The Shortest Crashing C Program -
It might seem like a strange idea to want to write a small crashing C program, but in one of the courses that I’ve been teaching labs this is one of the tasks! It’s actually a very educational thing to do.
The Hazards of Remembering Positions in Vectors -
Don’t remember pointers, references, or iterators to vector elements until you’re done putting new elements in the vector.
[video]
Why Don’t Software Developers Use Static Analysis Tools to Find Bugs? -
Abstract: Using static analysis tools for automating code inspections can be beneficial for software engineers. Such tools can make finding bugs, or software defects, faster and cheaper than manual inspections. Despite the benefits of using static analysis tools to find bugs, research suggests that these tools are underused. In this paper, we investigate why developers are not widely using static analysis tools and how current tools could potentially be improved. We conducted interviews with 20 developers and found that although all of our participants felt that use is beneficial, false positives and the way in which the warnings are presented, among other things, are barriers to use. We discuss several implications of these results, such as the need for an interactive mechanism to help developers fix defects.
C/C++ Low Level Curriculum Part 12: Multiple Inheritance -
Hello, and welcome to the 12th part of the C / C++ low level curriculum. Really soon after part 11! (No, of course part 11 didn’t get too big and need to be split. Why would you ask?)
Why I'm Trying Literate Programming -
I decided to experiment with literate programming recently because I felt like something must be wrong with this story: A colleague and I began a research project using MATLAB for a class. We both started with about the same amount of MATLAB experience: close to nil. We both started at the ground floor of development. There was no legacy code to speak of, and again there was only two of us. We spec’d out most of the simulation as a LaTeX document that clearly described the simulation mathematically based on a reference implementation. In my mind, there isn’t a better scenario for collaboration. However, late into the project, my colleague was getting shut out of participating in development. What shut my colleague out?
CPP SUBREDDIT. Discussions, articles and news about the C++ -
Discussions, articles and news about the C++ programming language or programming in C++.
C++ exceptions under the hood -
Our latest personality function knows whether it can handle an exception or not (assuming there is only one catch statement per try block and assuming no inheritance is used) but to make this knowledge useful, we have first to check if the exception we can handle matches the exception being thrown. Let’s try to do this.
A perspective: developers vs Microsoft -
Most people understand that Windows is used by a variety of people who have a variety of needs, ranging from corporate server to workstation to POS terminals to home PC and beyond. Most people accept that whenever Microsoft updates Windows, it has to balance the competing requirements to find some kind of workable compromise. There is however another set of competing requirements that many do not really register, even those that call themselves power users or are IT admins. It is a conflict between developers/programmers and Microsoft itself.
If you have not yet read it, please read Maria Siniaalto’s 15 page “Test-Driven Development: empirical body of evidence.” It summarizes the few empirical studies done to evaluate the effectiveness of TDD. In the conclusion you’ll find:
Based on the findings of the existing studies, it can be concluded that TDD seems to improve software quality, especially when employed in an industrial context. The findings were not so obvious in the semi-industrial or academic context, but none of those studies reported on decreased quality either. The productivity effects of TDD were not very obvious, and the results vary regardless of the context of the study. However, there were indications that TDD does not necessarily decrease the developer productivity or extend the project lead-times: In some cases, significant productivity improvements were achieved with TDD while only two out of thirteen studies reported on decreased productivity. However, in both of those studies the quality was improved.