In two recent posts here, I've suggested moderately evil things to do with the C preprocessor, both on the same theme of defining a macro that can be used like a loop keyword by following its invocation with a statement or block of your choice.

Last week some further thoughts on the subject occurred to me, which were rather more comprehensive and ( Read more... )

I mentioned two weeks ago that I'd cut my fingers chopping onions again.

A few days after that I managed to cut my foot in the kitchen: I dropped a plate, which shattered on the floor, and since I happened to be barefoot at the time my toe was gashed open by a sharp piece of flying crockery.

And last night I splashed boiling water over my hand while ( Read more... )

I continue to be amazed at the number of bizarre things you can arrange to do using the C preprocessor, the switch statement, and a strong stomach. I've previously used the combination to implement coroutines, of course, and also a modified version of for which performs its test after the loop body rather than before it.

Chris mentioned to me this ( Read more... )

Nasty cuts on two fingers of my left hand today, after an onion-chopping accident - two layers of the onion unexpectedly detached and slid along each other, one carrying the knife with it.

This is the second time in recent years that this has happened; when the current cuts heal, the scar on my middle finger will sit next to a suspiciously similarly ( Read more... )

I got into the office today after a relaxing holiday of three weeks (plus yesterday) and found, embarrassingly, that I couldn't remember my work password any more. I could remember a password, but I was pretty sure it was the one from before my most recent change, and it certainly didn't work when I tried it.

I can't believe that. First password I' ( Read more... )

I had a disgusting thought just now. I needed to have some Python code check whether a dictionary contains a particular key/value pair. The obvious approach,

if dictionary[key] == value:

isn't sufficient, because I need to not throw an exception if the dictionary doesn't contain any mapping for that key at all.

An obvious way is to use a second clause ( Read more... )

Many Unix programmers will be familiar with the utility variously called strace, truss, ktrace, dtrace and probably other names too, which logs all communication between a process and the kernel across the system call interface.

A couple of years ago I wrote an analogous program called xtruss, which produces similar logging but operates at the ( Read more... )

Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to arrange to get a proper lock fitted on my back gate at home: one that you can conveniently open with a key from either side, instead of having to reach through the gate to a fiddly padlock and risk dropping your entire keyring on the wrong side of a gate you can't get through.

I found an online ( Read more... )

After over four years, a PuTTY release sees the light!

But good grief, I had forgotten how much hassle the release process was. I remember having a long and clearly worded checklist to help me through it - and yet I could swear the checklist has somehow bit-rotted over time, so that now it seemed opaque and fiddly.

(Or perhaps it's just my brain that ( Read more... )

A pleasant evening; a good book, a silly iPad game, a nice bowl of soup almost ready to eat, and then the prospect of the pub.

One ill-judged arm movement later: a fiddly and unpleasant job of cleaning up soup from all over what seems like 3/4 of the kitchen, half my clothes thrown in the wash, a sudden need to find emergency backup dinner, and no ( Read more... )