Testing: just (start) doing it

Trying to test something that I don;t know how to automate. In fact, my goal is to automate - but I can't automate it enough even to run the smallest self checking automated test. The blinking procedure only works, at all, interactively.

So, do what I can:

I can't run the program under test automatically. (Yet: I hope to change this.)

But the program under test does leave some output files, etc.

Therefore, I can automate CHECKING the output of the manual test.

Perhaps in a while I will be able to automate the whole thing.

--


It is amazing the sense of ease that even this small degree of automation brings.

hgignore

hgignore:

'via Blog this'

Most version control tools have a .ignore file or ignore - .cvsignore, .hgignore, vk ignore, bzr ignore, etc.

All that I am aware of ignore fils based on pattern matching on the filename. E.g. in Mercurial:

An untracked file is ignored if its path relative to the repository root directory, or any prefix path of that path, is matched against any pattern in .hgignore.

I would like to extend this to be able to do simple queries.

E.g. I usually have an ignore rule that looks something like

*.novc/

I.e. I ignore directories that are suffixed .novc (for no version control).

This works fine, but is somewhat verbose. Plus, it gets in the way when certan tools have other conventions about names.

I should like to get the .novc directvetive out of the filename, and into a placeholder file in the directory.

E.g. if .../path/.novc exists, then ignore .../path

Q: is it there, and I do not know?

Comp-arch.net wiki on hold from October 17, 2011 - CompArch

Comp-arch.net wiki on hold from October 17, 2011 - CompArch:

'via Blog this'


= On Hold =

The comp-arch.net wiki is being put on hold - or at least to a very low boil back burner -
as of Monday, October 17, 2011.

Reason: I (Andy Glew, the creator of and main contributor to comp-arch.net)
have decided to go back to work in industry as a computer architect at MIPS Technologies.

= (Pre)History of comp-arch.net =

I have long wanted to write a book that I threatened to call "The Art of Computer Architecture".
I would like it to be like Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming",
except that I am no Don Knuth: I am willing to compromise, not necessarily provide full academic references,
if in exchange I can document the "folklore" of computer architecture - the things that hardware engineers
know or used to know, but which never seem to get written down, and which get re-invented every decade or so.

The web, and wikis in particular, provided a forum and technology to allow me to write this in small pieces.

At most of the computer companies I have worked at, in particular AMD and Intel
(but also to a lesser extent at Gould and Motorola, prior to the creation of the web)
I have created wikis like this.
Whenever other engineers asked me a question
for which the answer was known, in the literature and/or folklore,
but not necessarily easily accessible,
I would write up a white paper or wiki page explaining the topic.
Bonus: often in so doing I would realize missing alternatives in a taxonomy,
which would lead to new inventions.

These company-internal web and wiki sites proved popular.
Several times, former co-workers who had left industry to become academics
asked me if they were accessible outside the company.
I always had to say "No".

Intel and AMD never allowed me to create public versions of such websites.
Perhaps they would have given extensive legal review - but I found the process of getting such approval a large disincentive.
The document or wiki or website would be stale before approved.

In September 2009 I left Intel to join Intellectual Ventures.
One of the conditions for my joining IV was that I be allowed to work on such a public website,
http://comp-arch.net.
(I actually created the website during the brief period between leaving Intel and starting work at IV.)
I am incredibly grateful to IV for giving me that opportunity.

Progress on comp-arch.net was slow, and probably not steady, but at least visible.
In two years I had created 300 public pages on comp-arch.net.

In addition, I created a certain number of private wiki pages, sometimes on topics that I thought might be worth patenting,
sometimes because I was afraid that disclosing the topics I was writing about might create conflict with IV.
Even though my employment agreement might give me the right to work on something in public,
I would not want to get in the way of my employer's business or marketing strategy.
Such conflicts would have loomed very large for Intel
- I would have had trouble writing honestly about Itanium at the time when Itanium was Intel's main emphasis
- and were much less of a problem for IV,
but still FUD and self-censorship were an impediment
to work on comp-arch.net.

However, I say again: I am immensely grateful to Intellectual Ventures for giving me the chance to start working on comp-arch.net.
THANK YOU, IV!!!!
If I was confident I could stay state-of-the-art as a computer architect while continuing to work on comp-arch.net
and with Intellectual Ventures, I would keep doing so.

