Month: December 2015

  • The Problem with Friendly C

    I’ll assume you’re familiar with the Proposal for Friendly C and perhaps also Dan Bernstein’s recent call for a Boring C compiler. Both proposals are reactions to creeping exploitation of undefined behaviors as C/C++ compilers get better optimizers. In contrast, we want old code to just keep working, with latent bugs remaining latent. After publishing…

  • Reducers are Fuzzers

    A test case isn’t just a test case: it lives in the (generally extremely large) space of inputs for the software system you are testing. If we have a test case that triggers a bug, here’s one way we can look at it: The set of test cases triggering a bug is a useful notion…

  • Latency Numbers Every Professor Should Know

    ### Latency numbers every professor should know Email from student ………………………. 20 sec Person at office door ……………………. 8 min Other interruption ………………………. 20 min Twitter or something seems really important … 45 min Anxiety about deadlines …………………… 1 hr A meeting ……………………………….. 2 hrs A meeting you forgot about ………………… 1 day A class…