Advogato blog for bstpierre

27 Jun 2002

Thu, 27 Jun 2002 19:46:09 GMT

Advogato has a bug in the code that generates RSS.

This article:

http://www.advogato.org/article/502.html

contains a URL with an ampersand, which should be escaped in the RSS output but it isn't. This isn't valid XML and it screws up parsers in aggregators and other RSS readers.

It looks like rss_render_from_xml() needs to escape &'s (a simple search-and-replace from "&" to "&" should do the trick.

29 Mar 2002

Fri, 29 Mar 2002 16:19:34 GMT

Why bother with prototypes?

If you're just going to stick a function prototype into the C file to stifle warnings, you might as well drop the warning level on your compiler to the point where it stops complaining about missing prototypes.

If the preceding paragraph describes you and are attempting to write C++, I'd suggest sticking to straight C. If you're going to shoot yourself in the foot, you might as make a nice, clean hole just behind the toes (C) rather than blowing your leg off from the knee down (C++).

Can you guess what set this off??

25 Jan 2002

Fri, 25 Jan 2002 16:05:37 GMT

Why I Write Automated Tests

I'm still mystified why so many programmers don't write automated tests. Instead they rely on ad-hoc, manual testing. While many others have outlined why you should write and maintain automated tests, here I'll give you my reasons for writing automated tests. You can decide whether or not it is right for you. (My way is of course right, but I'll let you decide whether you want to write software the right way or the wrong way.)

continued...

11 Jan 2002

Fri, 11 Jan 2002 20:01:57 GMT

Woo hoo. Long time since I've posted here, eh? With all the moving and stuff (three times last year, ugh), I've been pretty busy with non-computer stuff except at work. Plus the fact that I'm out in the sticks now. No broadband, and I can't stand going back to tin cans & string, so I have no access from home. We'll see how long that lasts...

Anyway, the website's back up. Nothing much exciting there. Except that I've switched over to CityDesk and have moved away from PHP (my new host doesn't support it for free and I didn't see the need to pay extra...).

Enough for now. Meetings and such are calling...

29 Sep 2001

Sat, 29 Sep 2001 21:11:20 GMT

It's been a good week! I hacked together an emacs minor-mode this week (my first attempt, it still needs a little cleanup and I need to make some hooks). Posted that on my website. Also published the code for the checkbook program I've been using.

Even better than that, I've been pounding out code and documentation at work! I love it when I can get a lot of stuff done and feel like I'm making progress...

1 Jun 2001

Fri, 1 Jun 2001 12:43:40 GMT

I posted another article, this time about the why's and how's of code reviews.

25 May 2001

Fri, 25 May 2001 13:50:50 GMT

Ok. Yesterday I said that there wasn't much going on. Today I'll admit to doing some hacking on cheetah lately. But just a little.

24 May 2001

Thu, 24 May 2001 17:36:14 GMT

Yeesh, it's been a while... not too much happening on any fronts, really. I've been way too busy at work and having a life! Planning on biking cross-state -- good thing NH is a small state ;) -- this weekend. I've been playing with a little python program for keeping track of bike routes. Interesting, but nothing worthy of showing off yet.

2 Apr 2001

Mon, 2 Apr 2001 13:19:24 GMT

Just posted bugfixes for quack. I know the mantra is "release early and often", but sometimes the overhead of making a release (handling cvs, uploading, announcing, etc.) seems really high for "small" releases. Serves me right, though: if the previous release hadn't had serious bugs, the next one wouldn't have been so necessary...

28 Mar 2001

Wed, 28 Mar 2001 17:19:23 GMT

neale: Hey hey, now. Don't knock New Hampshire. If you invited the entire state, we might not even show, just out of sheer orneriness (sp?)...

;)