= Present of comp-arch.net =

For reasons such as these I left Intellectual Ventures to return to work in industry as a computer architect.
On October 17, 2011, I joined MIPS Technologies.

At MIPS I do not expect to be able to write pages on comp-arch.net and post them in real time.
I will continue to try to work on comp-arch.net in private,
and occasionally seek approval to make stuff public.

= Working on the Wiki =

I will also take this opportunity to work on the technology of comp-arch.net.

In 2009 I started comp-arch.net using mediawiki.

I have long wanted a better wiki technology. My wiki wishlist is documented elsewhere on this wiki, and other places.
It includes better support for drawings,
and better support for melding of public and private content
- since it appears that such restrictions will be something I have to live with for the foreseeable future.
The computer hardware industry is not "open" as the wiki philosophy would have it,
except possibly within companies.

= Future of comp-arch.net =

As mentioned above, I hope to continue working on comp-arch.net,
making stuff public occasionally, when permitted.

Plus, if ever I retire, I hope to continue this labor of love.

= It's not just about me! =

Although I have been the main contributor to comp-arch.net,
there have been other contributors.

For example, Paul Aaron Clayton has made some contributions.

I hope that others can continue to work on comp-arch.net
during this time when I must leave it on hold.

If you are interested, please contact me, and I will arrange for access.

(I may need to do a bit of wiki work to separate the old stuff from new stuff.)

= Au revoir, et à bientôt =

I hope to see myself working on comp-arch.net again.

But for the moment, I am excited to be working towards actual shipping product again at MIPS.

perlsec - Perl security

perlsec - Perl security:

'via Blog this'

More of the same.

This is probably stale.

Mint to Quicken 2011

Mint to Quicken 2011:

'via Blog this'

I would be posting this on a Mint.com forum, but I don't want to bother with registering, so I will post it here.


I am yet another person who would like to synch Quicken from Mint, and possibly vice versa.

Although just being able to take transactions from Mint into Quicken would be wonderful. A backup.

In my case, although I am a past Quicken user, I am not currently. Not even a Mint user. I use Yodlee. I would consider switching to any product that allowed me to keep both online and offline accounts.

Google Plus Traffic Drops, 1269% Gains Erased

Google Plus Traffic Drops, 1269% Gains Erased:

'via Blog this'

Google+ is declining.

But I am still using Google+.

For one big reason: the "circles" provide better access control than LinkedIn or FaceBook.

Why do you want access control? Well, it often becomes obvious, looking at LinkedIn or FaceBook updates, when a person from company 1 is interviewing with company 2. Now, you can often turn off the automatic notification - but I know former coworkers/managers who proactively searched LinkedIn and FaceBook, to see if people they knew had suddenly become, e.g. linked directly to people in other companies, or even rivals within the same company.

I.e. YOU SHOULD NOT ENTER JOB INTERVIEW CONTACTS IN LINKEDIN OR FACEBOOK!!!

(Not if there is a possibility that your present employer might retaliate.)

(Yes, there are limited fixes for this in LinkedIn and FaceBook. None satisfactory.)

Now, Google+ circles may help here. Except, as is typical with so many Google apps, they don't scale, in the user interface.

E.g. I have separate Google+ circles for all companies I used to work for, as well as old schools, etc. But when you reach more than a dozen circles, they become a pain to deal with. I currently have 24 circles - that's too many for Google's user interface. It needs some sort of hierarchy - e.g. a meta-circle of Companies containing several sub-circles of particular coompanies, and so on.

As is typical with so many Google apps, the user interface doesn't scale. People repeat, over and over and over again, the mistake of providing a flat set of categories (Google+ circles, Gmail labels), rather than providing structure and nesting. I can just imagine the "data driven" conversation at Google: "prove that people need more than 8 circles", "prove that people want nested circles and labels".

Colorado College | Block Plan

I learned about the Colorado College Block Plan from my daughter's school counselor. Instead off juggling 8 classes at a time, take one class at a time, intensely.

I find this interesting and attractive - this is almost, for example, how I got into computers, via a summer session Concordia University organized for high school students in the Montreal region.

The school itself has the usual issues with small liberal arts colleges versus universities.