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
	...

9/13    Thanks to Jordan, our disk server is no longer virtualized. Our long
        nightmare of poor IO performance should hopefully be over. Prepare for
        another long nightmare of poor hardware reliability!
        ...
        Just kidding! (I hope)
        In any case, this means that cooler was taken out back and shot, and
	...

6/8     Newly wed husband and wife found from old picture that they have
        actually crossed path 30yrs ago: http://www.csua.org/u/qwv
        My question is how do stories like this find its way to news media?  Do
        people just go "hey something very interesting happens in our lives.
        Let's call up a news agency or two to tell the world about it."?
        \_ "Your video will begin after a word from our sponsors."
	...

4/28    Win 3.1 was more widely adopted than Win 3.0.  Win XP (5.1) was more
        widely adopted than Win 2k (5.0).  Now it looks like Win 7 (6.1) is
        going to be more widely adopted than Vista (6.0).  Is this a trend on
        Microsoft x.0 versions being bad?
        \_ duh.
        \_ "more widely adopted" ... well... what are you basing these numbers
	...

3/8     I have a mod_rewrite question that I think should be straight-
        forward but I think I'm not getting something.
        I have a virtual server with some root, say /home/user/public_html/
        and in there I have two subdirs, say /app1/ and /app2/
        and i want the following:
        http://mysite/app1   -->   /home/user/public_html/app1
	...

1/22    What's the difference between a job and a career?
        \_ women have jobs, men have careers.
           \_ true statement but one that is sexist and should be
              kept in a private conversation
        \_ A job could be anything that pays mortgage or feed the mouth.
           A career is something that is longer term, most of the time,
	...

8/18    Is it possible to truncate your path name in your prompt in tcsh?
        Tsch veterans REPRESENT!  I know this is how to do it in bash:
        # truncate path: returns $1 truncated to $2 chars, prefixed with ...
        truncate_path () {
                if [ -z "$1" -o -z "$2" ]
                then
	...

8/18    Hi again, new freebsd guy here again, in bash I was able to go
        LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/foo/lib ./runmyapp
        I managed to do this in tcsh by using setenv in a shell script
        that setenv's the lib path and then executes $1, just wondering
        if there was a way to do it in 1 line from the cmd line as in bash?
        Thanks, btw %2c or %3c worked.  Freebsd, tcsh and vi forever!
	...

2/26    If I want to rsync a perforce or svn directory while users
        are checking things in, could I wind up with a corrupted copy?
        \_ sure why not.  if you are really cool, your copy of the svn
           repo is on LVM, and you snap the LVM to copy it.
           \_ It'll seem less cool when you realize you've taken a snapshot
              of a block level device, which only guarantees that this set of
	...