3.0+, Visual Studio 2005+):
               #define foo(fmt, ...) printf(fmt, ##__VA_ARGS__)
           The cool new way (works on gcc 4.3+):
	...

3/7     I have a C question.  I have the following source code in two identical
        files t.c and t.cpp:
                #include <stdlib.h>
                int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
                  const char * const * p1;
                  const char * * p2;
	...

2/4     random C programming/linker fu question.  If I have
        int main() { printf("%s is at this adddr %p\n", "strlen", strlen); }
        and soda's /proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space is 2 (eg; on)
        why is strlen (or any other libc fn) at the same address every time?
        \_ I don't pretend to actually know the right answer to this, but
           could it have something to do with shared libraries?
	...

2/12    I need a way to make a really big C++ executable (~200MBs) that does
        nothing.  No static initialization either.  Any ideas?
        \_ static link in lots of libraries?
        \_ #define a   i=0; i=0; i=0; i=0; i=0; i=0; i=0; i=0; i=0; i=0;
           #define b   a a a a a a a a a a
           #define c   b b b b b b b b b b
	...

9/28    http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html
        Java is #1!!! Followed by C, PHP, C++, Visual Basic, Perl,
        C#, Python, Javascript, then finally Ruby. The good news is
        Pascal is going waaaay back up!
        \_ C is still more popular than C++?  I feel much better about myself
           now.
	...

8/6     In C one can do "typedef int my_index_t;".  What's the equivalent in
        C#?  Thanks.
        \_ C#? Are you serious? Is this what the class of 2009 learn?
           \_ No.  I have to learn .NET code at work.  I am Class of '93.
           \_ python is what 2009 learns, see the motd thread about recent
              cal courses and languages
	...

7/20    For those who care btw, it looks like eclipse is now A Standard Tool
        at UCB ugrad cs, probably replaced emacs.  Furthermore, people get
        angry at seeing Makefiles, (since eclispe takes care of that).  I
        guess it's just a sign of the times.
        \_ The more people at my work use eclipse the less the code is
           managable in emacs.  I'm not sure which application's fault
	...

1/15    can any serious development be done on OSX that is not *for OSX*.
        i'll grant that ruby on rails has excellent tutorials for the mac.
        discuss:
        \_ What kind of serious development?  If you want to use the standard
           OSX ui then your ui code will be pretty much useless elsewhere,
           but that's why concepts like MVC are so important.  Otherwise
	...

8/31    Looking for an XML parser for Perl, preferably one that
        doesn't require installation (something already built in).
        If it's not already built in, I prefer something that doesn't
        require C compilation, and that I can just stick the *.pm
        to use. I'm looking for portability, not performance. Thanks.
        \_ What's wrong with using CPAN?
	...

10/28   Has anyone had trouble building SpamAssassin 3.0.1 on RH 9?  It seems
        to have major problems, and I can't tell if it's SA's fault or
        Redhate's.  perl Makefile.PL yields a Makefile with stray single
        quotes and truncated lines.  google searches yield no help.
        --scotsman
        \_ No idea about that in particular, but can you generate the makefile
	...

9/23    One of the grad students I work with added a piece of code to one
        of our programs that need to be dynamically linked to.  He uses a
        mac, and he only wrote the linking flags for the mac, and stuck
        that in the makefile.  So our standard linux version no longer
        works.  He then left for Rome.  How should this look in ELF?
        ifeq "$(MACOSX)" "true"
	...

3/30    How can I tell what has been compiled into my postfix binary?
        For example, I want to see if it has mysql support built in.
        \_ If you know what you're looking for, you can probably use
           strings/grep (assuming you have just the binary.)  Or you
           could just roll your own... -John
        \_ Try ldd if dynamically linked, or nm postfix | grep mysql
	...

1/16    How do you allow remote root logins on FreeBSD?  I can ssh in as a
        user but not as root.
        \_ Same as any system, edit your sshd_config.
           \_ How do I restart sshd on FreeBSD4?
                \_ reboot!
                \_ kill -HUP sshd
	...

11/11   does anyone know how to extend this makefile to support make clean
        on sub dirs?? thx
        .PHONY: all clean subdirs $(SUBDIRS)
        all: subdirs
        subdirs: $(SUBDIRS)
        $(SUBDIRS):
	...

9/4     I have a legacy make system that needs to work on several platforms
        w/ different compilers.  To build for platform X, you type
        "make -f X_make" at the top level.  I'm trying to get to a modicum
        of sanity about this by actually using dependencies correctly.
        The problem: I need to have dependencies in subdirectories, and
        those dependencies also need to be built using the X_make makefile,
	...

5/29    There's a MIPS assembly file foo.s.  It's unoptimized.  The makefile
        compiles it into foo.o and then links with the rest of the program.
        I know there's a way to dump the actual assembly listings that is
        produced by gcc -c foo.s.  And this assembly is not the same as what's
        in foo.s because compiler optimizes it and adds in a lot more stuff
        to make it runnable.  Anybody remember how to get the assembly listings
	...

11/26   A serious question about this: http://www.apple.com/xserve
        I have zero experience with recent apple hardware or software.
        My company needs rock solid NFS hosts at low cost.  Performance isn't
        an issue.  The clients will be Solaris 2.7 and Linux 2.4.  Do any of
        you have any experience with this?  Does it sound good/bad to you and
        why?  Any info, urls, whatever is much appreciated.  BTW, this isn't
	...

9/6     Is there a way to tell emacs20 to associate a file suffix with a
        particular mode?  I want it to use makefile-mode for files with ".nmk"
        and ".cfg" suffixes.  Thanks.
        \_ i have the following in my .emacs to use text-mode for
           mutt's temporary files:
           (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("^/tmp/mutt-" . text-mode)
	...