void main(void)

Calls, Returns and In-Between.

September 2006

Object orientation is more than just intellectual window dressing. It's more than just a mental shorthand that allows our brains to see the whole design picture. Encapsulating real-world concepts in classes can have concrete benefits in how fast we write code. And if you write very good classes, they'll also translate into higher execution speed. Using an example of coding network protocols, Harvey Sugar shows us just how to do that.

Posted by Kevin Carlson at 03:47 PM  Permalink |

Whether or not you subscribe to the notion that buffer overruns are C's Achilles' heel, you still have to take steps to avoid them. For years, good C programmers have practiced good program design in order to minimize the dangers of buffer overruns. Now, TR 24731 provides some help by supplying a set of safer string-handling functions. Pete Becker explains how they work.

Posted by Kevin Carlson at 12:28 PM  Permalink |

If you want to know just how gullible the telecom industry thinks you are, you need to take a look at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's take on net neutrality. Now, I'm all for a reasoned debate about the economic consequences of regulating telecom providers' internet access pricing models. But this ad is beneath all intelligence and reason.

Yes, I know all political ads are by definition a skewing of the truth. But this one is so out of touch with reality that it boggles the mind. It lies by suggesting that net neutrality's origins lie with "rich Silicon Valley tech companies" when in fact the whole idea of net neutrality is defensive, and is a response to the greed of the telecom companies, not an initiative begun by tech companies who want a "free ride."

Nobody is riding for free here.

It's important to remember that any company that wants higher availability for its servers already must pay more money to get higher bandwidth, and thus open its site up to more customers. The issue here is should we let the telecoms then actively and selectively choke off connectivity between one set of peers on its network (we customers and consumers) and another set (the sites we want to get to, like Google), and then charge the Googles of the world more money to un-choke the connection?

The Mob has had a good word for this sort of payment for decades. They call it protection money.

Posted by Kevin Carlson at 10:33 AM  Permalink |

The best tools take a difficult job, and make it easier. The VSIPL++ is a C++ API specification for high-performance signal- and image-processing applications. Specifically, it is designed for parallel applications (say, for instance, processing data from multiple sensors), and can reduce such tasks to just a few lines of code. Mark Mitchell shows us how to build a sample application with VSIPL++ in his article "Inside the VSIPL++ API".

Posted by Kevin Carlson at 05:48 PM  Permalink |